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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 2023 12 16 CA-CO 1 bus to Loveland CO ... spending the night at Walsenburg CO Spent last night in the Comfort Inn in Gallup NM. Last night when the desk clerk wanted to know more details about my bus, I thought he was just being picky. But this AM there were two more buses in the lot. Full of kids. Well behaved kids, we never heard anything last night and this AM at breakfast all was good. I was surprised the hotel had the good stuff out for that many people. Cheese omelettes, bacon, fruit cups, etc. Last night, not a good one for me. BB had the only good pillow and I didn't think I had slept much until I remembered all the dreams. But never remember waking up or drifting off. We pull out close to 7:30, just as it is getting light. Not nearly as much red as yesterday. But the hills to our north looked interesting, the lighter colored layers of dirt were lighting up with the first light in the morning and the darker dirt was still dark. I've had issues with the CNG pump at the Flying J so we try the one at Loves first. I come in the wrong way and as I am turning around, someone pulls into my pump as I am blocking the rest of the lot. One of them notices and moves to another pump. There is only one CNG pump and 20+ other pumps for them. I hook up and the pump will not respond to my credit card on either side of the pump. So I go in and have them start the pump. I come out and start fueling ... then I notice that the pump is fueling, but the meter is not running. Finally after 500# pressure, the pump shuts off so I go in to say I/we have a problem. They are not interested in what I have to say ... I just need to pay for the one gallon (that was the amount from the prior persons fill) and re-start the pump. The second time the pump meter does work ... and puts in one gallon. I go in again to tell them I/we have an issue but they don't want to hear it. 'It pumped, do you want your receipt?' I wasn't getting anywhere with these two, I could have asked for a manager but did not. Instead we drove to the next exit to fuel at the Flying J. I used my personal card so it limited me to $100. That was more than enough to get to the next station. There was already a transporter at the Flying J so I asked if it was OK to start pumping. Sometimes the pumps loose pressure and shut off short. He wasn't worried about it. He was heading east and could stop at Moriarty if needed. Nice enough, but he didn't seem to want to talk so we did not. Beautiful today north of ABQ. They have gotten snow recently and some places on the hills we could likely see for 20-30 miles in all directions. BB tried to take pictures for me but they just are not the same. Here it is mostly pasture land I am guessing, with trees on the higher lands and then the snow covered mountains in the distance. 2nd stop is in Las Vegas at the Loves for lunch at Subway. Las Vegas NM. Busy on the car side, busy at both Subway and Chester's. We have to cross a weigh scale coming into CO, first 'scale' we have crossed. Earlier today there was a sign that said all trucks must exit so I did. No one was there so I drove out the other end. 3rd stop is at a place called Spark's ... not a good name for a CNG station IMO. The town was Trinidad. I was going to fill, but BB has no patience at times. And we are going to fill again in less than 100 miles. We would not have had to stop here today other than before I knew what range I would get, I had all the stops planned and have stuck to it. Here I watched the meter. 500# was about 12 gallons and 1,000# was about 25 gallons so I have gotten about 37 gallons of free fuel on this trip. Or the bus company has. Dispatch told me where my last stop should be and about how much fuel they wanted left in the bus. I will stop where they want, but I will likely leave about 2-3 times as much fuel as they wanted left. I did message one of the drivers heading to Disney in FL and those buses are at 55 mph also. Final stop was less than an hour down the road. BB had wanted to stop before the last fuel, but then read the reviews. So she then wanted to stay somewhere $$ in the same town. That would have shut us down before 3 PM. Getting to the next large town and next fuel we make it after dark. Then she found a little exit with two gas stations, three places to eat and one hotel. No houses or other businesses. The hotel is a Best Western and about the same price as the better hotel where we fueled. The hotel has a the main building which is 2-3 stories. And then on three sides it has the old style, park at the door rooms. Once we are checked in, we walk first to the truckstop which has an A&W. We decide what we want before we see the 'cash only' sign. BB has not brought money and I no longer have enough. I used to always leave home with $100+ in cash and maybe I did, three plus weeks ago. So BB decides she would rather have a salad from the truckstop. Then I order REAL rootbeer and an apple pie shake :) But I need something so we stop a third place, KFC, for two chicken legs. BB's salad was good, but her chicken was not so she had one piece of mine so I <> had a liquid lunch. Kind of thirsty after my garlic sandwich at noon. Load board (weekend) US - 94 IA -0- MN - 8 WI - 6 About four hours drive time to go in the AM, plus one fuel stop and one wash. We have waited in line for 3+ hours at the wash but this will be on a Sunday morning. Their website says that it is the slowest day hours of the week. Middle of the night would be slower. And then we are done? 2023 12 17 CA-CO 1 bus to Loveland CO ... spending the night at Johnstown CO Spent last night at the Best Western in Walsenburg CO. We are barely awake when we get a text message from the host of our family holiday meal. 'I have COVID.' That was a hot topic for a while, and we still do not know how it will play out. Last year, same place, someone did not know that had it and gave it to BB and I and others. That is the only time we have had it, not looking forward to getting it again. BB had seen online that this hotel had made to order omelettes. They do ... twice a week. Today they had made to order eggs, plus biscuits and gravy. We passed on the biscuits and gravy, cook sort of looked at us ??? We only had a couple of hundred miles to go today so we did not get going until 9:30 local. One hour down the road and we are at the final fuel stop. Interesting place. In the more downtown area. It also sells gas and diesel but their price sign is not light up. No one working today, but the pumps do work. One of their front windows was in 1,000 pieces but was still holding together. And there may/may not have been someone sleeping in a sleeping back along side of their building. Also the compressor area was open. That is usually locked in the best of area's. Area between the fuel islands was small enough I had to back up to get away from the pumps so I had room to swing to get out of there. I'd suggest we find another place to stop. Before we got on the freeway, one of the cross streets went under the freeway ... clearance was 12 foot. This bus is 11 - 11. If there was a dip or a bump it wouldn't have made it. ... and this fuel did not have a bathroom so we need to make an extra stop. There is a rest area 15 minutes down the road, but the grass in the cracks of the parking lot are knee high. It is not open and hasn't been for a while. 2nd stop ends up being a non-truckstop Loves. No Parking signs all around the place but we found one spot we fit in. That was in Fountain. 3rd stop was the bus wash in Commerce City. Line isn't nearly as long as last time. For some reason, the two trucks ahead of me pulled out of line 'at the point of no return.' The line starts somewhere in the truckstop and then once you get near the Blue Beacon, the only way to go is forward, through the building. Today it took an hour and a half and that was listed as 'slower than usual' online. When we pull out, we get to a stoplight where there is no turn on red. One truck ahead of me ... when he didn't move, I realized he was parked in the travel lane and he was getting food from a nearby food truck. Too far to walk to have actually parked IN the truckstop. 4th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Johnstown. It wasn't until I was off the freeway that I realized we have stayed here before. We check in and BB orders food online from a pizza place in the next building. Then we haul all of our stuff up to our room. We'll leave it here until we come back with the rental car tomorrow so we don't have to handle it twice. We are about 10 miles from the drop. We have a rental car set up for 9 AM tomorrow, so MAYBE we will be dropped and out of town by 10 AM. From here it is about a day and a half back to our house. I was looking on my computer for an old form and found some CNG notes from years ago. Running 2,000+ miles from MN to CA, I was never able to get a complete fill and all fills took an hour each, one took two hours. Now almost all are 5-10 minutes. 2023 12 18 CA-CO 1 bus to Loveland CO (delivered) ... spending the night at Kearney NE We were both awake before 5 AM local, without an alarm clock. (but we had gone to bed at 8 PM last night) Spent last night at the Comfort Inn in Johnstown CO. Breakfast was egg patties and sausage. And the left over cheese cake from last night. I tried to use the hotel printer to test print something. It didn't work. Which is why I didn't want to waste my ink at home to test it. I guess new printers and old operators don't mix. We finally headed out at 8:30 local. Small town but still a lot of homeless street people on this sub freezing AM. On FB news, I had seen where Denver was buying/leasing an upscale hotel to home the homeless. Can't find the article now, but did find where Denver has taken over both an Embassy Suites and a Double Tree to home the homeless. There plan is to ban all 'encampments' once they have enough shelter beds. That is another subject ... I drop BB at the rental agent and continue on to the drop. 11 miles total driving today. When I get to the drop I don't see a 'shop,' so I call the office. Someone walks out to my bus and then rides with me to the parking spot. That was the inspection. I walk inside and they sign off and I am gone. We go back to the hotel to pick up our stuff from our room. Just over an hour. Lots of daylight left. My drop was just a few blocks south of US-34, our hotel was on US-34 and we take that east until it merges into I-76 near Wiggens. First stop is in Brush for food. Wendy's. It's early but it two hours it will be late. Lots of mega cattle farms out here. Lots of times we can smell them before we can see them. A few looked to be a mile long by a mile deep. Mpg on this car was 35 mpg when we were traveling 65 mph. Then we got to I-76 where the speed limit was 75, I thought the mileage would go down. It went up to 37 mpg for a while. I think we had a slight tail wind. Once we got to NE and we were heading east, the mileage dropped below 35 mpg, for now. Next stop was the new rest area near Ogallala. While there I called dispatch. We were supposed to have a new way of doing things but they haven't sent the info yet. I contacted them on Friday and again today. Still waiting. The not hotel part of the old Best Western in Ogallala is now gone. Wrecking rigs were still there, building is gone. There used to be a gas station on the street, then behind it, back to back were two restaurants and then the hotel. The hotel still stands, so far. We end up deciding to stay at Kearney because of the food. We could have gone to Grand Island but there are fewer food options near the freeway. We usually stay at the Comfort Inn and eat at the burger place across the street. But today the Country Inn was cheaper today so BB looked at food next door. It used to be a Old Chicago Pizza until a few months ago. She saw a sandwich she wanted so we walked over to get it to go. We watched the load board but our options are getting narrower and narrower as we get closer to home. There was one new one from NE to IL but too far out of route. IA has put a few new RV's on the load board. Load board US - 124 IA - 4 MN - 4 WI - 10 We will likely try to get home tomorrow. Save on one nights hotel and one days rental. Then I may work for my local company but BB will not be my ride this week. 2023 12 19 CA-CO 1 bus to Loveland CO (delivered) ... spending the night at home Too much food last night, way too much. Up in the middle of the night because of it. Spent last night at the Country Inn in Kearney NE. We wanted to get home today, for no good reason (other than we were out of clean clothes) So we were up by 6 AM, ready to roll at 7 AM. Grabbed breakfast on the way out the door and ate in the car. Egg patty and sliced sausage for me. Pretty sky this AM, I'm the driver so no pictures. 1st stop is the Petro/Phillips in York for a couple of gallons of gas. Just enough to get to Omaha. Did notice this AM that again there were only one pickup at the Motel 6 again this AM. And that one had left by the time we were done at the station. So there may be more earlier??? Even the Super 8 across the freeway has more cars and they had been closed for almost two years doing a remodeling job. 2nd stop was the Loves in Omaha. Gas was $2.59. That is why we had only put in two gallons earlier. We started out with a 400+ mile range, then I saw it at 550+ for a while, but BB doesn't believe me. Doesn't make sense but I've seen stranger things. It was back down in the 400 mile range before too long. The Country Kitchen in Stuart IA is now closed. I hadn't seen any cars there the last two trips so I looked online and it has been removed from the corp website. But there still are 19 locations in the US, including one opening soon. So they have not disappeared off the map yet. Changes in hotels also. The Best Value in Omaha has been closed now for a couple of years and today I saw it was getting a new paint job but not a new name so it will likely be open again soon. Later today in Burnsville, I see that the Best Western is now a Wyndham Hotel. I'm guessing there were others. We saw a number of driveaway units today. RV's, cement trucks ... cement trucks all going to the same place (same name) and each about an hour behind the one before it. Sunday I had seen an RV that I had not seen before so I had the name memorized. Then last night I was going to look for it and ____ . Nothing. Finally tonight enough pieces of the name came together and I found it. Earth Roamer is the name. 3rd stop was for food at the Culvers in West Des Moines. We wanted something fast and close to the freeway. And I wanted a malt to cool my still sore throat. Now we have a tail wind again and the mileage goes up a little. 4th stop is the RV shipper in IA to pick up our car. We are in and out in minutes. I send my local dispatcher an email that I (not BB) is available for Thursday and Friday. I want tomorrow off in case my throat being sore makes me more susceptible to other things going around. 5th stop is the airport to drop the car. I usually stop at the cemetery but it is 'sun set' by the time we get there and they are closed. We only had the car for two days instead of three so that was a savings of $150 plus one less hotel so that was another $100 under budget. Still have not heard from the bus dispatcher and have not been paid. We know the basic pay but this time they added miles, and with CNG there is sometimes a stop off pay and transportation. Lots of options to work if we wanted too. Four in KS coming back our way, plus two going back to CA :) . Lots in Miles City MT coming our way if we wanted. Load board US - 168 IA - 4 MN - 3 WI - 5 Maybe a haircut and some paperwork for tomorrow ... |
