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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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230502 IA-MN 1 RV to Shakopee MN (delivered) ... spending the night at home No alarm, we sleep in. We finally go down for breakfast just before it ends. Breakfast here is in two adjoining rooms because the hotel is being remodeled. By 10 AM we are tired of sitting in the hotel so we head out to return the rental car. By the time we are dropping the car, I see there is one RV going to Shakopee. I call. BB mentions another RV but we both think the city is near Milwaukee while Shakopee is near home. Once I get the Shakopee trip, we realize the other trip is near La Crosse and will pay $200 more for two more hours work. We don't like committing to work too far ahead of time and there are still high winds so we don't decide to take the La Crosse trip until we are almost at the office. We decide to wait until we are at the office ... but then it is too late. Someone took the trip just before we walk in the door. There are five new drivers in training in the office today. We find our RV and inspect in about 15 minutes, basic RV. Down side, this RV only has a range of 48 miles instead of the often 1/4 to 1/2 tank of fuel. I try to call the drop from the shipper but no one picks up and then my phone locks up. My screen won't respond so for five minutes I hear their automated computer until it finally disconnects. We guess that I might get 10 mpg so I stop at the closest Kwik Star and put in 10 gallons of fuel. But with this headwind I am getting no where close to that and have to stop in Owatonna at another Kwik Trip and add another 10 gallons as it looks like I am getting 7 mpg. I was getting 7 mpg, but after the second fuel stop I get better. I end up loosing money on the fuel for the first time (?) since I've been with this company because I am leaving too much fuel. I stop at a Speedway that is on the same street as the drop to get final fuel. Then on to the drop. Turns out this little ma and pa place was just bought by one of the major local RV dealers. Doesn't change anything for us, just interesting. I find the person who will sign. There it is the head of sales. 15 minutes inspection and we are done, clear. No short work. We head to a nearby Honey Baked for a sandwich. It is mid-afternoon and we are the only ones there. We watch the load board and nothing shows up. We finally order two more pounds of ham and head home. We will now be home for the next two plus weeks. Yard work, garden work, house work, field work. This will likely be the last write up for a while other than the daily stats, and I might only do the RV's because I have been keeping track of them daily for the last 7 years. Load board US - 282 IA - 71/67 MN - 14 WI - 11 230503 MN Loadboard (Wednesday 5/3) US - 293 IA - 70/67 MN - 7 WI - 8 Loadboard (Thursday 5/4) US - 271 IA - 42/40 MN - 14 WI - 6 Loadboard (Friday 5/5) US - 220 IA - 26/25 MN - 6 WI - 7 Loadbaord (weekend) US - 206 IA - 22/21 MN - 5 WI - 7 Loadboard (Monday 5/8) US - 191 IA - 23 MN - 4 WI - 6 Loadboard (Tuesday 5/9) US - 187 IA - 18 MN - 12 WI - 11 Load board (Wednesday 5/10) US - 202 IA - 20 MN - 7 WI - 8 Loadboard (Thursday 5/11) US - 219 IA - 16/14 MN - 11 WI - 11 Loadboard (Friday 5/12) US - 182 IA - 9/8 MN - 6 WI - 12 Loadboard (weekend 5/13-14) US - 170 IA - 5/4 MN - 3 WI - 12 Loadboard (Monday 5/15) US - 144 IA - 7/5 MN - 6 WI - 6 230515 MN ... spending the night at home. We did spend the day hitting refresh all day. Nothing good enough to take. If it wasn't the end of the month at the end of the quarter ... we might have just taken something. But I've been keeping track of RV trips for the last five years and it has always gone up the end of this month. And I was having phone issues so I wasn't exactly focused on finding work. Local dispatch did contact me to see if I was available, I said no. We want to be ready for that 'perfect trip' when it shows up :)
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