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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 230412 IL-ND 1 Tanker to Bismarck ND (delivered) ... spending the night at Fergus Falls MN Eating that lasagna last night that had been in the cooler all day turned out to be a bad idea. No the food wasn't bad, but too much of that kind of food too late at night does not agree with me. :( This AM I just had some eggs, potatoes and juice. No meat. Again todays juice was good. The parking lot is full this AM but I am parked where I can get out. And the one person who may have made that more difficult pulled out while I was doing my paperwork. BB was going back into the hotel to get more coffee so she did the key return honors today. I'm barely on the highway and I realize that my DEF is getting very low. Not sure why I didn't put some in in Hudson. 15 miles down the road I get my first warning to add DEF. The first truckstop is another 20 miles away but the truck did not 'de-rate' before I got there. I wasn't sure that the Big Chief had bulk DEF but they do. And at these small stations they let the driver pay at the pump. So I put in two gallons and was ready to roll. Those two gallons almost brought the tank up to full on a 10 gallon tank. So the gauge showing 'E' is not really 'E,' but it all goes by what the computer reads. This extra stop got BB ahead of me, she didn't know I was stopping so she kept going past the station at the posted speed. Then I get a phone call so I pull to the side of the freeway, I rarely do that but I need to find out from the drop what their hours are. I tried calling their main phone number this AM and it has four choices. New account, existing account, pay bill and emergency. And they all are automated beyond that where you have to give the computer additional information before being connected. So when I got a call, I took it. But this one was my tank dispatcher. They wanted me to take a truck from Bismarck to Kansas City. Sorry ... it's a tractor and I don't do tractor's ... over 50 miles. This dispatcher was OK with that. A few miles later and I get another call, this one is from the correct area code so I pull over again and take the call. This time it is the drop. He will not be in today but will make sure someone is there so I'm good. My next stop is an hour down the road at the Loves in Valley City. That is where I told BB I would stop so I did. I wasn't sure if I needed more fuel to get to the drop or now. I've never filled the tank and it does not have 'miles to empty' so I'm just guessing. And these digital gauges don't always move smoothly. After washing my windows I decide to add more fuel. I add half enough to get to the drop and assume what I have in the tank will cover the other half. While I am here, I see a motor home on the hook. Looks like a transporter. I didn't see them until I was on the way out so I didn't talk to them. Snow. They still have snow here in ND. Most open fields are still completely covered. And in some area's the center guard cable posts are covered, the fences along the edge of the freeway are covered, the reflector posts are covered. I hadn't been following the weather, but they may have had more snow here last week. Where the freeway was closed for 2-3 days (?) Today it is 44 degrees here and four hours southeast of here at home the temp is 84. BB had said she was stopping at the Jamestown rest area so I pulled off there and she was waiting for me, kind of. By now she knew that she was a good half hour ahead of me so she was going to wait at least that long before heading out again. When she got here ... a police had passed her and pulled in front of her and hit the lights for the truck BB had been following. Took a while to get the drivers attention and by the time he did, they were at the rest area so he pulled them in here. Sounds like he got the complete inspection. Police was still in the lot when I got there, I let him go first :) A few miles down the road he had another car pulled over ... I had told the drop I would be there by 2 PM, we were there just before 1 PM. From the areal photo's it looked congested so I parked on the street and walked in. They were expecting me. A quick walk around, a signature and I was ready to go. This place was about a mile off the freeway at a 'known' exit so no written directions were needed today. No good trips on the load board so we decide to sit and eat. We've never tried this place before but it was right across the street from the hotels we stay at in Bismarck. This place has one soup a day, any other day I would have gotten the soup but we didn't know what today's was. So we asked ... they guy thought we were joking ... until we said we were from Minne-sot-ah. Then he understood and explained it. It is a German potato broth soup. I ended up getting a chicken salad croissant sandwich. Good but different. There is still no good work on the load board so we head in the direction of home with plans to stay in Fargo. There was a good trip FROM MN. It was heading to Miles City MT. Something BB could have taken and then we would have both had work, right in route on both ends. But that was on the load board a day late. We need fuel by the time we get back to Valley City so we stop at the same Loves again. Cheapest fuel we will see. BB has been wanting to get the oil changed in our car for a while so we decide to do it today in Fargo. It will also kill a few minutes so that we don't go beyond Fargo before all the dispatchers are closed/gone. One car ahead of us, I didn't time it but I'm guessing less than 15 minutes. We had a late lunch so we still are not hungry. Then we talk about it and one of the reasons I had picked to shut down in Fargo was in case my local dispatcher had work. But doing the math, we will make more money deadheading to work from our main carrier and getting work from them. And they have work. Three trips out of MN for about 200 miles each. We are not sure which trip will we pick or which we will get but we head in that direction. Water is sitting in Lake Agassiz today. Not sure when farmers will get out in their fields here either. The Red River in Fargo-Moorehead is still frozen over. Not sure where all the water from the MN side is heading. After a few miles and some conversation we decide to stop in Fergus Falls tonight. The fact that the Best Western in Alexandria is full tonight made that an easier choice. And so that we are not eating at 7-8 PM again tonight, we go through the drive thru at Taco Bell before heading to our hotel. Other hotels at this exit have changed names, the Burger King is empty. The Mexican place has been repainted but apparently has never opened. This used to be one of our stopping options when I was with the crew that went to Crookston on a daily basis so we got to know the exits well. 1st stop - Big Chief in Fergus Falls for DEF 2nd - Loves in Valley City for fuel 3rd - Rest area near Jamestown 4th - Drop in Bismarck, then the Country House Deli for food 5th - Loves in Valley City for fuel 6th - Instant Oil Change in Fargo 7th - Taco Bell and Comfort Inn in Fergus Falls Load board US - 207 IA - 8/7 MN - 10 WI - 8 The rental trucks board also has one trip that may work as a 2nd leg. It also has other trucks heading out of MN, but those don't work for us today. Tomorrow ... we will likely take one of two trips out of Dodge Center that has the later close time. Because we want to keep ourselves open for a longer RV trip, we do not want to commit to any work that will bleed into Friday yet. 230413 MN-IA 1 Trash truck to Cedar Rapids IA (delivered) ... spending the night at Waterloo IA Hostage Situation - IMO When we look at our emails this AM, we have one. Our email host has changed their rules and we are now 3x over on storage. They do this without any recent warning (they likely sent us something months ago) And they do it mid week when people don't have time to react. So pay up for increased storage or have all your emails refused until you have time to delete excess files. Not a good AM. And we are on the road so I have no idea what or how we have these files backed up. :( I thought we'd maybe leave early this AM but instead we are leaving later than usual. Today BB is driving so I can make phone calls once the dispatchers office opens. I send an early text message to dispatch in hopes they start working early. Instead, a few minutes before the office opens, I get a text reply to contact a different dispatcher. I call them and they do not pick up the first few times. Finally they pick up and tell me that they will be in the office 'in a bit.' That turns out to be an hour later. Not a big deal this time, we are still three hours from the shipper and no other trips are being taken off the load board. I do ask the dispatcher which drop has the later close time. One is 4 PM and the other is 5 PM. We take the 5 PM, both are almost the same number of miles. We stop in Avon and switch drivers as I am done on the phone. We stop again in Owatonna for food and fuel and the rest room. It's early to eat but this way the trip in my truck will be non-stop. No one else here picking up today at the shipper. This time it was easy. My truck was the third one I looked at. I throw my stuff in the passenger side as usual. We do a good walk around and check the fluids. ... I open my 'drivers' door and ... no steering wheel. This is a right hand drive. Dispatch did not tell me / ask me about that. Not an issue for me, just a surprise. So I need to move my back pack so it rides on the left side this trip. No issues, we are in and out in less than a half hour. Nine miles down the road and a check engine light comes on. I call dispatch and am told as long as there are not any other issues to keep driving ??? Different carrier? Different drop? I've got the OK to go so I do. Before we knew it was a right hand drive, I had decided to stick to the 4 lane as much as possible. Now it is an even better idea. About an hour into the drive we get stopped for one lane traffic. That is long enough for me to look at my drop. Easy. Only about a mile off the four lane with a total of four turns. Memory. When we get to New Hampton, BB pulls off for a break ... at the wrong exit. But the main road goes around town so she just figures she will go through town. She missed the turn in town that she wanted so it took a little longer. She ended up putting the GPS on then and later it took her off the four lane to avoid Waterloo. Interesting I hear. Likely the worst of driving the right hand drive was in Waterloo where there was not a white line on the shoulder, just the curb. It looked like I was driving on the curb to keep my left side in my lane. As far as I know, I didn't hit anyone. No one even blew their horn at me. But it has been a long times since I've driving one. Not sure the last time. My drop ends up being behind another business. We have to drive between the skids and stacks of parts they have to get to my drop. Not sure if it is the only way, but it is how I found it. By the time I am taking my pictures of my dash, someone is walking out to look at the truck. It is 4:30 so I'm glad we took this truck and were able to get it delivered today. BB has to call me for directions she doesn't think she is at the right place but she is. I sit higher so I had seen the other trash trucks in the distance so I knew I had to be able to get there somehow. Earlier, at the shipper, I had tried to call this place. One phone number would disconnect as soon as I dialed it and the other was a computer answering machine. I did finally get a real person but 'it was not their area' so the couldn't help me. I finally said forget it and I hung up on them. I should have asked for a phone number when I was here, they have more trucks coming. BB has not lined up more work nor is there any that is 'great' so we head to find food. When I call in to let dispatch know I have dropped, they try to talk me into my next trip. This dispatcher is good at trying to do that. Most dispatchers just let us do our own thing. I'm not going to say where we ate tonight because ... as we were paying for our food, the cashier/cook says it's been a long day. BB has a comment and then that person says ... "especially when you aren't feeling well." NOT what I want to hear from the person who just cooked my food. :( We did eat in today. It is not an easy food to eat and drive. And we were not sure how far we were going to go. Waterloo/Cedar Falls is as far as we will go. Once we are checked in, we go for our nightly one mile walk. The Hilton something is just across the street from us. Acres of parking and less than a half dozen cars. 1st stop - Rest area in Avon 2nd - Kwik Trip for fuel and food 3rd - shipper in Dodge Center 4th - road work near Lime Springs 5th - drop in Cedar Rapids 6th - food in Cedar Rapids 7th - Comfort Inn in Cedar Falls. Load board US - 189 IA - 11/10 MN - 9 WI - 6 There is another tanker in IL, this one going to NV. IF the timing was right it would have been fun. But we are already one week into our two weeks work and the shortest route still requires chains. There are still two trucks in MN that will work for Friday. There are also two rental trucks that would work if it wasn't Friday. We have spent hours talking about which trips could work for tomorrow and then for the weekend. None are idea. We are still waiting for those. Most likely we will take the trip we didn't take today. We should be two hours earlier and their close time is only one hour earlier than today. So we should be OK with that one.
230414 MN-IA 1 Trash truck to Peosta IA (delivered) 2 RV's to Dayton OH (Saturday) ... spending the night at Mason City IA BB is up early this AM, too many things going on in her mind. So I'm up a little early too so we do get going a little earlier than most days. When we are coming back from breakfast, the night clerk is delivering the check out receipts. As long as he is right there, I tell him about the water on the floor in the bathroom. To which he says ... I'm make a note of that so you won't get charged ??? The toilet is leaking, how is that EVER a guest issue ??? And it was that way when we checked in. I had asked yesterday evening and the dispatcher for our next trip does not start until 8:30. I call them then and they are still not at the office but they have seen my text so the trip is mine. We are to the 'office' by 9 AM, my paperwork is there but for some reason I look at it before we leave. Maybe because it didn't feel right? Three copies were there, one was missing. I call and they bring out the extra copy. (We get our paperwork for a mail box outside the office) Today my truck is almost as east to find as yesterday, just a little further down the line. Today it is a dual drive so I can drive from the left side. No issues during inspection. ... until I try to contact my drop. Same computer type receptionist, but this time I was able to hit keys and get a live person. One who seemed to have an idea of what I was talking about. But all they could do was 'forward my message.' Great, I'm not going to spend any more time on this today or ... ever? The computer gave us lots of options on which way to go, but not the one we took. My guess is because of the road construction. 10 AM and it is already hot. I manage to get my jacket off at the first stop light. I know I could run the AC the whole time but I don't. Instead I am getting thirsty and dry. Today the road construction has moved south to near Cresco. And I see the lead car pull over into our lane just before we get to the back up. So only a couple of minutes delay today. Because I am hot and thirsty I take a break today. A stop at the Kwik Star in New Hampton for a bottle of lemon juice. No where to park so I <> park behind BB. A few minutes later the place is about empty. Kind of like last night when we fueled at Loves. All 12 pumps where full when we got there and we waited for someone to pull out so we could fuel. Before I had 10 gallons in the car, there was only one other pump in use. Timing. One exit before I should have, I pull off the four lane and park on the ramp. I had never looked to see where my drop was. BB had told me, but now I see a new station and want to make sure my drop is by the correct station. By now BB has caught up to me again and follows me up the ramp. We talk and then I also look at the map. Drop is right where I thought. Back on the four lane. I get there two hours before they close. No idea if they ever got the message that I was coming. The person who got to sign for the truck was standing outside talking to someone so that was easy. He does about a 10 minute look over while I grab my stuff. I'm now carrying my jacket as it is about 85 degrees here. As soon as we are done we pull next door to the truck stop. It used to be a hopping place but then they took out the cross street and put in an overpass a little further way. No one there. The no longer carry name brand gas. BB used the rest room and she said I should go in and buy something because the clerk looked lonely. Our work options are gone. We are early enough we could have done the rental truck an hour away, it's gone. The other rental truck on the other side of the state is gone. The IL tanker is gone. Nothing worth taking for RV's. Two trash trucks in a row is enough. We still head in the direction of the RV's, there is always hope. And that is the general direction of home. But it would be 8 PM if we headed all the way home. Late in the day they do put some RV's out. They had put some out earlier but we were hoping for something better and those first ones were gone. We finally called after waiting to see if these would also be gone :) or if they would put something better out. I first asked for one Dayton and one Columbus. The Columbus was a rush so I thought I could help out once in a while. But the office has some rule that a driver can only put their name one one trip. Someone else was a maybe on the Columbus already and if I put my name on that one, I couldn't have my name on a 2nd trip. We went for a sure thing and took two Dayton's. Out of practice. We used to do rental cars first before calling. We can't get a one way out of Dayton for less than a week. We are actually trying to get one to Fort Wayne because there are six trucks there and BB would be willing to drive one of them so we'd both be driving ... to the DC airport ??? We haven't seen the orders but that is what it looks like. We finally ended up getting a local rental in Dayton and will use that to get a one way from Columbus an hour away. Then return the local on our way to Fort Wayne. It takes a few extra hours be we didn't plan ahead. Our other option would have been to head home for the weekend. Too late (for us) to pick up tonight so we get a hotel in Mason City. First we stop and get our food that we had called and ordered. I go in and pay and then start walking out the door. "STOP" The guy want's me to take my food that I just paid for :) :) Great Italian food. Tonight we split one. The sampler. Then we go for a walk. We've stayed here a few times so we notice things changing. The parking lot for the 'vacant' mall was packed tonight. Not sure why. And they are building apartments across the river from the park. We can see where there used to be steps down to the river every few feet like there used to be homes on that side. We don't remember. Here in IA, farmers are working their fields and planting. In MN it sounds like another chance of snow over the weekend? 1st stop - to pick up our paperwork at the 'office' in Dodge Center 2nd - shipper in Dodge Center 3rd - Kwik Star in New Hampton 4th - drop in Peosta 5th - truckstop in Peosta for fuel 6th - Flying J in Evansdale to make phone calls 7th - Italian food in Mason City 8th - Quality Inn (soon to be Comfort Inn) in Mason City Load board US - 204 IA - 3 MN - 9 WI - 22 We have less than 700 miles to go in the next two days so we won't be maxing our driving hours. Not sure where we will stop. 2nd night will be near Dayton, just a few miles from the airport so we can leave one RV at our hotel when we pick up our car. From there we are 20 miles from our drop. .. the trip continues from HERE
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