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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 230527 CA-WI 1 bus to Beloit WI ... spending the night at Wendover UT ))) written over a week after the events ((( 2nd night in a week we have stayed at this hotel. Wish it was cheaper :) I call shortly after 6:30 AM central time to get a NV permit. Someone answers on the first couple of rings. They usually work the night shift so they don't seem to be fully awake. There are a few times when I am telling him what he needs to know without him asking me. But we got it right. When I ask about no one answering the phone after 5 PM last night he says that some people ... work banker's hours, old time bankers hours. I took that to mean that they work when they wanted to. Light traffic, still snow once we get up a few thousand feet. 1st stop is at Donner Pass. Less snow, but still lots of snow. Even took some pictures. The permit is good before we get to the border. Only lost it once coming down the pass, the ruts are so deep in the pavement that sometimes the bus will rock from one side of the rut to the other. No issues with the noon traffic in Reno, not even much of a slow down. Port o Subs in Lovelock. There is a line, of two. But they are working on an online order of a few huge sandwiches so it takes a while to get our food. We are still in and out within a half hour. We are the only ones who eat inside. The cheapest fuel we an find is not our usual discounted fuel, but the posted price that everyone else pays at the Maverick in Battle Mountain. Yes, the Shell has it cheaper again today but we don't want to risk putting in 'old fuel. (?) Plan was to fill, but I ran the pump on my personal card and it stopped at $175. My guess is that it was almost full so I did not re-start but also we can't do actual mileage because it wasn't full. In Elko we just stop for a quick break. I do put in DEF as this place is a nice place but mostly empty. DEF was not full at pickup so I'll need some soon and I should be able to make it from here to the drop without adding more. We had talked about pushing it, but we are on west coast time and yesterday was a long day. We had also talked about stopping short an hour because the hotel there was some cheaper. But Wendover again it is. Room to park when we get there but not much in the AM when we go to leave. The food truck we eat at is in our parking lot. No one waiting today. The food truck a block away has about a dozen people waiting. I get the Philly again but they are out of peppers (?) Today I get two extra taco's so I have breakfast in the AM. 9:30 - Rocklin CA - Comfort Inn - leave hotel 11 AM - Donner Pass CA - break 1 PM - Lovelock NV - Port O Subs - food 4 PM - Battle Mountain NY - Mavrick - fuel 5:30 - Elko NV - Sinclear - break 7 PM - Wendover UT - Quality Inn 7:30 - Wendover UT - food truck - food Loadboard US - 236 IA - 67/66 MN - 6 WI - 1 230528 CA-WI 1 bus to Beloit WI ... spending the night at Cheyenne WY Breakfast was not supposed to be until 6:30 so we over ordered food last night so we would have left overs. But when we checked out, the breakfast area was already full of people so it must have opened early. Oh ... rough night. Foot cramps, acid reflux and repetitive dreams. The UT scale that is right at the edge of town was closed today. One less thing to deal with. Lots of people already out on the salt flats by the rest area. Maybe they sleep there overnight? We did get some pretty good rain coming across, not buckets but good for what otherwise seems like desert. Before we left home this last time, I got a different but used cell phone that I am finding I do not like. I am not using it but I am checking it for messages about once a day but there has not been any. Last night I realized that the phone said 'available for emergency calls only.' So today BB looked at my phone and found that I have not gotten any of my texts for a few days. My calls all roll to my flip phone so that isn't an issue. First stop is the Flying J in Tooele for a break. Parking lot is too crowded to get a good picture. As we were coming in, the sun was poking through the clouds in one spot onto the hills but that was gone by the time we parked. Nothing of interest on the next leg other than the bus got down to 35 mph on a couple of the hills. But pretty un-eventful on a Sunday AM. At the WY scale, this time they do flag me to get weighed. The past few times they have not. So I get weighed and go in. No one ahead of me, three officers talking. I walk up to one. It turned out to be the wrong one. This one had to weigh every truck that came across the scale besides try to help me. And they didn't seem to know their system. Part of the time I was telling them what they needed instead of them asking me. Finally they got to the weight of the bus, she had weighed it but didn't print it out and didn't remember. So she was asking some one else and they said either guess, or have the driver re-weigh. I ask what difference the weight makes. None. But they still wanted to know, just because they wanted to know. They guessed. And when they went to print, it locked up their computer and they had to call a help desk somewhere. So another officer took my info and re-did the whole permit. A good 15 minutes instead of the less than five it should, could have taken. From there it is another half hour to the cheaper fuel. First fuel for this trip. Coming up out of SLC, there is a valley where most of the pasture seems to be split into 1/8th to 1/4 mile wide sections. Today, one of those sections had three elk standing almost belly to belly with the beef cattle just a few feet from the freeway. No picture. Just before we get to the fuel exit, we see a truck on it's side up on a hill, out in a field. I'm thinking it had an advertising sign on it and it blew over. By the time I was past it and too late to take a picture I realize that it is a recent crash. I should have realized when the back tires and back of the trailer were hanging out over the ditch bank. I guess how much fuel it will take to get to the next cheapest fuel. While I'm fueling, BB goes in and orders food so it is ready when I am. Taco Bell. In and out in a half hour. The big dig east of Rock Springs is not working today and is now far enough away that all we can see is a few feet of the top of the boom. Our last fuel stop is not one we used to do so we are stopping at different places today. Our next stop is a rest area near Table Rock. While I'm walking out into the travel lane of the rest area someone starts talking to me. And then to me and BB. Another couple about our age just traveling. Then they wanted me to take their picture on their phone and offered to take ours. We declined. Before I could pull out, another person came over and asked about the bus. They were from IA and wondered why a Beloit bus was in the middle of WY. That was a much shorter conversation. Next stop is another rest area we don't usually and may have never stopped at. I wanted to get a good picture but it didn't work because of how the parking lot was laid out. As BB and I are walking back to the bus, an RV pulls in the lot and parks next to us. It is one of ours. It's a guy we've talked to a few times, can't remember his name but he was a dispatcher for a few weeks before he decided it was not the job for him (either) He was heading to the same drop that I did this past trip. We have spent a lot of time today talking about how far we should get today. Laramie would have been 500 miles, our usual. We pushed to Cheyenne which is 550. We talked about Sidney which would be 650. That would make sure we can deliver on Tuesday. But I didn't do the math on my driving hours and because I didn't sleep good last night we decided Cheyenne was the best. Once we checked in, we walked the '1/4 mile' down to a sandwich shop. 1/4 mile is what the billboard said. We got our food and walked back. By then it was starting to rain. Once we were eating our sandwiches in our hotel room it really started dumping rain, for a long time. We lucked out on that. But, neither of our sandwiches had any cheese on them. They were still OK but not what they should have been. Tomorrow we will either get to Omaha, 500 miles. Or Des Moines, 650 miles. We had planned on just being home for a family reunion, today we found we have a birthday party to go to the next weekend. That makes our travel time too short to get back out to CA before the end of the month. 7 AM - Wendover UT - Quality Inn - leave hotel 9 AM - Tooele UT - Flying J - break 11 AM - Evanston WY - POE Noon - Fort Bridger WY - TA/Taco Bell - fuel and food 2 PM - Table Rock WY - break 4 PM - Elk Mountain WY - break 6 PM - Cheyenne WY - Comfort Inn 6:30 - Cheyenne WY - Silver Mine Subs - food 230529 CA-WI 1 bus to Beloit WI ... spending the night at Waukee WI Yesterday ... we also saw two dead elk, right at the edge of the pavement. Dead, but not destroyed. And we saw Mormon crickets. I have seen them before in about the same area, this time BB was with me so she could look them up. Mostly they were on the shoulder of the road but there were a couple of places where the road was covered with crushed crickets. Not sure if it was slick or not. All within a few miles and that was it. Breakfast here is good, there are two people keeping things stocked. Some places it is just the front desk clerk trying to do both jobs. We are running a few few minutes late today, not a good start to a long day. Good thing I pulled in the direction and place I did. The place is full and cars are parked where they should not be, but I can get out my way with no issues. When checking out there was still cookies and they asked if I wanted a bottle of water, so I took both. :) Low fuel light is on, but I was parked on a slight hill. 15 minutes down the road is our first fuel stop. I put in 30 gallons this time because last time I put in more than I used to get here. Second stop was just for a break. The person I do field work had texted sometime, don't know when because of my phone. So I called. Things have changed since then so no 'work' as of now. Where we stopped was a Flying J, a zoo. I parked at the far end of the cars and ended up backing out instead of waiting for cars to clear. Third stop is back at Runza. :) BB had decided it is an OK place to eat after not wanting to eat there in the last few years. Fuel at the TA in Alda. I do not pick the fastest line. I had thought maybe the low fuel light would be on by the time we got here but it was not. I put in 75 gallons into a 125 gallon tank. Usually I can hear the tank fueling and get it stopped in time. But the canopy here seemed lower and the trucks next to me were running so it splashed a little while it stopped. I pull ahead and the driver of the truck behind me doesn't pull ahead, he goes inside. He is ahead of me in line at the fuel desk. He want's the spilled fuel cleaned up before he fills. Then he asks me if I spilt it. I did, some, a little. Then he want's to show me how to fuel ??? and he catches me as I come out the door later. After he shows me, I explain that the bus is not the same as the truck. As we are standing there, I see that there was a lot of fuel under the bus and on the left side. I had only spilt a little on the right side. And I was running the nozzle, it just splashes a little as it kicks off. I would have been soaked if all that fuel was from me. Next stop is the rest area in Ashland. Five out of the eight places we were today are not listed in our e-log so I have to type them in. That e-log program could be so much better. I might even use it then for more than a calculator. Now that we have to make a decision, we do. We are going to drive more than 500 miles miles today. 600+ will get us to Des Moines. Shelby IA is our next stop. Traffic has almost cleared, no heavy traffic this afternoon and not much in the Loves parking lot so I park with the cars. McD's. They are open but they are out of 'water,' so all pop is served in cans or bottles. And they are out of fish and bacon. Final stop is the Sleep in in Waukee/West Des Moines. Tomorrow ... we have about 300 miles to go. I will need to call to make sure what the drop hours are. And where they are located. We have looked on line and the drop address does not show having any buses. I heard it hasn't rained since we left home two weeks ago. It will be interesting to see what my garden and yard look like. 8 AM - Cheyenne WY - Comfort Inn - leave hotel 8:30 - Burns WY - TA - fuel stop 10:30 - Big Springs NE - Flying J - break Noon - Gothenburg NE - Runza - lunch 2 PM - Alda NE - TA - fuel stop 4 PM - Ashland NE - TA - break 6 PM - Shelby IA - Loves/McD's - food 7:30 - Waukee IA - Sleep Inn .. the trip continues HERE |
