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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2023 10 28 MN-MN ?1 PU to Shakopee MN (Monday) 1 box truck to Orange City IA (Monday) ... spending the night at home As soon as it was 8 AM, I texted the pickup location to see if we could pick up on our truck on Monday. The paperwork had said there was no one on site. After a few texts I was told that the keys were in the truck and there would be people on site. And then a couple of hour later I finally got a call from the dispatcher saying I was good to do the pickup on Monday. (they also thought they had called me on Friday) Sometime after IA dispatch was closed, they added another 30 RV's to the load board. They haven't done that in a few months. And that makes the load board higher than it was past years at this time. Load board US - 184 IA - 39/35 MN - 2 WI - 1 Plan is to get somewhere near the shipper. There is a Country Inn less than two miles from the shipper. 2023 10 29 MN-MN ?1 PU to Shakopee MN (Monday) 1 box truck to Orange City IA (Monday) ... spending the night at Grand Rapids MN Spent last night at home. No alarm this AM. Today I ate the other half of last nights meal for breakfast then finished up some yard work (not raking) before todays snow fall. We pulled out at 11 AM. First stop was in Forest Lake at the Loves where we are still getting fuel for under $3. 2nd stop today was the Moose Lake State Park for close to a two mile walk. Then we stopped in town at the Lazy Moose to eat. Good food, I had a chicken salad sandwich and BB had an omelette. I had to take my soup to go. Too much breakfast this AM. They do have meatloaf that I will try another time. Next stop was to be a cemetery two miles out of town, but there it was at the edge of town. After we walked it for a while we were tired and cold and that is when we/I realized we were at the wrong cemetery. Two miles down the road we find the correct cemetery but by now we are too tire to walk this one. Then another two miles and we are in Barnum at another cemetery. This one is smaller and we are looking for an unique headstone. It is a few feet from the entrance so it doesn't take long. There is a second person I am looking for and this cemetery has the who's where list on the side of a building so that one wasn't too hard to find either. Now we are just going to get to our hotel before dark. It starts to snow before we get to Floodwood and by the time we are there the bridge is covered on the shoulder. Once in Grand Rapids, we drive past the shipper. Gate is open so we MAY have been able to pick up today and get a ways down the road. We never asked. Right now we are not sure if we will make delivery of the second truck tomorrow. And there is a third leg we could do. Brainerd RV. But it doesn't pay enough to cut our day that close. Instead we will just drive how on Wednesday and get ready to head out Wednesday evening. We get to the hotel and no one is at the desk. We wait. I go look on the back rooms. Someone is sitting in the small open area on their phone but I'm guessing it is one of the guest. Finally when I dial '0' on the house phone, that person comes up to help us ??? I eat my leftover soup from today and the last of a brownie from yesterday. Tomorrow we will grab a quick bite between the drop and the next pickup. The two are about seven miles apart. After I pick up tomorrow, I will call the next pickup location so they can have that truck ready. And once I have the 2nd one picked up I will call the drop to see how late we can drop. We have already looked at all the hotel prices in that part of IA and MN. And somewhere in there I may call the boss dispatcher for the RV's to see if we can set up trips early if we are going to the safety meeting. We haven't been to a group safety meeting since covid. We haven't done a lot of group things since covid. We did sit in the bleachers for a couple of short periods yesterday but no hour long sitting yet. 2023 10 30 MN-IA ?1 PU to Shakopee MN (delivered) 1 box truck to Orange City IA (delivered) ... spending the night at Worthington MN Our hotel last night was the Country Inn in Grand Rapids. There were a few minor issues, starting with the desk clerk not 'seeing' us until I picked up the house phone. The door into the room has put a hole in the wall because the door stop is broken and the trash was not emptied from the prior guest. Breakfast ... I was just going to have yogurt today but then I saw the western omelettes and sausage so I got some of that also. Plus a stick of cheese for later. Car was frosted over this AM but light enough that the washer fluid took it off. Only three other cars this AM so either a light night or an early crew. A mile down the road and we are at the shipper. We see my truck as we drive it. Lots more frost on it. I find the keys and fire it up. Full tank of fuel. All lights are working but it is closer to a half hour from when we left the hotel until we are ready to leave here. When I start down the drive, a semi is coming in. One lane. So I back up, much easier for me and he is an employee, I'm a guest. Almost as soon as I get on the highway I stop and look ... and my VIN. To make sure I have the correct unit. I do. By now the windshield and side windows are pretty much frost free. Somewhere closer to Mille Lacs Lake we see a couple of cars stopped on shoulder on our side of the road ... then we see their (?) boat and trailer in the ditch on the other side of the road ... hmmm. Also saw a few eagles today and yesterday. Today there was one feeding on a deer carcass along with a few crows. Don't remember seeing other birds that close to an eagle before. An hour or so down the road I stop at what used to be a gas station. It still was two months ago when we were passed here. Now it is just a vacant lot. But still a good stopping spot. I needed to call shipper for my next trip. They know what truck I am picking and it is ready. That is my only stop this trip, BB stops a couple of more times and gets a ways behind me. When I am less than 20 miles from the drop, the pickup starts to balks. It does this a total of seven times before the drop. Each time only lasts 10-15 seconds which is long enough for my speed to drop. And my fuel mileage to drop. I had gotten the mpg up to 20 before I stopped and called. Then I got it back up to 19 mpg before this. I still brought the pickup in with over a half a tank of fuel. Check in was easy, parts of the lot were full. BB is 15 minutes behind me so I wait indoors as it is still around 32 degrees. I'm not hungry so we head straight to my next truck. They know all about it so it doesn't take long. But it is an hour from the time I get to Shakopee to drop my first truck until I am ready to leave Burnsville with my second truck. I have another full tank of fuel. Time and money savings for me. Slow start. It would just barely turn it over, once, and then I'd have to try again. Finally I just held the key. It would turn, pause, turn, pause and finally fired. I don't plan on letting it shut off. Not sure if that is an issue or the truck has been sitting that long. I call the drop and have to leave a message. I don't know what time they close. It will likely be after 4:30 when we get there so I'd like to know. There is only one nice hotel in that town and it is $150 tonight. When I get to Mankato where there is a nice on and off I stop and call dispatch, I forgot to do that from the shipper. Then I stop again at the rest area near St James. Still getting voicemail at the drop so I call the main number. It takes a while but they find someone to come to the phone. 3:30 is when they close. 'But' I tell them, 'This is just your truck, not a load of freight.' Then then ask if it is the box truck and put me on hold. When they come back on the line I am told that a night person will sign for the truck whenever I get there :) :) Thank you ... By now BB is at the rest area, she doesn't like it when I get too far ahead. She had thought I would be delivered and standing outside for an hour before she got there. Now she will follow me the rest of the way to the drop. About 20 miles before the drop I notice plowed snow on the bridges. By the time we exit the freeway I notice that some of the yards are still covered in snow. Covered, not just a dusting. I get to the drop a couple of minutes after 4:30 and call my contact. He comes out and signs off. ... as I am sitting in the car in the lot I get a call. I rarely answer but this looks like a IA phone number. It is the guy I called at noon ... calling me back now. I tell him that ___ has just signed and walking back into the building. That's all he needs to know. No other work that works. We have time to get back to Worthington but no further before dark so that is where we head. We do stop in Shelby at the truckstop and look at food but then decide we'll have more choices in Worthington. So we put our food back and head out. We decide on the Blue Line at the truckstop on Worthington. I get their meatloaf and BB gets there chopped steak. She ate all hers I did not. A mile to the west and we are at the Comfort Inn. Happy hour has just ended. BB gets some veggies. I didn't get anything as I thought it was all cleared out already. We do notice that the place we used to eat at across the street is dark, the sign is dark and it is no longer listed online. We don't remember the name so we can't look it up that way. We had seen earlier that there were wind warnings. Now we see the snow is pretty much going sideways under the parking lot lights. Gusts up to 50 mph were forecast. We are off the road for the night. Load board US - 158 IA - 15/12 MN - 5 WI - 0 Unless there is something in our direct line heading home, we will be stopping at a park for a walk and then get home sometime. BB has an appointment at 9 AM on Wednesday and the we have a safety meeting on Thursday. Hope to leave but nothing good was put on the load board today. 2023 10 31 MN-IA ?1 PU to Shakopee MN (delivered) 1 box truck to Orange City IA (delivered) ... spending the night at home Stayed at the Comfort Inn in Worthington MN last night. Breakfast was (good) bacon and so-so eggs this AM. Juice was packaged, not from a machine. Must have been too cold last night for the smokers to go all the way outside. The stairwell and part of the way down the hall reeked this AM. No one around the front desk to comment too, didn't feel like ringing the bell. Snow here all blew out by this AM. No work by 9:30 so we headed out. 1st stop was the Kilen Woods State Park for a walk. Wind sockets along the freeway were standing straight out but the wind turbines were not turning. Could have, should have, looked at the wind website before we left this AM. It looked like both directions of the path went into the woods so we were hoping for the best. One hour and two miles later we were froze. Warmed up but got the chills again tonight so I hope I'm not getting sick from that walk. Plan was to stop at two nearby cemeteries but by now BB needs the restroom and frost covered outhouses were not to her liking today. So we only stopped at one. No cemetery sign, just 30 graves on a hill top without trees. At least it is mowed and the markers leaning upright. By then we needed not just a restroom but also gas and food. Mountain Lake for Casey's gas and next door for A&W. They had a apple pie shake so even though I was freezing, I had to have one. No root beer today for us. This looks like they have the barrel root beer not the machine stuff. Place was empty when we got there and a stead line of customers after we got there. Too cold to stop anywhere else. I could have, but I know when I am chilled I just want to get somewhere warm. And BB was still chilled. At that point I seemed to be doing OK. We did stop at the rest area near Le Sueur. Then at Walmart of candy for tonight as we are going to be home. Three years ago we had two come to our door, we used to have 100+. No good work. They did put a few on during the day but at this rate we are going to be chasing local. And now in much colder weather. They did have a few last week if we had grabbed instead of keeping our family and med plans. Load board US - 156 IA - 10/9 MN - 6 WI - 0 BB has an appointment tomorrow AM and then we plan on heading to a motel mid-afternoon for the night. Early safety meeting on Thursday.
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