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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2023 08 23 MN ... spending the night at home Shortly after we are up, we decide it is too hot to do anything around the house so we are heading to Duluth ... that place we could have been paid to be going if we had decided this yesterday. But it takes us a while to get ready and to get my paperwork ready to drop off at my local company. It was going to be just a quick drop of the paperwork but someone saw me and introduced me to the two newest dispatchers. Seems like there has been two new ones the last few times I have been in. Forgot their names as soon as I heard them. But I did learn that we/they haven't moved a bus in two months ... Someone on FB a few months ago said that one company was moving all the buses from all three locations. I didn't comment on what they said. I just posted what I knew ... at the time. A different company for each of the three locations. Maybe that person knew something then. Neither of my companies is moving those buses anymore :( That was it for work. Then we headed to Duluth where it was going to be 30-40 degrees cooler today. Good day, but not work related. The trash truck they wouldn't let me take when I wanted it, is still there. And the two trucks coming back this way from Janesville are still there. Until I want them. Still no word on my next appointment so no work plans yet. We have plans for Monday so Monday is the first day we could call in for work anyway. Load board US - 164 IA - 30 MN - 4 WI - 4 2023 08 28 IA-WI 1 RV to Greenfield WI (Tuesday) ... spending the night at home We were on our way to the state fair when dispatch opened so BB made the call and took the trip. We had three that worked for us, we took one and the other two are still there at the end of the day. Dispatch phone was busy, busy, busy so we were not sure we'd get anything but we got what we wanted. BB looked at the load board off and on all day. Part of the reason we wanted the trips we did were because there was a 2nd leg. That was gone within the hour. It had been there for a week but when it gets close to us taking it ... gone. Not a lot of new RV trips which doesn't look good for when we want to head out on the road. I had been waiting over a week for a call from the clinic, called Friday, no response, called again today and got set up for an appointment in October. That works. By the end of the day there was an old trip that we had wanted as a 2nd leg back on the board, we will likely call in the AM on that. There is also a local trip for 10 miles or so but I'm guessing we will pass on that one. Load board - 8/24 US - 175 IA - 13 MN - 7 WI - 2 Load board - 8/25 US - 165 IA - 30/29 MN - 6 WI - 2 Load board - weekend US - 204 IA - 85/84 MN - 2 IA - 2 Load board - 8/28 US - 137 IA - 31 MN - 2 WI - 1 2023 08 29 IA-WI 1 RV to Greenfield WI 1 box truck to Worthington MN (Wednesday) ... spending the night at Brookfield WI No alarm, we woke up when someone closed the bathroom door at our house. So I guess we were not completely sleeping. 6:30. Still out of the house close to 7:30. After spending two days with family and two days at our state fair out of the last five days ... the scale said we did not need to eat breakfast. For some reason the WI truck I wanted got put with the main dispatchers instead of the usual dispatcher for this shipper. But that means today I could call them at 7 AM my local time and I got the trip. Nothing wrong with the truck. The driver who had taken it, didn't. His truck to get him here broke down so he had to give this one up. So now we have a trip back to MN ... and if I heard right, we could be dead heading to WI to move this trucks. It should pay pretty good. There is road construction on the freeway past our place so we have been taking the frontage road for the summer and maybe already last spring (?) A few miles down the road and we see there was an accident on the freeway within minutes of when we passed that street. We didn't see it so must have been right behind us (We can see the freeway from the frontage road in that area) One stop at the rest area near Owatonna for a break. Then we got off at the exit for Norwood to check fuel prices. GasBuddy said gas was $3.18 but it was really $3.59. More than other places. We get to the shipper at 10:30 so not going to make delivery today, we find out the drop closes at 4 PM. We saw five other drivers today but didn't talk to any of them. It looks like the shipper has about 100 chassis lined up in their employee lot ready to be shipped out like last time. That is what they have to do when the over buy. They buy on forecast and when the forecast changes before the chassis are delivered, they have to adjust. And in the lot there are likely over 100 RV's ready to ship. Likely as there were 80+ at one point on the load board. I would have thought most of those pulled out on Monday but we have no way of knowing. Half hour and we are ready to go, two people inspecting one small unit. BB has a half a tank of fuel so that will get us to cheaper fuel. At first she thought she'd only stop once for fuel but then did the math. She save $2 if she stopped again and we stop every two hours anyways. 1st stop loaded is the Loves in Albert Lea. BB fuels and we both eat at Wendy's. Chili today. BB leaves before I am done eating, I'm a slow eater but can drive faster with the car. 2nd stop is the Loves at St Charles. BB is pulling out as I am pulling in. We both fuel. Gas here is $.40 less than most places. 3rd stop is the rest area near Lyndon Station. BB is there before I get there. She did stop one other place to call her drop. And I still did not catch up to her. I had called my shipper from St Charles. Usually I am talking to a 3rd party broker when I call in, today it was the actual shipper ... and they pretty much wanted to know why I was calling them ... I think someone didn't follow the instructions on the original paperwork. Their problem, not mine. When we were at Lyndon Station, BB made reservations for the hotel. We had talked about staying wherever was cheaper or if we wanted to shut down early. We ended up getting as far as we wanted and eating afterwards. The hotel is the Comfort Inn in Brookfield. We've stayed here a few times. Oscar's was our fast food tonight. I had sloppy joe, potato soup and a cherry malt. There is a Texas Roadhouse next door but I'm guessing that would have taken a lot longer than driving to Oscar's. Tomorrow ... (plans) Drop at 9 AM when they open, leave drop by 10 AM Arrive at my shipper by 11 AM, leave by 12 noon. Call dispatch to get a truck from SD back to MN Get to Albert Lea by 6 PM for the night. ... maybe. Load board US - 131 IA - 24 MN - 3 WI -0- 2023 08 30 WI-MN 1 RV to Greenfield WI (delivered) 1 box truck to Worthington MN ... spending the night at Albert Lea MN No plan for tomorrow after the drop yet. No long trips to keep us busy over the long weekend. Hotel doesn't have WiFi so I'm hotspotting my phone and it is very slow. (many days later) Don't remember breakfast. We had about 10-15 miles to go in the AM to the drop. I follow BB until the fuel stop and then head to the drop. The gate is still locked, there is one semi ahead of us but they have not started unloading yet. By the time BB gets there, the gate us open and we are told that because the truck was there ahead of us, they will inspect those RV's first. They were ahead of us, but not available for inspection. So we had to wait for them to unload so they could get inspected before we could get inspected. Did find out one more brand for my driveaway list. This location had RV's coming in from three different brands today. No issues and we are off to our next truck. Janesville. We take the GPS back roads, cross country. Today our truck is off-site, on the far end of town. Easily found but it all takes time. We look at most of the trucks before finding mine. They are parked pretty close together so I pull out before we check the lights. Gas station is a mile down the road so that is my first stop. Kwik Trip. As usual, this place is full with little place to park that doesn't have a no parking sign. Where I do park is not a parking area, but is not marked and is not blocking anyone. We aren't going to make it to the drop today so we take time for lunch. Shelve food and we sit outside at a picnic bench. And we are off ... I do have it up to 12 mpg at one point. For some reason the cruise is not working. The message makes it look like it needs to be set up (?) At some point I stop, maybe it was Lyndon Station, to call the drop. When I start the truck again the cruise is working. On the next leg the fuel drops to 11.4 mpg before we get to St Charles and the Loves. I fuel again based on the new, current mileage. Cheapest hotel is in Albert Lea at the Quality Inn. We get double beds tonight because last time we had a king it sagged in the middle, if we each have our own we won't be on top of each other. Restaurant is closed? The attached restaurant closes at 3 on Mon, Tues and Weds. So we need to drive down the street to another family type restaurant. Name has changed but the menu is still the same. We ate there. Something. Back at the hotel it was just about dark. It is supposed to be a Blue Moon, Super Moon and something else. When we should be able to see it, we walk outside and don't. We end up walking across the parking lot, up a hill on a vacant lot and then down the dirt road by the corn fields to try to see where it should be coming up. We finally do see it, it is coming up over a hill and over Home Depot so it is quite a ways up by the time we can see it. Others have already post pictures online before we can see it. I try to take pictures but they never do justice. But we got a short walk in for the day. A moon lite walk. Load board US - 144 IA - 21/20 MN - 3 WI -0- 2023 08 31 MN-IL 1 box truck to Worthington MN (delivered) 1 trash truck to Aurora IL 2 RV's to Hershey PA (Saturday) ... spending the night at De Forest WI Somehow we managed to get going a little before 7:30 today. Yesterday on the first leg of my trip I was up to 12 mpg. Then the next let was 11.2. Today it was down to 10.9 the first hour and then 10.4 mpg by the drop. So I did have to stop and ad more fuel and still came in with only four more miles range than I wanted to leave. BB was stopping every hour to check the load board, nothing that worked for us and less than a half dozen total trips added today. The drop in Worthington did a quick check in of the truck. They don't normally sell box trucks but their shop wanted them ... and then they didn't. So now they have a couple of them to sell. I had a couple of unknown calls while I was driving. Finally after I've dropped and get as far back as Blue Earth ... I go to use my phone and see the calls are from Forest City, but not a number I have programmed in. I call it, it is the office. In the last few hours they got covered what they called me about. BUT ... ... someone else is looking for drivers to go to the Hershey RV show. I usually turn those down because they are looking for drivers a month before the move. Now we are two days before the move and we have nothing to do this three day weekend. On the load board they have only had one RV, there are two of us. No problem, they say. But they can't tell us what we are driving until tomorrow (?) My guess is we will not make great money but better than no money. And we don't need to leave until Saturday ... that leaves us time to do a short trip to CGO. We had been debating which trip to take, now we know. We take the shortest one to CGO out of Dodge Center and we should be back in Forest City, or close, by Friday night. So we call Dodge Center and line up our next trip and tell them we will be there in a little over an hour. One quick stop in Albert Lea for food at Arbey's drive-thru. Once we have the paperwork, BB looks up the company so we know what truck style and color we are looking for. Easy :) Today there are only three in the lot that match style and color ... but not the VIN. One Google search had mentioned a second name and that is what was on the truck, except for the mud flaps. All checks good and we head out. As I turn to pull on the expressway ... BEEEEEEEP ... so I stop on the shoulder. I decide to head back as the alarm will not go off. As i turn at the top of the ramp getting off the expressway ... the alarm finally goes off. I stop and talk to BB, plan was to just head out but before I got turned around it was beeping again. So back to the shop. I find someone right away and they start looking at it right away. As I am standing there, someone else walks up and says "haven't seen you around here for a while ..." (if you work in the shop and recognize me, I've been in here too often) Within a few minutes I am back on the road ... and as pull on the expressway it does a few beeps and soon is a constant BEEEEEEEP. But I had asked and was told it was not going to hurt anything so I keep going. The only thing I have within reach as I am driving is some paper towel. And some tape. So I wrap up the paper towel and tape it to my ear :) When we get to the rest area, I find the ear plugs I have been carrying around for the last dozen years and use those instead. From the rest area, BB makes a reservation ... ??? We are doing 200 miles today and then the last 120 miles tomorrow AM. A good way to split up a drive in a trash truck. 25 miles before our exit for the night, we can see smoke. As we do often. Most times it it too far away from the freeway to see what it was. This time it is on the freeway. A semi, tractor is barely a shell with only the frame and engine still intact. By now the fire is working it's way through the trailer. We figure we saw the fire 15 minutes before we got to it. The fire trucks and wrecker were not there yet. Traffic was backed up of course. I'm guessing the wrecker was called when the fire first started. Now there is not anything going out of there on a wrecker, it will all be on a flatbed. When we come back from eating an hour plus later, the freeway ramp is now closed/gated off and traffic is still at a stand still. That is why I did not want to do any longer RV trips before the holiday. You never know what traffic will do and then we are stuck for a three day weekend on what should have been a one day trip. Today we stay at the Comfort Inn in De Forest, and eat at the De Forest restaurant. I had turkey salad on croissant. Not sure I have ever had that before eating out. I think I have made it a couple of times at home. Pretty good. I did start with desert today. We got French Silk pie. It was OK. Good thing we had it first, we were both stuffed by the time we were done with the food. Load board US - 171 IA - 12/11 MN - 4 WI - 7 Tomorrow. Two hours to the drop. Six hours back to Forest City. Timing will tell if we pick up tomorrow or Saturday. Picking up tomorrow will get us near the drop Sunday night. We deliver on Monday, the holiday. More on that later. ... the trip continues HERE
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