 |
|
|
|
|
...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
|
.. the trip continues from HERE 2024 01 30 IA-OR 2 RV's to Medford OR ... spending the night at Eugene OR Breakfast. The person at check-in last night was bragging it up. Not 'great' but lots of choices. Scrambled eggs or omelettes. Bacon, ham or sausage patties or links. Also this is the first place ever ... including grocery stores that I have seen mango yogurt. It was good. When I went to check out, I looked closer at the bill because yesterday the hotel charged me a safe fee and I didn't see it to have it taken off. Today ... no taxes? I asked, and they said they were taken off ??? I didn't ask again. Not sure what that was about. We pull out on time but in the fog. Actually we pull out just before first light and with heavy fog, first light is running a little late. Fog is thick and thicker. Once it does get to be daylight we could see <> 1/8-1/4 mile until we got past Spokane. Then it mostly cleared. But that happened a few more times today. 1st stop is the Loves in Ritzville. We've eaten at a place there that used to be a Perkins. Now it has been the Ritz for years, still listed that way on the blue freeway info sign. But the sign on the building is now Mi Jalisco, a Mexican restaurant. Lots of memories coming down US-395. This was the main road when I was out working harvest in my teen years. But also a not so good memory from more recent. Still remember where I was when I got the call saying <> 'Come home.' (And that trip end ended up being the one the tax person looked at when we got audited the next year) A billboard early on said there was a Loves in Pasco now. But when we got there I could not see it. Fog again. When we crossed the Columbia River, twice, we could not see the water below because of the fog. So I missed seeing my old apartment, the park, etc. When we got on the freeway, trucks were going less than 55 mph with their flashers on. Visability was down to a few car lengths. Not the worst I have seen it, but had enough to wonder at what point do we get off the freeway. But then you are more likely to get hit. Here at least everyone is moving, slowly. Scales in WA only want to see you if you are over 16,000# and OR only wants to see you if you are over 20,000#. So no scales today. The signs for the scale are still up in Tokio WA but the scale house is gone. There were crews there today. Too early to see if they are removing it or re-building it. West bound. The east bound one still stands. This is on I-90 between Spokane and Ritzville. At the intersection of I-82 and I-84, we are within a few miles of a cousin of mine but no time to stop this direction. 2nd stop is Boardman at the Loves for fuel and food. We were wondering how it would go. Oregon was one of the last states where they have to pump your fuel. Not here, not today. So no issue there. But the pumps were slow. So slow that the guy ahead of me ran a bunch of fuel on the ground because there was not enough back pressure to stop the nozzle when it got full. Luckily he was standing right there. He had been sitting in his truck most of the fill. When we are done fueling we eat at Carl's Jr. Chicken strips. Still in and out of the fog. One place we could see the wind turbines on top of the fog, but no ground below them. The Gorge is not as beautiful when you can not see it. Didn't see Mt Hood today either. 3rd stop was a rest area near Moiser. Still snow on the ground and on the ice. My cousin had told me how much they got recently. A few years worth, but I don't remember the amount. No major issues with traffic in Portland, we are going through mid-day. Saw a few homeless including one that looked to be. I was looking at all the graffiti on the sound walls, the city doesn't even seem to be trying to keep it clean. And one place where the sound wall was short because of a hill ... there looked to be a pile of belongings, and a young lady ... and a young kid :( 4th stop was in Wilsonville at the rest area. From there we finally remember to call our drop. Had to leave a message. Missed seeing the big Multnomah Falls. We had talked about that being our break but the restrooms are quite a ways from the parking lot. Today when we drove past I was watching the semi that was in the parking lot ... sign says no trucks. So I missed the falls. But because of no leaves on the trees, I did see a few other falls in the next mile or two west of the big ones. Something else to see if we would get off the freeway. 5th and final stop was the Comfort Inn in Eugene. We had enough day light we could have pushed on another hour but the forecast has changed so we shouldn't need to be beating the storm. The roads have changed. We can no longer take a left turn into our hotel so we had to go down the road ... we ended up turning around in an apartment parking lot. Food is right across the street. BB had wanted to go to Sizzlers and get their salad bar but didn't want to walk our drive. Not drive because how far we would have to drive to get a few blocks because of no left turns. Not walk because we have seen enough homeless right near the hotels. Not that we would be in an danger, we just like to keep our distance. Load board US - 114 IA 4/3 MN - 1 WI - 4 We have four hours to our drop. We will likely stash one RV and then the rental car a few blocks from the drop to avoid a taxi. The weather forecast has changed from snow to rain. The one truck in norther CA is now gone. The one in OR would require a permit. Now there are a few short trips from CA-CA but they are day cabs and are just over my 100 mile limit for day cabs. Plus they don't pay great. Better than the midwest short trips but still not enough that I am likely to do one. I have not called the bus dispatcher yet. I usually give him a few days notice ... and maybe I still am :) If I don't work until next week? Both BB and I had been look at places we 'should stop' if we weren't working today ... 2024 01 31 IA-OR 2 RV's to Medford OR (delivered) ... spending the night at Redding CA This seems to be a mostly yogurt trip. Today I got yogurt and two cups of fruit. But by the time I was done with the yogurt I was full. So the fruit was to go. We had gone to bed early last night so we were <> up by about 4 AM local. First light wasn't until 7 AM. We had our rigs inspected and were rolling out the driveway by 7. I wait until after we do our daily inspections before I go back in and check out. Today as I was heading back in, I met a guy (coming out?) that had two heaping plates of food. Not that unusual, some people take a lot. Some people take it to go. He was walking in the direction of the cars. When I came back out, I met him again. This time heading in the direction of the street. (There is no back way out) Then as BB and I left a few minutes later, I see him again, this time coming out of a nearby gas station. Still carrying the two heaping plates of food. I would think if he was a local homeless that he would know his way around. The homeless we saw last night when we went out to eat were gone this AM. Fog, rain. 1st stop was the Loves in Roseburg. This place wanted to hold my company fuel card and my license (normal) AND a credit card ... first time for that. But worth it. The discount we got was almost 1/3 of the posted price. We easily could have saved more money but putting in less fuel. BUT we don't know how much fuel these things are going to take going over the passes before the drop. We could have put in 2-3 gallons less each ... at $3. Coming up one of the passes, I am following a transporter who is towing one. A decked unit. As he gets close to a UPS truck, the UPS truck decides he wants to be in the left lane to pass a truck he is closing in on. Decked unit was moving faster than both so he managed to get between the slowest truck and the UPS truck, barely. Then a minute or so later a pickup comes flying past and may have thought he would do the same thing but now there was not enough room left ... so he passed them both on the shoulder. I didn't think too much about it at the time. It happens. Then a mile or so down the road there was a semi driving on the shoulder because of how slowly he was going. Now if the timing had been different ... and this truck had been on the shoulder when the pickup decided to pass on the shoulder ... I'd likely still been sitting in the backup 12 hours later while someone picked up the pieces. 2nd stop is the Pilot near the drop. We finally decide here the logistics of today. We drop BB's RV a half mile from the customer at a shopping center. Then I bring BB back to the airport where she picks up the rental car. Then we both head back to the shopping center and load our luggage into the rental car before we travel together to the customer. 3rd stop - the drop. Once we check in, I walk back to the shopping center. Might have been the longest stretch all day where it did not rain. Saw two food trucks, on the walk. Plus another one a couple of blocks the other direction. The customer said it would be 45 minutes. Turns out that was 45 minutes each and they were pretty much done then. BB ate my Fruit Loops that I had gotten as a breakfast somewhere. Saving it for times like these. It is 1:30 by the time we get out of there. 4th stop is for food. Closest food BB wants is Chic-fil-A. It is now 1 PM and their double line drive thru is still full. So we go inside. Almost empty. Just a few people ahead of us in line. As soon as we are back in the car, I call the bus dispatcher. Call back tomorrow when I am closer. (We were not planning on making it to that shipper tonight) No snow, no snow flakes. But lots and lots of rain. On the 2 plus hour drive I rarely had the cruise on and rarely drove the posted. Old man driving. Mt Shasta would have been pretty this time of year. But today we could not even see the base of it. Fog, clouds and snow. Just not snow where the road was. 5th stop is near Yreka at a rest area. We wanted to get south of where it was likely to snow. 6th and final stop was Redding. We have all day tomorrow to get less than 200 miles. Comfort Inn. Not sure what this hotel was before, but it is very Colonial looking. Not the Comfort Inn look, and not the look of anything else in the area. Still early so we didn't go eat right away. When we did, we walked in the rain to the Hilltop Diner next door. Luckily it was a light rain so we didn't have to drive, but we did get wet. Good food. BB had the salad bar again. I looked. But it was not ice berg lettuce and the soup was split pea. So instead I got meat loaf ... and a pie malt. BB and I each had about half of the malt. And I could only eat half my meat loaf. And BB only did one trip to the salad bar so we could have saved $1 by only paying for the single trip option. Load board US - 145 IA - 8 MN - 2 WI - 4 No timetable for tomorrow yet. It is supposed to rain most of tomorrow across most of the coast. We'll likely hang around until we have to leave. Then eat somewhere and get down near the shipper by 3 PM. 2024 02 01 CA 2 RV's to Medford OR (delivered) ... spending the night at Woodland CA We had no plans for today and the forecast was for rain. So we are still awake at 4 AM :( We had their breakfast and my leftovers of meatloaf. Pretty good, BB helped me eat them so I didn't get stuffed. This place did not have any kind of juice with breakfast. Other than that it was OK. Not sure what hotel chain built this hotel but it has a colonial look. The chain doesn't have that look and neither does anything else in the area. Before check out time, it had quit raining and we headed out. We had both found a place called Turtle Bay Exploration Park and Sundial Bridge. It was free and also had a botanical garden. What we didn't know was the Sundial Bridge was a glass bottom bridge. We did make it across twice. But likely never again. The first time across the bridge, my jacket sleeve got soaked because I was 'leaning' on the railing the whole way across (instead of holding on.) On the way back it was BB that no longer liked it and she walked on the one panel that was not glass while holding on to my arm. We did walk about a mile and a half. The park is about 200 acres. We did not look at any of the 'explore' area's.' But we likely will come back. The bridge is 700 feet long, but I was not able to find out how high the bridge is. The river was running high and fast today. It looked like storms were coming in so we did not want to be too far from the car when they did. 2nd stop of the day was a cemetery in Orland. 3rd stop was the Pilot truckstop for juice and a restroom. BB also got a slice of pizza. 4th stop was just down the road from the Pilot at the Willows cemetery. Then it was time to head in the direction of the buses. We have looked at other work in case there are no buses. But ... There is a truck near us going 400 miles but that would be almost 400 miles back. BB is still watching the weather ... and decides we need to stop now. Luckily there was a rest area one mile down the road. The next exit would have been too late. Even where we were we got hit with some sand sized hail. We did sit there until the storm blew over. Today it is just small 20 minute storms, not the all day drencher that we had yesterday. And rain it must have, the rows between the orchard trees are full of water. Don't see that often. While we sat here, I called the bus dispatcher. He said he would call back but I should have work today or tomorrow. 6th stop was the next exit. Gas at the Pilot in Dunningan. While I was filling, dispatch called back. No bus today but tomorrow I will either be going to OH or PA but I will be going. Weather. Another reason not to take work for tomorrow. Donners pass pretty much is requiring chains and by Sunday there were be an even bigger storm moving in. Winter is not over yet. BB looked at going down to Lathrup where the food trucks are but now there website only lists four where it used to list 20+. Maybe the trucks are still there but we didn't want to drive an extra two hours in heavy traffic and pay $20 more for a hotel and then the food not be there. 7th and final stop was in Woodland at a Comfort Inn. So instead we stopped the next exit that had a good hotel. Jack in the Box was the only food within walking distance so we drove across the freeway to Sourdough. Chicken salad sandwich and potato soup. Seeing we are going to be on the road again for another week plus, BB wants to do laundry in the AM before we leave. We only have about 100 miles to go tomorrow and we don't get the paperwork for our buses until 4-5 PM. FB ... I have removed myself from our carriers group, too much in-fighting. But todays topic was the OR permits. Lot's of bad info being passed around. And ... One of our drivers has not been heard from for a week. Left out of TX with a bread truck, checked in with a friend and told them where he was ... nothing more. He should have delivered in Portland OR Tuesday or Wednesday and now it is Thursday. No check in, no family calls, doesn't answer the phone and no fuel purchased. Load board US - 133 IA - 2 MN - 4 WI - 2 Tomorrow. Get down to Livermore about 3 PM. Inspect bus as soon as I get assigned. Then call for permits as soon as I have paperwork. I plan on going via I-40 no matter where I am going. To most cities in OH and PA there is about a 100 mile difference going I-40 or I-80. Likely deliver on Thursday and see if there is something we can pick up before the weekend heading home ? Or ? Today there is two trucks in PA coming back to WI. Not likely to still be there in a week. ... the trip continues HERE |
