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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 2024 02 20 IA-CA 2 RV's to Davis CA (Wednesday) ... spending the night at Clear Lake IA (40 miles from where we were this AM) Up and rolling at our usual time. Breakfast for me was yogurt. But they had a good spread, everything but real eggs. ... last nights food tasted better the first time. Something about Italian food does not agree with me the last meal of the day. And no tomatoes last night so that isn't it. This place had a fresh batch of cookies this AM, and we had them last night also. We get to our car about 8:30. Do a quick switch of luggage and we are rolling again. Frost on both cars this AM but a little washer fluid and it was off. BB and I got discussing if we had enough fuel in the rental car to get to the drop. Finally we decided to fuel in Forest City. We should have looked at the price. I paid $.50 per gallon more in Forest city than in Mason City. We could have put in one gallon in Forest City and topped it off in Mason City instead of the other way around. 9:30 AM and no where to go for the day. We could have gone and walked. I would like to see what they did to the mall in Mason City. It used to have a Penny's and Herberger's plus the smaller stores. Now it has an indoor golf area, a skating arena ... Instead we went to Fleet Farm and used the restroom and then looked at stuff to kill time. BB still needs to buy shoes after leaving hers in NC. I was looking for a 'torx' screwdriver. We have a nine inch one but I would like a smaller one for carrying on the road with us. Also a wrench for the buses, not sure what it is called yet. Didn't find either. Then we sat in the parking lot for an hour hitting refresh. The WI trip we had looked at was gone almost at 8 AM. The CA trip we had looked at was gone closer to noon. They did put a few trips out but nothing we wanted. Lunch time. We headed to Shooterz in Forest City. Great food again today, but not free. The gal across from us got her food for free. The owner buses the tables and helps bring out the food. He got talking to the two across from us and found out the older lady was turning 101 next month. :) No wonder she was moving slower than I. While we sat there, dispatch did put out two RV's to North Las Vegas but that would take us through CO. We waited. We have seen a few RV's going to Fremont, but never two at the same time. We talked about taking one and waiting for the next one but that is a risk, no second one and we are not making money on this trip. When we are done eating, we head to the RV lot. Never done this before. We parked in the lot and watched what was coming and going. And watched the load board. FINALLY there are two RV's to Davis CA. I don't even have my phone nearby, and then I call the wrong number the first time. When I do get through, one is gone. We watch the load board for the next half hour, other trips drop off but not either of the Davis ... finally I call back. Both are still there. ??? I didn't ask. But we got them. IF we left today with them, they wanted them delivered on Friday. We don't want to push it that much, we'd be driving in the dark to do it. (I'll have to ask again. At one time we were told that the pickup day did not count as a 500 mile day. Now it seems to, for this dispatcher anyway) So we said we would pick them up tomorrow. We could have driven the five hours round trip home to save $100 be we are spending the night at the Best Western in Clear Lake. BB and I have the same style units. RV style. But they are two different chassis. One gas, other diesel. By leaving tomorrow we have time to wait out weather, if there is any. Otherwise we get to Rocklin CA on Saturday and use Sunday as a re-start. So a few extra hotels on this trip. But we will make money. At one time today there were three trash trucks on the load board, all under 300 miles, so all something I would do, if we were not wanting to head out of town. Neither of us was very hungry but we ordered food from Bennigan's. BB had a turkey sandwich and I had ruben fritters and potato soup. I only ate about half. That might have still been too much. Load board US - 107 IA - 23/21 MN - 3 WI - 6 We don't need to be rolling early, but likely by 8 AM. That would get us to Grand Island, then Rawlins on Thursday and Elko on Friday, Rocklin on Saturday. 2024 02 21 IA-CA 2 RV's to Davis CA ... spending the night at Grand Island NE Not good when I am up in the middle of the night because of what I ate the night before. Not sure if it was the what I ate or how much I ate. But in the AM, I tossed the leftovers and just had a small yogurt for breakfast. We had gotten to bed at a good time so the alarm was set to 6 AM, ready to roll at <> 7:30. Then a half hour to the shipper. We get our paperwork and our RV's. In and out of the lot within the hour. The only person we talked to was the boss. He was out in the yard. He said the shipper will likely be dumping on Friday and Saturday again this year. Plus there are ones that can not be delivered until after 3/1 (so that may be when they put those on the load board.) I have a range of less than 100 miles so I stop and put in three gallons at Casey's on Forest City so that I can get to Ellsworth Loves for cheaper fuel. BB has a half a tank so she drops the paperwork off at the office and meets me at the station. 2nd stop of the day was the Loves in Ellsworth. We are not on our usual time line today so we have to pick a place to stop for lunch halfway to Omaha. 3rd stop is the Subway in Stuart. They kept pretty busy while we were there. But the Burger King across the street is vacant as is the Country Kitchen across the freeway. 4th stop is the rest are near Gretna. Usually we are stopping for fuel in Omaha but today we are getting good mileage. While we are here, a tow driver pulling an RV parked beside us. He was heading to Redding ... 70+ degrees here in Nebraska today. 5th stop is the Loves in Aurora. We usually do not get our advances on our pay if we have a gas unit because we use our own credit card. But BB was thinking ahead and got hers anyways. That way she can pay for my fuel every other trip and save that $1 a day. I'm guessing that it adds up over the course of the year. I'm up to 19 mpg, doing better than BB with her gas unit. BB is done ... If I had been thinking quicker, we could have eaten here and then likely she would have been good for another hour driving. Instead we are going to shut down in the next town. 6th stop is at an Arbey's 20 miles down the road (there was an Arbey's at our last stop also) This one is now near the Bosselmen's truckstop. It used to be next to our hotel, but they moved about a year ago. We've stopped at Bosselmen's before because they have shelf food, plus Subway, Little Caesars, CinniBons. They used to have a couple of more fast food places but those names have been removed from their signs and their building. They also have a sit down place called Max's ... They used to have them in other truck stops before they sold out to Flying J, then they were all Grandma Max's. Now the ones that are still open have different names on them. Tonight while eating, I read up on the Bosselmen's. They own a lot of repair shops at Pilot/Flying J, Loves and other places. Plus 47 gas stations, a few hotels, the Max's restaurants ... and an indoor football team. :) 7th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Grand Island (or Wood River) Cheaper than anything we would have stayed at another hour down the road. And because of the spacing of towns in WY, we likely were only going to make it to Rawlins anyway without a very long day tomorrow. If we had gone further tonight, we would have gotten to Kearney. Sand crane capital of the world. So I looked up the sand crane. Old articles say the average yearly count in Kearney was ... in 2022, they counted over a half a million and in 2023 the count was over a million. Not sure if there are that many more birds or if they have better ways of counting them or they have expanded the area they count them in. But that is a lot of birds. Last week was the first counting week of the season. Usually the count is between 5,000 and 10,000. Last week they counted 38,000. So I'm guessing we will see some birds tomorrow. Load board US - 126 IA - 21 MN - 1 WI - 3 Tomorrow will be another day with a lot of stops. So far the weather looks good all the way. 2024 02 22 IA-CA 2 RV's to Davis CA ... spending the night at Rawlins WY Up early enough. Breakfast here is good. Fresh scrambled eggs, plus lots more. When we went to leave, we could here geese ... we looked up ... we looked west ... east ... north. As far as we could see in every direction there were geese flying in formation. Sometimes at different elevations so they were over lapping each other. I thought I took a video. But as often happens, I didn't. It started filming when I put it in my pocket. Not sure I would have gotten anything anyways. they were high in the sky, and on each horizon were miles away. ... and by the time we were done doing our inspection. They were all gone. Looking online it says there are '100's of 1,000's' this time of year. We also saw the random smaller 'V's' later in the day. But no sand cranes. Not even one. Did see a few swans and four bald eagles. Should have kept going last night, yesterday we had a tailwind, today we have a head wind. Down from 19 mpg to 14 mpg. 1st stop is a rest area in Brady. Before we get to our second stop, I see a semi making a U-turn in the median. I can't see who it is from where I am, but I can see the tracks ... and they go into the rest area. And only one truck was moving in the rest area. A carrier I know. :( 2nd stop was the Loves in Sidney for fuel and then food from the Taco Johns. 3rd stop was the Port of Entry for our permits. Before we got there, we could see the new snow on the ground. That was another reason BB did not want to go further last night. She could see where the snow was forecast to be and when. We did hit a few flakes here but mostly rain. From here to Laramie and then to Rawlins is where we saw more snow. Just out of Cheyenne a few miles and up a few feet and the ground has a thick snow cover. And the snow drifts are most of the way to the top of their 20 foot high snow fences. 4th stop is in Laramie for fuel at Loves. I only put in 11 gallon but I didn't have enough to get to our next (main) fuel stop without adding some. It's only 2 PM local but Rawlins will be our 500 miles so we will be shutting down there. I don't like to waste daylight but at 500 mile days we will still be taking all of Sunday off, waiting for the drop to open Monday AM. So we do not need to push. 5th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Rawlins. After we check in, we drive one RV to Penny's Dine for food. We are the only ones in there. It is not 4 PM here yet but we ate early and it is close to 5 for us. Load board US - 180 IA - 44 MN - 0 WI - 3 Tomorrow is more of a challenge. We have to get our NV permit for late enough in the day that we can get out by that same time the next day. NV is the only state I know of that has a one day, timed permit. I would think they would want people to stay and gamble. Plan is to get to Elko. The next town is another 100 miles so not likely. And 150 to the one with the made to order breakfast. And I need to call for a permit tomorrow, call the drop and the bus dispatcher. ... the trip continues HERE |
