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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2024 02 17 IA-WI 2 RV's to Suamica WI (Sunday) ... spending the night at home FINALLY ... we have work. We didn't know if the office was open so hadn't looked at it for a while. Two no-tows to WI. That pays good. And I could hear voices in the back ground when I called in. They are busy today. They may/may not put more trips on the load board today. We'll keep watching. They did put a few more on before noon, just enough that people would know that dispatch was working. Dispatch closes at noon on Saturday and by 5 PM there were only 25 RV's on the load board. No good pairs going long yet. Two more pairs to WI, not sure yet if we will grab them Monday AM or wait until end of day on Monday to grab something. I was expecting about 100, and with some locations getting multi units over the last week I am surprised some of the major locations haven't gotten any yet. I did call central dispatch and found that a 55 mile trip in WI will pay about $100. So maybe. Maybe, if we do not head back to IA. The way it sits now is tomorrow we will get close to the drop and then pick up our rental car Monday AM. 9 AM is when they open in Green Bay, the rental car place. And then from there it is six hours driving back, plus stops. So if it takes the drop over an hour per unit to inspect, we will be getting back to the Forest City area at dark or after. If that is the case, then we need to be at the rental car place at 8 AM when they open on Tuesday. Or ... there are trips in WI and IL that would work if we want to stay local. But we would like to get one long trip in Feb. Load board US - 86 IA - 26/25 MN - 1 WI - 7 Plan is to head out at 7:30, be to the shipper by 10 AM, out of the shipper by 11 AM. Then it is six hours plus stops to Green Bay, so be to the hotel by dark. The hotel we are looking at has food on site. 2024 02 18 IA-WI 2 RV's to Suamica WI ... spending the night at Green Bay WI Alarm ... Without breakfast we were able to get going at 7:15, so a few minute jump on the day. We need fuel and we want to leave the car close to full now thqt winter is back, so we stop at the Loves in Albert Lea. We get to the RV's at 10 AM. Easy to find our paperwork and our RV's, there are still not that many of them in the lot. As we are doing our inspection, one of the shuttled drivers stops and asks about my placards, they are hand made by me. We talk a bit and he says that there are <> 80 more RV's in the adjacent lot. (I hadn't counted them yet ...) And then he hands me his card, he was drumming up business. Pretty slow for them guys lately. When we got to the office it looked like someone had slept on the couch, and there was still an article of clothing on the floor ... and a laptop on the table but no one around. Then I found a shuttle receipt on the ground. I couldn't remember the code to get back in the building so I just laid it where it would not blow away. Before we left, everything was picked up so we assume it was the only other driver there this AM. We didn't talk to him. There were about 40 RV's to be flat bedded out, those are the ones that used to keep us busy. And there may have been another 40 RV's to be driven out. So it's a start. ... on the way down, BB was looking at past years and saw that they seem to dump about the last weekend of the month ... so we were about 10 days early sitting home for a week hoping they would dump. We should have done local for the week. BB has a half a tank of fuel, I have 1/3. We had hoped to get to St Charles for fuel but not likely. When we leave, we are not past the city limits and I loose one bar of fuel. 20 miles down the road I loose another bar. Albert Lea is about another 20 miles. I don't chance it, we stop at Northwood at the Kum and Go. We add enough fuel to get to Omro based on 20 mpg. We had been getting 20+ mpg at 55 mph and a stiff tail wind. Then when we headed north and upped that to 65 mph it dropped to 10+ mpg. 2nd stop was the Loves / Hardee's in St Charles for food. Eagles, we saw a few ... on the ice, in the trees, on their nests, in the air. Maybe a couple of dozen that could all be seen from one spot. I was surprised they were that close together when the water has been mostly open this year. We had also seen two in Burnsville, but I forgot to look at the next by Forest City. 3rd stop was the Loves in Oakdale for a break. We have gained enough range that we should be able to make it to Omro before fueling. A few miles north of Oakdale I see dozens of turkeys in a field, next to a travel trailer. Not sure how many were decoy's if any but I did see some of them walking. People do not like people who drive the speed limit. People passing us at 20+ mph over, even in town. Noticed one lake where there was a lot of open water, and a lot of newly frozen ice ... that there was a guy out in his portable fish house. ??? I didn't see a boat near the fish house. Amish were out today. Out in their yards, they all seemed to just gotten home from somewhere. 4th stop is Omro, my low fuel light has come up but I still have a range of 60+ showing on the dash. We still figure 20 mpg and put in enough fuel to get to our final fuel. When we are ready to go, BB calls and says her van stinks. Not like gas, so we think maybe the battery. She'll keep the windows open just in case. Before we get to the freeway, I loose BB, and I see someone in the distant rear on the shoulder with their four way flashers on. I'm in a round about so I go around ... and then she is there. (She had missed getting through a stop light) So I just go all the way around and we are rolling again. Somewhere we had miss guessed on the time. We like to be off the road by sunset and tonight we are pushing last light. As it is getting darker I notice someone in the on coming traffic that still doesn't have their lights on. I'm in the center lane so I don't flash my lights at them. Less than 10 minutes later, I finally realize that I do not have my lights on yet. Well after sunset. Opps. (BB had flashed her highs at me but I missed it, and she didn't want me to think something was wrong and pull over) We get to the hotel and park. When BB goes around to the passenger side to get her stuff out, the FOB won't open the doors. (I notice that the blinkers barely came on when she did that) So I suggested she try to start her RV again. COMPLETELY DEAD. Not sure how we made it to the hotel. She had to unlock her doors from the inside, then we moved everything to my RV, just in case. She did call the breakdown number and they said to jump it if possible. Not sure that is a good idea. We'll see what happens in the AM. Plan had been to maybe call on another WI trip at 8 AM. Or do one of the trucks back to MN/ND. Now that is all off the table until we are delivered. IF we get her RV started, we will get that one delivered before we come back and get mine. Plan had been to get both RV's to the drop exit before delivering one and going back a few blocks for the other. Food was from the Kwik Trip next door. They were clearing the shelves so our choices were limited. 2024 02 19 IA-WI 2 RV's to Suamica WI (delivered) ... spending the night at Albert Lea MN Both DELIVERED Because of our revised plan, we did not get going at 7:30. Our new plan is to take BB's RV, if it starts, to the drop first and come back and get mine later. Before we had planned on taking both up to a gas station so we'd only have to go back a mile to get the 2nd one once the first one was delivered. We eat breakfast, eggs and a cheese stick for me. 8 AM we go down to do inspections. Dead, 100%. So BB calls dispatch, they said to call a tow/roadside service. There is a Goodyear location across the street but they no longer do lite duty, only heavy duty trucks. But they gave us a name. And then that person gave us a 3rd name. At that point BB decided to just call the road side number on our paperwork. Within the hour someone was there. For a jump, all tow trucks were busy. First he tries to start it with a battery pack. That didn't work. Trying with the battery pack AND the house (RV) battery didn't work. So he also hooked it up to his vehicle. He tried many times and it would not start. But finally it did. So he un-hooks his vehicle and when he comes back for the battery pack ... the unit has died. So he has to start all over. Once he got it started the second time he left both jumps on it for a while. Not sure what he did, but he was able to rev the engine, I can't when it is in park. In park it is idle speed only, the foot feet is <> disconnected. By now it has been an hour and a half. And BB's fuel range has dropped to 31 miles, and it is 20+ to the drop. So first stop is the Kwik Trip next door for two gallons of fuel. Today was a cold ride, we did not turn on anything that used power. We wanted to get this thing dropped. So no heat, no fan, no turn signals, no lights, no radio. From there it was only about a mile to the airport. I drop BB off as she always puts the car in her name. So I drove her until as far as the gas station. Opps, to get on the freeway, I am going north so I think I will be taking a left. Not this time, lucky someone let me over as I had to cut over three lanes of traffic to barely catch my exit. Barely as in hitting the gravel because I was past where the concrete ended. I had been on the wrong side of a semi and hadn't seen some of the signs and then for a second forgot I wanted I-41 instead of I-43 and both numbers were on the same sign. ... the gas station. Another 'what was I thinking.' As I am driving I got it in my head that the gas station was at exit 173. And there was a station there, looked <> like the one on Google Maps. But not the same brand, but brands change often so I stopped and put in fuel. THEN it clicked that I should look at a map. Wrong station. We will find out how wrong on payday. We are supposed to fuel within the same zip code. If the zip codes don't match, the center of the zip code where we drop needs to be within 10 miles of the center of the zip code where we fueled. I fueled six miles from the drop ... BUT ... based on the center of zip code rule, I fueled 50 miles from the drop and may not get paid. (even though we left about a half a tank of fuel in for them) We'll see. Once I realize where I am, and where we said we would meet, I head off to the correct location. Within a few minutes BB is there and takes the RV to the drop. At the drop, we find the correct person, tell them we have another RV to bring. They want to check both at the same time so they shut off BB's RV and we head out. An hour later we are there with my RV and we get them both inspected. Quickly. A quick walk around and then a quick walk through. He does BB's first. We are both by our car but we can see him clicking the FOB to open the passenger door but nothing. So he just goes around to the drivers side and crawls into look around. I walk over and can the there are not dash lights. It is dead again, but he doesn't try to start it while we are there. Then he checks mine, signs off and we are good to go. And we do, we get out of sight ASAP before calling dispatch. It is almost noon. Next stop is Schlotzsky's. Today they talked us into getting the bigger size for an extra buck. Too much food. And too messy for driving, but good. Miss having them in MN. Back tracking on the roads that got us here. Saw the Cole Watch Tower, something that I had to look up to know what it was. I thought it was built by some eccentric person. Actually there were a number of them built on fox farms in the 1920's-1940's in WI and this is one of the few (?) that remain. Seven stories high, built on top of a farm house. So the owner could view his fox pens. Also where we saw all the turkey's yesterday, today there were none. So either they were all live or someone took down all the decoy's. Next stop was the Road Ranger in Oakdale. Today was the first time I remember seeing trucks at an old truck wash at the exit. It used to be a truckstop, the fuel island's still stand but the pumps are gone. There is also a sign for a cafe inside. Today we saw five trucks at the wash. This area is also cranberry bog area. They are adding new bogs. Some day I will have to look up to see why this is a hot spot for bogs. Eagles. I wasn't sure we would see any so I / we did not have a camera ready. We did not see any flying or on the ice ... but we did see a couple of dozen plus in trees in one area, not sure if we could have gotten them all in one picture. Should have had the video rolling. (I'll make a note on my calendar. Maybe another year we will drive down here when we are not working, just to see them.) Work. There had been 20+ trips on the load board this AM, Most were gone within the hour. When we delivered, there were still two for the same drop on the board we we didn't grab them. Then they were gone too. Dispatch did put more trips out but not two to anywhere. There is still one to WI, so we would use a chase car. Then maybe head down to Janesville getting a truck back to MN. The better paying trip to Fargo is gone. There had been trucks in Bismarck. It is a long way to deadhead to a truck and my guess was they were not going to pay much. Wrong, just saw on FB what he was paid to move them. It would have been worth it. But we were waiting for RV's. There was one truck close to our drop today, pay was OK and it would have only take a couple of hours to move. BUT that couple of hours would have meant that we needed the rental car another day, so the work would have netted us -0-. Tonight we are at the Country Inn in Albert Lea, never been here before but today it is the cheapest of the good hotels. EconoLodge and Quality are cheaper but we have stayed there and sometimes the beds are saggy in the center. And on Monday nights their restaurant is closed. From the Country Inn, we walk across the parking lot to the Green Mill. Don't think I noticed until tonight that Green Mill is <> a MN chain. Plus one in Hudson WI and Fargo ND, border towns. BB and I split a meal. Load board US - 81 IA - 15/11 MN - 2 WI - 5 Tomorrow. We need to get this rental car returned by 9:30. We had hoped to be out of the drop early enough to get the car returned yet tonight and then we could have stayed in the hotel until we found work. Now we will have to find somewhere to park once we drop the car until we find work, or another hotel. There is a trash truck going to Fargo we could do. Or the single RV to WI. We have talked about both. ... the trip continues HERE |
