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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2023 09 22 MN-SD 1 trash truck to Sioux Falls SD (Sunday) ... spending the night at home Dispatch didn't call all day so finally mid-afternoon I called them. The only short trip they had was this one, a trash truck. The other one they offered me was in IA going to WY, also a trash truck. And it looks like WY is going to start getting the winter winds soon. There were a few more RV trips today, no pairs. There was another Des Moines trash truck with the other company plus other things that would work next week when it is not quarter end. I had planned on dropping off paperwork but now that I have a trip I will just wait until I pick the next paperwork up. We could wait until Monday AM and still make delivery on Monday but we might head out on Sunday. Down side is if there are any issues, it's hard to find people on the weekends to get things done. Load board US - 99 IA - 1/0 MN - 7 WI - 7 2023 09 24 MN-SD 1 trash truck to Sioux Falls SD ... spending the night at Brandon SD The only alarm was the crack of thunder about an hour before we got up. Breakfast at home. Pulled out a little before 9 AM. We haven't left the house for two days so today we need to stop and pick up my paperwork ... and drive through the back to see what others are taking. Paperwork for 10 other drivers that will all be leaving before the office opens on Monday. Two buses, one tanker and one semi tractor in the lot. Two of the company vans are gone so I'm guessing some drivers have already left this AM. The only excitement today was having the low fuel light come on. We had more than enough to get to Dodge Center but BB doesn't like the light on so we stopped in Kenyon where fuel was cheaper anyway. It is the weekend so I had to call security when I got to the gate. No one picked up but within a couple of minutes someone was there opening the gate. This person never talked to us, just drove a little past the gate and sat there until we left. BB was able to find my truck without having any of the numbers, she just knew what to look for. As we are doing my pre-trip, one of the last things I do is put it in reverse to check the back up lights. The truck dies. I try it a couple of more times and each time the truck dies. BB comes back up to see what is going on, and because I never did find how to open the windows ... I have to open the door. She's standing on the ground next to the truck and can see that I have put the keys in the 'service ignition.' :) There is a drive ignition in the center of the dash that I hadn't seen before that. All is good. This is a frontend loader for my local company so I need to take it down to get it scaled before I leave town. First I need to fuel. Not paying attention and I put in the premium fuel instead. 10 gallons. 3,000# under the limit on weight so no issue. It is now almost noon so we each get shelf food and eat in the car. I had forgotten we were going to eat here so I left my truck in the fuel island. There are three islands and only two trucks pulled in while we were eating so not an issue. Not a bad ride and/or not a bad road. Don't like doing these back to back but it may be what there is. Back at Dodge Center we sometimes have two boxes for keys, sometimes one. Right now we are back to one. My other company pretty much has two boxes all the time. Not much for excitement on the highway today. Almost no traffic, almost no trucks. Rained a lot last night so not much field work being done, and it is Sunday so that still makes a difference in some areas. BB pulls off at the rest area in Blue Earth and makes the hotel reservations. I pull off in Jackson as it has been three hours of sitting. BB catches up to me there so I know where we are stopping tonight. SD scale is closed. Dispatch had gotten my permit starting today so all was good there either way. We get to the Quality Inn in Brandon a little before 4 PM. Lots of room to park at that time. There was a cheaper, nicer hotel closer to the drop but all reviews mentioned the airplane noise. Here we are about 15 miles from the drop. We look online to find a place to walk and head there. $8 ? for park access ? ... no thanks. BB finds a cemetery a mile away and we spend about a half hour there walking laps. Small cemetery but off the sidewalks. Then we come back and order food to pick up from Tailgator's. BB has some kind of fish and I get pasta. Load board (weekend) US - 82 IA - 1 MN - 1 WI - 5 No plans for tomorrow. We will watch the load board and I will call in to see what the local company has for us. I don't want to commit to another trash truck until it looks like there isn't going to be anything else. Thursday there had been a truck in Omaha coming back but I saw that some of todays drivers had multi-leg trips so maybe someone has are will be already picking it up. Not great pay for this trip but BB did the math and the rate was <> the same. The trip is just a lot shorter than most and we are getting a hotel on a less than one day trip. 2023 09 25 IA-MN 1 trash truck to Sioux Falls SD (delivered) 1 RV to Hermanton MN (BB) ... spending the night at Vadnais Heights MN Breakfast was the basic eggs and sausage. Ready to leave at 7:30. Before I left I had emailed a dispatcher about the truck mentioned a few days ago in Omaha. It has been covered. 15 minutes from the hotel to the drop. I had looked at a map online but the Holiday gas station is now a Circle K, as are other Holiday's in SD. But I also remembered that there was the huge oil tanks on another corner of that intersection. As soon as I got to the drop they had me pull into the shop. Then someone opened the door and yanked on the truck horn. Tradition they said. Pretty much the whole crew there was looking it over. No issues. No work yet anywhere. We had talked about staying here a couple of hours and we had talked about getting to Blue Earth to hang out for a couple of hours. We split the difference. We drove a couple of miles here and walked in Falls Park. We've been there before and this one is FREE. Part of it is the building site of an old mill and it has some stories related to that. And there are falls. An hour after I dropped and still no work. We head in the direction of home. We had picked Blue Earth as our decision point because from there we turn to go south to Forest City, or north to Mankato or straight (for now) back to Dodge Center. About a half hour down the road and BB sees two RV's on the load board. One is to Duluth MN. She calls but her phone messes up so we call on mine and it is also hard to hear. But we got the trip. BB got the trip. Now she is good for another 30 days. Our next stop was going to be Worthington so we stopped there anyways. More water and a couple of other things. I picked up an impulse item for a snack. Getting low on fuel again so we look at upcoming prices. We did find it 10 cents a gallon cheaper one place but that would mean an extra stop as there was no food there. Instead we stop at the Kwik Trip in Blue Earth for fuel and food. They are giving away samples so I have to have one. Chicken casserole. Not bad, but not car food. I also got a rib sandwich and some bacon cheese bites. They were OK together but not something I'd likely get again. We get to Forest City. It looks like the whole crew is still working in the plant so they are more optimistic than I am. One driver left when we got there. And the plant brought over one more RV as we were leaving. Just need to be quick on the phone when something shows up. We are going to be gone next week, so I called our local shop to see if they could work on our car. Nope, they can't do that kind of work. I should have asked if they sold black tape to put over the icon on the dash ... While I was making that call, BB had pulled out of the lot as she had to get fuel. This RV was not full, it was on E. Before I can get to the station behind her ... she calls ... WHERE IS MY WALLET ? ! ? I got to the station and put in her needed fuel as she is trying to figure out where she could have left it. She decides she wants to drive frustrated instead of stand around frustrated. Because we stopped at the Kwik Star in Forest City, we don't stop again until the rest area near Northfield. We had planned that our second stop would be for fuel in Forest Lake and then the hotel in Hinckley because any closer to Duluth the prices were very high for a Monday night. Instead we decide to get the hotel here in Vadnais Heights, park the RV and then drive home to get her wallet that by now she is sure is laying on the bed at home. Traffic isn't bad for rush hour. We get to the hotel and check in and then we are off. We take the back roads all the way home as they are <> as fast as the freeway at the moment. Home ... NO wallet. She looks. When she isn't right back out of the house I knew she had not found it. I go in and look. We both look. We re-check the car. We are ready to leave the house and she goes back in again. I check everywhere again. We are ready to leave a second time and I decide to call the first station we were both in on Sunday. Yes, someone did turn in a ladies wallet about noon. But they won't tell me any more over the phone. That side trip would be about three hours. It is already 6 PM. We will deal with that later. As long as we are home, BB finds an old driver's license so at least they can look her up if she gets stopped. Earlier in the day I had called local dispatch looking for work. They had none, so I told them I would call back if I was still looking. When BB got the RV, I let them know I was NA. Then later I told them I would be in Duluth if they needed something moved from there. Later I get a message that they have someONE that may need a ride from Duluth ... so instead of me getting that truck, I get to give the driver who did get the truck a ride ?!? On the way back to the hotel we stop at Dino's. They were out of cooked gyro meat. It would be ready soon so there was a line for those waiting and another line for those that wanted other meat. The whole crew seemed a little flustered at having run out of their main item. Load board US - 92 IA -0- MN - 2 WI - 2 We've got less than three hours to Hermantown tomorrow. Leave at 8 AM, be to the drop by 11, done at 12 noon. Depending on what time the driver may get there ... say 2 PM we leave Duluth, be back to Lake Elmo by 5 PM. Down to Dodge Center by 7 PM ... likely staying in Rochester tomorrow night. Or not giving someone a ride. 2023 09 26 IA-MN 1 RV to Hermanton MN (delivered) 1 trash truck to Muskego WI (Wednesday) ... spending the night at Vadnais Heights MN All is good :) We have the wallet back. Interesting breakfast for a 'nicer hotel.' No eggs, but they did have sausage and potatoes. No fruit. Only about six cups of yogurt, mostly diet. We pull out close to 7:30 AM with our first stop in Forest Lake for fuel. They are still $.50 less than most area's. I gave BB one of my credit cards so she could be on her own. Once I was done fueling, I called local dispatch. They did not know the status of the driver they wanted me to pick up ... and I told them I would be looking for work. That phone call was enough for BB to get ahead of me. We had not talked about our stops once we changed to spending the night in Vadnais Heights last night. I didn't drive through the first rest area, but I did drive through the next two. She would be easy to spot, bright orange. I should have pulled off at the Kwik Trip in Carlton, that was where she was. And that is where we have stopped before. I didn't see her until I was past the ramp so I pulled onto the exit ramp coming out of the scale area. Scale was closed. By this time I had talked to the driver we were going to pick up. He planned on being at his drop about 12:45. BB is following her GPS and it gets us to the fuel station next door to her drop. She puts in final fuel and drives across the street to the dealer. Main inspector is gone so someone else checks her in, they call the main inspector (?) a couple of times with questions. No issues, we are good to go. We have almost two hours before the other driver will be dropping. Time to eat or walk, not enough time to do both. We end up deciding to eat at the Duluth Grill. My son had met us there a couple of years ago, he had recommended it. Still good. Bacon was full of flavor and melted in my mouth. My two sides? One cinnamon rolls. one caramel roll. I asked to have one of them to go, that was going to be too much food. Tuesday and this place was packed with a line waiting. We sat at the bar but but the time we got our food the bar was full also. When we were done we still did have some time so we drove to Rose Park. It is free and close. Short walk, barely out of our car and the driver is calling saying he is about 20 minutes out. We are only a few minutes away so we do a short walk as long as we are here. I took a few pictures ... and managed to throw my camera when I turned around and broke my screen even more than it was. Now some parts are dust. I never did get a case because the store didn't have them in stock and I am not (usually) that rough on phones. We get to the drivers drop and park. We don't see him so we just wait for him to call. He beat us there, he was just getting his paperwork signed. Yes, this was the truck dispatch had talked to me about. They ended up having a truck going to Omaha that delivered about 2 miles from where this one was. I did not recognize this guy or his name until I saw him in person. He's been there/here about 10 years so I have seen him a few times. He always knew who I was, maybe now I will remember. And he maybe lives about 10 miles from my house. We talked about a few things but he was mostly quiet, looking at his phone or something. One stop, back in Forest Lake at the rest area, on the way to the office. Should have stopped at the next exit and topped off with cheap gas. Stopped at the office and dropped off paperwork for the last trip and picked up paperwork for this trip. No promise of me getting anything but more trash trucks. I said I would wait to commit until this one is dropped. Next stop is Kasson, not via Dodge Center this time. Last night I was told the wallet was in a 'safe place.' I'm thinking 'safe.' Nope, it is just laying behind the counter so the whole staff had access to it, just not the customers. But, it was all there. Cash, gift cards, plus all the traceable stuff. 2nd time BB has left her wallet somewhere and we were able to pick it up within a couple of days and nothing has been missing. :) All is good in BB's world tonight. It is after 5 PM, it is raining and it has been a long day. We head to the Sleep Inn in Rochester and then call for soup next door at the 5 West. ... we also eat the 2nd roll. Still very fresh and very good. Load board US - 87 IA -0- MN - 2 WI - 3 We should be able to deliver by 3 PM tomorrow in Muskego. If nothing good coming back is on the load board, we will head back to MN to do one more of something for the local company. .. the trip continues HERE
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