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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 2023 06 28 MN-IL 1 trash truck to Rock Island IL (delivered) 1 RV to Duluth MN (Thursday) ... spending the night at Charles City IA Still achy or fighting something so another rough night. Do feel better than yesterday but not great. Moving pretty slow. I had yogurt and a pastry instead of eggs and sausage this AM. We did get out of the hotel at our 7:30 goal. Almost exactly 1-1/2 hours to the shipper. The shuttle driver who was bringing down my paperwork was still there but I took a guess that they would have put my paperwork in the box when I got here. Nope. So I had to go get it from them. Just said a quick 'hi' to the driver she was waiting for. He has been there almost as long as me but he is a school bus driver so he only works summers and school vacations. He was heading to a repair shop a few miles away. Found my truck, no issues. In and out in about a half hour. 1st stop is for fuel and scale in Kasson. I could tell I wasn't going to be able to put in much fuel but we are to try. 3 gallons. And with this one I come in 500# under legal weight. I thought I had the same truck two days ago and I was 1,500# under. Either way, I'm good to go. After I turned my pacard upside right so it could be read. My one stop in Evansdale for a bottle of juice and use the rest room. I should be good on fuel, this trip is 40 miles less than two days ago and I left almost a half tank that day. Scale was open, I had to cross, but they flagged a truck two ahead of me around back and no more trucks crossed the scale ... I'm guessing that driver was going to be there a while. Down on I-80, traffic comes to a standstill. Almost. I never did put it in park. Then I get to where I can see that there is no on-coming traffic. So whatever it is is in the other lane. Finally about a half mile before the accident we can see smoke. Then fire trucks. I've looked up news reports and they say the accident happened 'before 2 PM.' We came through at about 2 PM and all most all emergency vehicles were on the scene. So far it doesn't say how many, we counted two semis and one car. Only minor injuries ??? Not sure how. The car looked like it was under one of the burnt out semi's. The semi that was still burning was being torn apart by a backhoe. There is road construction right there so I'm guessing it came from there. There were a few cars and trucks behind the fire, the rest of the traffic was being routed off at the prior exit. (As of 8 PM the road was back open) ??? I am down to a quarter of a tank of fuel and still have 30 miles to go. I stop in Walcott and put in some fuel. My tank is on the wrong side so I can't see the meter. I end up putting in 5 gallons. I end up getting to the drop at 4 PM instead of 3 PM, not an issue, they are open until 5 PM. Quick sign off and I am free to go. I call local dispatch and they do not have anything for me tomorrow. But my other carrier has an RV going to Duluth MN that we can get done in one day. I call and grab that. By the time we leave the drop, the freeway is still closed so we do a re-route. I have to convince BB that the route is not a gravel road :) We get off the freeway in Walcott and stop at Arby's before we head cross country. Road isn't bad, I was expecting more traffic with the freeway closed but we must have gotten off far enough back. We rejoin the freeway in Cedar Rapids. By then we decide to push it and make an almost 12 hour day of it. We reserve a hotel in Charles City. When we first look at it, we think the price is too high. Then we look at the other prices and it is actually the better priced place. One stop for the restroom at the Flying J in Evansdale. Sleep Inn in Charles City and we are done for the day. Loadboard US - 154 IA - 5/4 MN - 11 WI - 3 We have about an hour left to get to the RV shipper so we should be there at 8:30, gone by 9 AM. Drop by 2 PM, they close at 4:30. Not sure we are going to work Friday or Monday. Then the holiday and then vacation and then ... hopefully a road trip. Haven't seen any this month that would have worked, not sure how next month will be different. 2023 06 29 MN-IL We made it home, zapped. Likely done working for a couple of weeks because of vacation. 1 RV to Duluth MN (delivered) ... spending the night at home Lots of tossing and turning last night. Sometime during the night I woke up and smelled something awful. I thought it was my sweat, but worse and different. Then at another time I woke up and was twisted in my sheets and if felt like the circulation was cut off to me right arm. When I got up, I saw a huge welt in my armpit. My guess is it was some kind of stick bug that bit me during the night. But by the time I thought of that we needed to get going so I didn't look for it. Pulled out at 7:30 but decided to get gas in Floyd where it was cheapest. So we did not get Forest City until after 8:30. Saw the one former dispatcher, now driver again today. He is heading up to Minneapolis. We didn't see that one on the loadboard. One other driver towing leaves while we are there. Not hard to find the units where there are less than a dozen. I have more fuel than usual, a range of 90 miles. Not far enough to get to Forest Lake but enough to get to Albert Lea. Those are the two cheapest places to buy fuel. With my last RV of this type, I had gotten 17.5 mpg so my plan was to add fuel based on that. But with this one, I had only gotten up to 16.5 mpg by the time I fueled so filled based on that when we got to Albert Lea. 284 miles total. Did see a couple of semi's on our 'practice freeway.' One was going with the flow, the other one was backing down the shoulder. Also a couple of other non-semi's but overweight trucks. Nothing much new since we went this way a week or so ago. By the time I get to the Kwik Trip in Carlton, my mpg is up to 19.4 so I still have plenty of fuel. When I come back out from using the restrooms, there is a cop with a car pulled over in the parking lot. Then two cops, and by the time the people are getting out of the car, three cops. One cop did open the drivers door and look at either the door-jam or the backseat. Just for a second. Then one cop was talking to each of the two people. Could have been anything, they didn't cuff them so I'm guessing it wasn't a stolen car. My thought was the girls parents reported her missing ... Not much wifi in Carlton. I had never looked at the drop location and the map didn't want to respond. Finally I was able to get enough to load that I could see the major roads, but none of the exit numbers off the freeway. BB and I had talked about which way the GPS was routing us and I didn't know which roads she was talking about. Finally was able to see 'easy directions' on three major roads. Something I can remember. I often don't follow GPS or routing directions, I look at a map and do my logical route. From here, north on 33, east on US-2 and left on 149. Sounds easy. BB calls we as soon as I get off of I-35, I stop and pick up. "You are going the wrong direction." Yeah, yeah, according to who. 1st the ramp was closed from 33 to US-2 so we had to take side streets, then US-2 is being worked on so it is one lane with pilot cars so there was waiting. With the road construction was was wondering if I would see where I was to take a left. Actually no, There is no left, The main road becomes 149. Those coming from Duluth on US-2 have to stop. But the fun isn't over. There is a Kwik Trip two doors from my drop. Prices are listed on their sign but yellow tape around all pumps. (BB did beat me to the drop, this time) Luckily there are Kwik Trips everywhere so I head to the one two stop lights down. Hey, I know this area. We've been to the cemetery diagonally across the intersection. At the drop it looks like another transporter has their luggage outside the door. No issues with delivery. Fuel mileage was back down to 18.4 after my rural driving but I didn't have to add an extra fuel. Low fuel light came on just as I was coming into town so i was within a gallon of where I like to be. Free to go. We go back BB's route, mine was easier to remember directions. Last time we stopped at Gordy's, but I am still dragging and only eating because I know I need to. So we stop at Ebert's. I had thought of calling local dispatch when I delivered, but didn't. If they want me, they will call me and we can decide then. They never did. Cheapest fuel is Forest Lake and we arrive with a range of 17 miles :) But along here there are stations at every exit and exits usually 3-5 miles apart so no worries. No Tobie's either this trip. We are home for a couple of weeks. Not working, not always home. One trip we had been looking at earlier in the week was a Streator IL to Kansas City. But my local company kept us busy the first of the week. If the RV hadn't been there Wednesday night we may have taken it. By sometime today there was a trip from Kansas City back home. Likely better paying than the one RV. But that is rare for there to be anything between those points. Load board US - 199 IA - 7 MN - 10 WI - 3
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