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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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230219 IA-OH 2 RV's to North Canton OH ... spending the night at Green OH Breakfast was eggs and sausage. We pull out at 7:30 AM. 1st stop is Morris at the Loves for fuel. The rewards bar code didn't work and then we maxed out our swipes for our credit card. So BB had to go inside and get the pumps turned on. But when you pre-pay, the gallons are not listed, so we go back in for a final receipt. The cashier didn't know how and it took the manager a while to figure it out. ... and we only put in three gallons to make it to OH where gas is cheaper again. No slow downs around Chicago this Sunday AM. Speeds were the posted plus. 2nd stop was the rest area in Rolling Prarie. 3rd stop was the Loves in Edon for fuel and food. This one works, $.10 a gallons savings (for now) Then we park and go inside to eat. There is a line at Arby's and five more people coming a different door get ahead of us. So we go use the restroom and the line doesn't seem to have moved. We go for self food. BB finds a grilled chickens sandwich so she's good. They don't have any of the chicken salad sandwiches here today so I look for something else. End up with two things off the rollers that were so greasy that I couldn't eat the whole thing. Before we go in, BB and I do some test on the RV and correct the issue we this AM. I send a message to dispatch so they can advise the other drivers. Once we get a message back I'll write more. 4th stop is in Clyde at the rest area, from here we make our hotel reservation. We've gained range so far but we will hit a head wind when we turn south at Cleaveland. 5th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Green. It is half the price compared to the hotel we stayed at the first time next to the airport/drop. TGI Friday's is next door and is the only food within walking distance. I order two appetizers and can only eat half of each. BB orders fish and eats it all. We got to the hotel at 4 PM, hour hours later we are still talking about what to do tomorrow. We do now have a plan, subject to getting out of town ASAP and the weather tacking further north. Getting out of town ASAP may be an issue, remember the seven RV's on the load board last week. They are all likely going to be here tomorrow AM. And it takes them about a half hour per unit. So it could be 1 PM when we pull out of town. We did the math on all of the IN trips and we just can't make the same money as we do on the RV's. There are two trucks going to NC and we would make half as much as we did on the RV's and then still be 1,000 miles from home. And taking just one truck away from the direction of home just does not pay. Following with a rental car just does not pay (Unless we got the car for $5 a day like we used to, after spring break) So we are heading back to Iowa. Our plan now is to take our 1st car to Davenport, switch rental cars and drop the second rental car in Mason City. That SHOULD get us back below the snow line before the worst of it hits on Wednesday. Tomorrow we should be to the drop when the open at 9 AM. We could be out by 10 AM or 1 PM. Our hope is to get back to Ottawa. If we only make to back to Elkhart like last time, we will need to leave the hotel at 6 AM (home time) to make it to Davenport to get to the lot and out of town again by dark. The next two days will be a push. If we get delayed or the storm moves faster or more southern, then we will try to find work along I-80 to pay the hotels until we can back to the RV's. 230220 IA-OH 2 RV's to North Canton OH (delivered) 2 RV's to Greer SC (Tuesday) ... spending the night at Ottawa IL My breakfast was half of my leftovers from last night. We didn't have a way to keep the rest cold for the day so it got dumped. :( Hotel had turkey sausage, eggs and lots of fresh fruit. High end for for a Comfort Inn. BB enjoyed it. We pulled out at 9 AM local (I had thought we were going to be at the drop when they opened, missed something) 1st stop was the Loves for final fuel. It is not lunchtime so BB was able to find a place to park. Then I drop BB off at the airport and head to the drop. 2nd stop the drop. We had expected a line. One of our RV's was there and already inspected. Plus there were two of another brand that were still being inspected. As I walked by, I talked to the person outside of the RV. They called to someone inside the RV for them to come and inspect my unit. Before that person came out, another person came from the office and told me I had to first drop my paperwork at the office. ??? Then I told them there was another RV coming, they offered that I could leave and go it it, without me asking. 3rd stop was back at Loves to pick up BB's RV. She followed me back to the drop. 4th stop is the drop, again. I moved all of our stuff from the RV to the car while BB walked her paperwork into the office. Then we went into the office and sat. ... and sat and sat. Last time the inspector brought us our paperwork when they were finished. This time first BB went outside and saw they were done inspecting, or no longer by the RV. When a half hour later we still didn't have our paperwork, I went outside. I walked right past the front desk, but someone with kids was leaving and I didn't want to walk into them so I wasn't looking around. Still looked like they were done with our RV's. I went back inside and then I saw our paperwork on their desk. No idea how long it had been there. There answer was, we have no idea where drivers go so we don't look. (We were where they told us to go) We would have liked to have had any of that time for our trip back. We leave the shipper at 11:30 local, a half hour ahead of our best guess. We want to get some miles behind us before we stop so we don't eat right away. There had been two trips to the same drop in NC, but one of those was gone shortly after 8 AM and the other was gone with a couple of hours. 5th stop was the rest area in Amhest for food. Burger King. It had the shortest line. The other choices were Popeyes chicken and Panera. Fastest but it still took 20 minutes. 6th stop was Edon at the Loves for fuel. We don't need fuel yet, but it is the cheapest fuel before Davenport. 7th stop is the rest area in Lake Station for the rest room. Slower traffic today than on Sunday through CGO. 8th stop was the Pilot/Arby's in Minooka for food. Drive thru. 9th and final stop was the Quality Inn in Ottawa, again. Comfort Inn was still full. Hotels were more for less ahead of us. We did see lots of transporters today. Mostly RV's and step vans. For driving, the carriers need our daily logs before the end of two weeks. BB had sent hers in last Friday and they still have not updated the computer so she can drive. She sent them in again twice today. And then she called ... The person's first answer showed she was clueless as to what the issue was or why she was calling. The person kept telling BB that she needed to get her logs sent in ... ah ... that is why BB was calling, she knows, but how? Because the way she has sent them in the last year isn't working this time. No solution so the call ended. With a much frustrated BB. We had been watching the load board all day. There were some good trips to CA but the weather is not going to be good. So someone else took them. We had talked about how far we would get each day based on the current forecast. It should take an extra two days, which we would have because of the weekend. But, it doesn't take much for the weather to change, or an accident to shut the road down for an extra couple of days. Finally at 4 PM we decided we would take a sure thing and head back to Greer. Load board US - 198 IA - 89/87 MN - 3 WI - 14 SC - 1 Plan is to get going by 7 AM, be in and out of Davenport by 10 AM, to Forest City by 2 PM and back from dropping the car by 4 PM and be to Waterloo by dark at 6 PM. That should keep us ahead of the storm. 230221 IA-SC 2 RV's to Greer SC ... spending the night at Cedar Falls IA BB is up before the alarm, again. At breakfast the eggs were cold so I just had sausage and yogurt. We were up early enough and the sun was already up so we could have gotten going earlier but we headed out at 7 AM. 1st stop was the rental car place in Davenport IA, we were over an hour early. I dropped BB off and went to get fuel. 2nd stop was the BP on the other side of the SouthPark mall for final fuel for the first rental car. Fuel was a lot more here but we need to deliver the car full of fuel and we also still had two BP gift cards to use up. 3rd stop was back at the rental car place. BB is still waiting. She/we waited about a half hour before they got to her and had a car ready. Then three miles to the airport to return the other car. It's a 2-door Dodge Charger, red. We wouldn't have picked it and sure would not have paid extra to get it but it is what they gave us so we took it. 4th stop is the Quad Cities airport. I wait in the cell lot until I see the receipt for the car show up in our email. I then pull up front and wait for BB. We are leaving town at 9:15 instead of 10 AM. Things are looking good. But ... with this car I am not going to go over the speed limit even by one mile. This is the kind of cars the cops are looking for and they stand out. :( 5th stop is the Love's in Waterloo. We need fuel, fuel is cheap and they also have good food. We guess on how much fuel we will need based on the current mpg and the total trip miles. Plus a little extra. Our mpg has been going up since we got in the car and from here on the speed limit is lower so we should be leaving extra fuel. :( The forecast has changed and we saw snow before getting to Clear Lake. Snow was in the forecast yesterday but it had been removed this AM so BB thought we were in the clear. Once we pull off the freeway we realize the roads are not good. And this car is made (?) to fish tail and do cool things ... on dry pavement. Not as much fun on slick roads for a 60+ year old. BB refused to drive the car to the rental car place because of how badly it handles in the snow. 6th stop is at the shipper for us to pick up our personal car and switch luggage. 7th stop was the Fleet Farm in Mason City. By the time we got to our car, the rental car's fuel was where it needed to be when we dropped it. By the time I got 20 miles down the road the gauge was below where it should be. But as I sat at a stop light the gauge slowly bounced back to over where it needed to be. I wasn't taking any changes and put in one gallon before dropping the car. 8th stop was the rental car place in Mason City. BB takes care of the paperwork and I wait in the car. Today she asks about dropping a second brand at their location and they are OK with it. That will save us a few hours every time we decide to use that option. By the time leave Mascon City it has quit snowing. We decide to go back to Forest City on the main roads and they are in much better shape already. 9th stop is back at the shipper in Mason City. The boss sees me and comes to hand us our paperwork. Then says he and someone from the shipper looked at the issue I told him about yesterday and the shipper will be contacting the chassis manufacture. So this is NOT some little issue. No idea how long ago this change was made, but not a good one. When we are in the office I see someone is getting trained today. Later I see that person walk out of the office with someone but the person being trained is carrying their suitcase and starts walking down the road. (If they would have waited, someone could have given them a ride.) I'm watching for the person between the buildings and then see them waiving their phone at me ... like they think they are calling me. I motion for them to come back and then drive closer to the road. By that time he is back. He thought he had to walk down the road to find his RV. Saw him again because he couldn't unlock his doors. Somewhere in there I talk to our yard person. And then talk to someone else who had been standing in the office. The person who wasn't having the issues is a brother of the other driver. This person had taken take an RV to St Cloud while his brother was in training today. Usually he runs trash trucks but all that dispatcher has today is short stuff. Stuff I would do if we were in town, four out of five are short enough that I would do them. Today the brothers are heading to Seffner FL. Plan was to fuel at Loves in Floyd where fuel is cheapest, but my low fuel light came on before we got to Garner so we stopped short. The thrill of cheap fuel is not worth walking to get it if I run out. 10th stop is the Pilot in Clear Lake. The weather, the bad weather is dropping and we may end up driving in it tomorrow. We wanted to get south of it tonight. We thought Cedar Falls would be far enough. Then we talked about Cedar Rapids, but that is another hour, all after dark. And the forecast then is the warnings are going to be all the way to Davenport. We decide Cedar Falls. Shortly before we get to the drop, I notice that two police cars have a side road blocked and they are directing all traffic from the cross street onto the freeway. Then I look down that street and see that their are police at the next to cross streets about a quarter and half mile down ??? Somehow I missed this. BB said the sunset tonight was the most beautiful red she has seen. Not sure how I missed it. 11th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Cedar Falls. We walk next door to The Kwik Star/Trip for food. Lots of choices. I get BBQ rib sandwich and soup. BB gets BBQ chicken. All good. Better than some of the fast food we get. Thought about getting a dozen donuts or a few cheese curds but went for health(ier) food. The hotel. We check in, BB asks what time breakfast is and the clerk say's "it's on your key card" and then does tell us the times. We get to our room and there is already a 'do not disturb' sign on the door. But rather than walk back down to the desk, I know ... and disturb them. When someone opens the door, I show them my key card that has their room number on it. Back down to the front desk and they give us a second set of keys. Now I'm realizing that I want the room numbers changed in their computer. Just in case the other person does some damage or steals something. Load board US - 247 IA - 113/99 MN - 5 WI - 15 Leaving at 7 AM or before. The storm warnings start at 9 AM so we will be most of the way through by that time. But they are likely to change. Plan is to do 500 miles tomorrow and 500 the next and we will be within miles of our drop. ... also when I was talking to the boss. It sounds like the shipper will dump 'hundreds' of RV's on our lot by this weekend ... if the storm doesn't stop them. So we will likely be heading straight back from SC to grab more. Maybe we will then head west ??? .. the trip continues from HERE |
