On the Way Home ...
...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE



2024 02 05 CA-LA



1 bus to Lake Charles LA
... spending the night at Kerrville, TX

Waking up to an alarm is getting old ...
Today's breakfast was eggs, sausage and potato's because all yogurt was diet.

BB got a little shock this AM :) We were on the first floor of the hotel and this hotel has the pull up/down shades instead of to the side. As BB is pulling up the shades this AM, she sees someone right outside our window ... yeah, that what happens when it is dark outside ... the window acts like a mirror :)

Didn't quite get going at first light, it's getting harder to do :)

Nice pictures of the bus against the early light.

Today the volt meter is not working again and the STOP light is back on all day so no heat for BB. Early AM she spends more time up next to me as I have heat. But once the sun is up it stays pretty warm in the bus even though the air is cool out side. 35 degrees this AM when we pulled out.

We are almost to El Paso when the sun finally comes over the tops of the hills. So right at eye level at times in rush hour traffic.

I thought there was a long space where we could see the border wall. But today, just one short stretch where the freeway is against the wall. No buildings, parks, anything between.

Traffic is down to one lane both directions today because of road construction. We didn't have it too bad but it looked worse coming from the other direction.

1st stop is just over an hour down the road just outside El Paso at a rest area. There were not stops at the halfway point to fuel so we added another stop.

We have to go through one check point today. They ask if the bus was new? If it was empty? If both my wife and I were citizen's? ... then they said ... just wait a minute. I'm wondering what ... then I see a car coming in my lane getting to it's place to park. That was all.

2nd stop is another rest area, this time near Van Horn.

3rd stop is the Pilot in Fort Stockton for fuel and food. Not crowded so I have time to drive around and come in backwards instead of backing in. I'm still getting about 8-1/2 mpg. Plus I add DEF.

Lunch is Subway ... today they are out of ... mayo? Not sure where they went, but they were serving mayo again by the time we were done eating.

4th stop is another rest area stop, this one near Sonora. A lot of the rest area's here do not have pull through parking, only parallel parking. I wasn't expecting that and had to take the last open spot as we were leaving.

It seems the only driveway we were seeing today were single chassis and decked chassis. And lots of them.

No wildlife, no traffic jams, only a saw a couple of traffic stops. Did see one high, high line pole with a whole bunch of birds on it. The only one. Most times brides won't sit on the higher voltage posts.

5th and final stop is at the Best Western in Kerrville. It has truck parking and an on-site restaurant. First I pulled into car parking but it was tight with no cars so we did exit and go across the side street to truck parking.

When we get in the lobby, there is one other customer who says they have been waiting 10 minutes but no one is there. I start walking around the building to see if I can find someone, and I call the desk as sometimes people carry the desk phone with them.

Another 10 minutes goes past and BB goes to use the restroom. It is looked ... FINALLY ... the person says something. "Please call 911. I can't get up." (and the door is locked.)

We had been talking 20 feet or less from her for the last 20 minutes. Never once did she say anything.

I call 911. It works. :) (I've tried calling 911 many times in my dreams and I can never do it)

They ask a few basic questions. I tell them that English may not be their first language as they are hard to understand. The person has fallen, but doesn't seem to be hurt.

Paramedic's are there in a couple of minutes. They bring in the stretcher. Then they try to get the door open a number of ways but finally have to use a crow bar and bust the frame.

The lady is fine, she just couldn't get up. We were wondering how long it would take to get someone else there to check us in, but we just had to wait for the paramedic's to ask a few more questions ... like her birthday. That hit BB hard, the lady was her age.

So ... most of an hour after we get to the hotel, we are finally in our room. Then we walk next door to the restaurant. More Italian. We haven't finished last nights yet.

Great food but almost no customers. Plenty of staff so maybe not a normal night?
... I had to get a to-go box for half of my food.

We got a call today, it looks like we might have a moving job coming up in May. One of BB's aunt's is coming back to MN from AZ.

Load board
US - 82
IA - 6/4
MN -0-
WI - 1

Tomorrow we have about two hours less drive time but we do need to get the bus washed before we shut down. So it will likely be about dark again.

Tomorrow we get to go through both San Antonio and Houston.



2024 02 06 CA-LA



1 bus to Lake Charles LA
... spending the night at Sulphur, LA

Another alarm morning. I do have leftovers but walk with BB to check out the hotel breakfast. And I grab a western omelette and juice.

Back at the room I move all my leftovers from the styrofoam container to a paper plate ... THEN I realize there is no microwave in the hotel room ... and there had not been one in the breakfast area. :( So I put it back into the container and take it for lunch.

Today it is a little warmer as we check out. 36 instead of 35 degrees. And the heater is not working so BB can see her breath unless she is standing next to me. But it will be a warm sunny day so later we have the windows open.

Last night there were a half dozen trucks in the hotel lot, this AM they are all gone. We are the sleepy heads.

Coming through San Antonio, I-10 and I-35 run together for a short while ... then Opps ... "BB ... why are the mileage signs saying 150 miles to Laredo?" I was expecting I-35 to exit but it was I-10 that exited ... somewhere. Ahhh, what is a trip without at least one detour?

1st stop is in Luling at the rest area. From here I call the drop but have to leave a message. And I call one of the TX dispatchers. They have two trucks to near LA. At this point I am checking on pay and location. Don't want to be dropping on some back street in LA.

The drop looks to be an Enterprise Truck location. And the pay is about the same as the bus. Which is good if we are heading home but not so good with me just driving solo. AND it will take an extra day or two because of the weekend ... and because I am running tight on driving hours.

Dispatch tells me these are 'hot,' and I tell her that by the time I can pick it up, it will be Monday delivery. There were three of them today, one was gone within seconds/minutes. The other two stayed out for a few hours but are now gone. And we did not get them.

BB had looked a few times what our ETA was and saw that there was a slowdown. But we decided not to take the back roads, just stay on the freeway. When we hit the brakes, we had less than 10 miles to go to our exit. Our ETA was about 30 minutes. But it took us well over an hour to get that 10 miles. Three lanes of traffic down to one.

And by now it is after 1 PM and warm. I decided my leftovers are now trash :( I had a sampler last night and never even got to try the 2nd two items.

2nd stop was the Loves/Arby's in Katy TX. This is where all the make your own detour people are getting back on the freeway.

From here it was another two plus hours to the wash.

3rd stop was first the Flying J for fuel and DEF. I finally stuck the tank. I may have been OK but I put in another five gallons of fuel and topped off the DEF tank. Then went across the street to the Blue Beacon. We guessed 15 minutes a truck and we were pretty close. A little over an hour in line.

Never had this before. I'm in the single line where it splits to two. The guy behind me tries to cut between me and the truck ahead of me. I wave him off and then he wants me to pull ahead. I do ... but he still can't get behind me.

He then gets out of his truck and goes to talk to the wash staff ??? I'm thinking he was looking for a 'wash out bay.' Some locations have them. A special line for trucks that want their inside washed out but not the outside. This one did not, so he just has to wait. He was just pulling in as I was pulling out so I did pick the correct line.

Now it is going to be dark by the time we get to the hotel. Sun is just setting and we have another half hour to go.

4th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Sulphur. I had not looked at a map closely. And BB didn't look close enough to see there was a Best Western right across the street, next to food.

First we walk into the casino which is supposed to have food, but way to smokie blue for BB. Then we walk to the truck stop but by now it is almost 7 PM and all their hot food is gone. They direct us back to the casino ... no thanks.

BB didn't want to walk across the street in the dark. It is a four lane with no walk signal. But she is hungry. We end up at the Cracker Barrel instead of the Waffle House. I had breakfast, three eggs and bacon. BB had fish.

While we were sitting there, the TX dispatcher puts out five trucks going to Las Vegas. Four days to do a two day trip? We'll talk about it. It's likely either that or dead head home.

Load board
US - 87
IA - 5/4
MN -0-
WI - 2

Last time we were here, BB and I did our usual meet up after she picked up the car at the airport. Tomorrow we are going to drop BB to get the car and she will come back past the hotel and pick up luggage while I drop. Subject to change.

IF, IF we decide to grab one of the Las Vegas trucks, it is about five hours back to Dallas. So we would only have a couple of hours left tomorrow to drive before dark. And that would use a lot of my driving hours. We will see. Maybe we will end up in Orlando instead.



2024 02 07 CA-LA



1 bus to Lake Charles LA (delivered)
... spending the night at Waxahachie TX

No alarm so we slept in ... too long. Ended up getting to the drop with just minutes to spare. I said I would be there 'before 10 AM.'

Late last night, the TX dispatcher was still putting trips on the load board. One was going to CA near where I pick up buses. But ... it was gone from the load board by the time we got up. It seems like some dispatchers will take phone calls 'out side of business hours' from some people but not from others. That would have been a great trip, enough hours long to run all weekend and deliver on Monday without taking time off. Oh well.

There were also 5 NV trucks that we were not sure about, they were gone almost right away too.

Breakfast ... yogurt.

When I called for a late check out, we got one but they didn't ask for a room number. I asked if they knew which room ... they did. ??? psychic was there answer. My guess is it displays on their screen when it is from an in-house phone.

Last time I delivered here, we moved stuff from the bus to the car near the airport. This time we stop back at the hotel. I guess mostly because the hotel was right on our way back. Not sure it was any easier or faster this time.

Last night I did look at the route going into the airport to make sure there was no signage that won't allow me in. There wasn't. And no low clearance either.

I dropped BB and was off. Only a couple of turns before my drop so I didn't get lost (today ... I'll go back and add yesterdays getting lost)

I get to the drop and find someone to sign. They had not gotten the message I left saying I would be there by 10 AM and also had not heard from the shipper that I was on my way. They didn't even come out and look at the bus. Well, they did. After they signed, they came out and looked at it from across the street.

BB got there just as I was walking back to the bus with my signed paperwork. At one point BB had wanted to go back to the hotel after she got the car and pick up the luggage. That might have meant me waiting for an extra <> hour for her.

Next stop is back at the hotel to get luggage and check out.

We are looking for something different to eat other than the usual fast food. And we wanted to stop before we got to Houston so we ended up in ...

4th stop is in Winnie at Lercy's. Not a buffet. All food is behind glass and they dish it up for you. One meat, two sides, bread and desert. We each got a small and it was too much. Place seemed small but it never got full and there was a line most of the time. I had meatloaf and BB had a half chicken.

I wasn't sure about this area as when we came through yesterday I had noticed that the Denny's was gone out of one of the truck stops on the corner, some other restaurant in a truckstop on another corner was also gone. But the area was fine.

BB had looked at other places too, and we drove past two of them. Almost right next door to each other. One was a 'fish farm,' and had <> 40 cars in the parking lot. Next to it was an all you could eat chicken place ... with 4 cars.

The shorter route would have been on back roads but we decided to stay on the freeway today. And even though we do not have work, we are heading back home via Dallas in case there is any work posted. It will add about 200 miles if we end up going home but will be all freeway.

We stay on I-10 right into the heart of Houston to catch I-45, we don't even take a beltway.

5th stop is a Loves in Willis for restroom and something to drink.

TX dispatch has put a few new trips out, but nothing that works for us. Finally we decide we will take the shortest trip they have so we get to know the truck and routine.

6th stop is the rest area near Richland. I try to call the TX dispatch but they are not answering. Finally left a message but have not gotten a call back so we do not know if we got the shortest trip.

Not sure what was going on with my phone. When I was at the drop earlier today, I tried calling my contact ... the phone would hang up as soon as I dialed. BB had been commenting about how bad the cell service was here so I figured that was the issue. Now when I am calling the TX dispatcher, it does the same thing. Finally had to shut the phone off and re-start to get it to make calls.

Because we don't know if we have work and because it is getting late, we shut down east of Dallas instead of closer to the shipper.

7th and final stop is Waxahachie. First we go to Schlotzsky's. There is one in town. But they are out of potato soup and forget to give me crackers for my tomato soup. Still good food.

Then to the Comfort Inn a few blocks away.

It was in the 70's here today so both of our deserts from lunch will be thrown away. :( Still have the carrot cake from a few days ago. I've eaten some of it and it still looks like 1/4 of a cake.

Load board
US - 95
IA - 4/3
MN -0-
WI - 7

The TX dispatcher put out 30+ trips this afternoon. About 1/3 of the total load board. She is going to be busy in the AM when people start calling. Most are tractor/chassis that I won't drive.

We are hoping to get the short trip, that would keep us busy until we see if they will still be putting out more trips.

For some of our work, we only get trips from a shipper for 1-2 customers. So once those customers are done ordering, then we may not get anything else from that shipper for months or even years.

Nice to have temps in the 70's in Feb :)



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Questions? Comments? email me at onthewayhome@yahoo.com