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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2024 01 02 MN Load board - Weekend Jan 1 US - 126 IA - 1/0 MN - 0 WI - 9 Load board - Monday Jan 2 US - 116 IA - 5/4 MN -0- WI - 7 Plan WAS to head out this AM to IA to get our plates etc ... but, yesterday our water heater decided it was done. Sometime in the last few years it was our heater that quit while we were home for a few days. So instead of paying double time, we rigged the water heater so the link was controlled. This AM we call and get it set up to get in replaced today. But due to timing, the repair / replacement was not done until after 5 PM when the offices close. Now we are ready to head out in the AM ... destination un-known. 2024 01 03 IA Going no where Spending the night in Mason City IA It's a new year and we can't really go anywhere until we have our new plate, IFTA, etc so we headed down to IA this AM after calling them to make sure they had enough that we could get ours without heading out on a trip. We could. Once stop for fuel on the way down. Speedway because we could not make it to Albert Lea and had already passed Northfield where fuel was the cheapest. The lot is just about empty. Two units of the kind we want where they had 100's last year. Poor planning on someone's part. Someone wanted paperwork anchored to the back of the plate ... that was not the issue, my other company has been doing it that way for 20 years. Problem is they put it in a bag ... a big bag ... that we have to punch holes in to anchor our plate to our units ... so the paperwork bag will fill with water/rain. No reason they couldn't have used a bag 1/4 that size. When we are done we go to Shooter's. Good food, been a while since we have been there. I couldn't eat all of mine so we took it to go and split the leftovers for our evening meal. We want work so we are staying close. So we drive to Osage to a cemetery. It is cold, about 32 degrees with a wind. We see an office and park next to it but it is closed. So we decide to walk the cemetery to see if by chance we find what we are looking for. Three of the ones we are looking for, I can not find on line so that leaves only two. We walk for a while and give up and head to find restrooms. As we are driving out we see a kiosk. :) So we come back later. The names are in order and there is a map. They are both about 100 feet from the kiosk and our car. ... later at the hotel I am looking at the picture and I had taken one of the 'family stone' also. It is for 'Willson.' On the three I couldn't find, I had been looking for 'Wilson.' Now we know where to find them next time we are in town. It's getting late(r) so we head in the direction of the hotel but stop at one more cemetery. This cemetery is about 1/10 of the size of the earlier one. We decide to do a quick walk. Then I see a map on the side of a small building. This one has all the names ... on the map, where the grave is. ?? The writing is so small that I take a video of it, row by row, so I can look at it later. When BB comes to find out what I am doing see sees the marker we are looking for. About 10 feet from where I am standing. We should have seen the family stone when we drove passed but did not. We have been watching the load board all day, every 10 minutes or so. No pairs that work. Nothing short that works. So we head to the hotel. 1st time at the Country Inn in Mason City. Usually we are at the Quality Inn but today the rates are about the same. Load board US - 158 IA - 7/6 MN - 2 WI - 8 There are trips in MN and WI that would work, not great, but would work. But then we would be driving and not watching the load board. So we will likely sit at the hotel most of the AM if we don't see work. And then find more cemeteries in the PM once we need to be out. Today was the 3rd. The last two years the shipper has dumped on the 5th and 6th ... <> 100. So we are hopeful. 2024 01 04 IA Within a few minutes of dispatch opening at 8 AM, all of the trips on the load board were gone. Finally about 11 AM, they added two new trips. The one to CA lasted about 15 seconds and the one to WA lasted about 15 minutes. Close to noon, as we were leaving the hotel, they added one more which again was gone in less than 15 minutes. They may have added another early afternoon which was also gone right away. Most all of these trips had older dates on them so either the driver is a no show or there was an issue that the shipper had to fix. Finally closer to 3 PM they put out five including one pair. But, if we left now ... we'd get there Saturday. So it would take us 7 days to do a round trip and get paid for 1,000 miles. We passed. At the end of the day there was still two RV's on the load board. Better luck tomorrow. When we left the hotel, we headed to a cemetery. I told BB what town and she put it in the GPS. As we get near, I comment that this does not look right. Once we are there, I realize the GPS had taken us to the city cemetery and we were looking for the church cemetery. At the first cemetery, BB did not even get out of the car. The stone we were looking for was straight ahead at the end of the driveway. 2nd cemetery was about 20 miles away. Luckily for this cemetery, I have the section numbers ... and the section numbers are listed on a flag pole in the center of each section. AND everyone we were looking for here had a family stone. One of the old ones that is 6-8 foot high. The stones were spread out enough that we did get a walk in. Temps were still around freezing but not the stiff wind that we had yesterday. Late breakfast, late lunch. We looked at where we wanted to be next and the Wagon Wheel in Floyd was closest. So we had our lunch at about 2 PM. The next closest cemeteries were about an hour way. By the time we got done eating and got there it would be 4 PM with a sunset of 4:30 and no hotels nearby. So we decided to go back to Osage where I missed a couple of markers yesterday. We had planned on getting closer to more cemeteries for tomorrow until we had to choose right or left. Instead we headed back to Clear Lake where the food was better and we wouldn't be an extra 2 hours away if/when there is work. Best Western in Clear Lake for the night. We are still stuffed but about 7 PM we get food from the attached Bennigan's. Neither of us even ate half of our food tonight. Load board US - 88 IA - 3/2 MN - 2 WI - 6 We are still hopeful for a pair of RV's, but we may end up taking just one if it is to somewhere warm. |
