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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 2024 02 29 CA-CO 1 bus to Grand Junction CO ... spending the night at Grand Junction CO We have a bus so we need to take two trips to get our luggage back to the bus. If we remember, we do the first trip when we go down for breakfast. Breakfast ... they had a stack of wrapped burritos in the warmer for breakfast. That and two cups of packaged juice was it for me today. I still had soup from last night and BB had lots of potatoes left. I'll use the excuse of parking so far from the room as to why we didn't get going on time. That plus warming up our leftovers plus getting breakfast. But I think the main issue was that we started talking about what trips we might do after we drop the bus tomorrow. When I come back to the bus after checking out, BB is talking to someone ... someone who's car is backing out because the driver is ready to leave ... now. We pull out at 7:30 AM local. On time, but this is way after first light and is 9:30 home time. Beautiful ... the sights today are beautiful. The first is coming through the Virgin River gorge. What? I am getting pulled in at the UT scale / port of entry. So I gather my things and go in. The officer asks for my 'registration.' I tell him I am a transporter and don't have a registration and hand him by Bill of Lading (which is what we run on, per the DOT) He looks at it and says that he still needs my registration. Then his co-worker who overhears us, tell him ... (the same thing I did) ... he's a transporter, he doesn't have a registration. Then one of the says they had not seen my IFTA (tax) sticker when I went past, but see it now. I'm good to go. They did not ask about my permit, proof of IFTA or anything else. Next stop is for CNG fuel in Cedar City. This one is at a truckstop so there are restrooms. When I pull in, I do not see any of the smaller nozzles I like to use so I hook up to one of the big ones. I get about halfway full and the pump shuts off. And then a few seconds later, I hear the compressor kicking in. That should have happened before the pump shut off. So I restart the pump and get a complete fill. And in under 10 minutes. When we go through Beaver, we can see that the CNG station we used to fuel at is being torn down. These things are very pricy, I'm surprised they take then down as soon as they do. I did see one at a Flying J, but could tell if that one was still working or not. Beautiful ... This may have been before Cedar City. The red rocks in the foreground and the snow covered mountains in the background as the sun is still coming up. Lunch is at Ross's today. Sort of like a Pizza Hut/Pizza Ranch buffet. Pizza, salad bar and pasta. Good food. They dish up the pasta and gave me 4x what I would have taken, so I did not eat it all. Plus I had a couple of pieces of pizza and a small salad. Before we left, I asked one of the staff (turned out to be the owner) how long they had been in business. They are right across the street from the Flying J ... so I've been in this area a few times. Turns out this place had been a Steakhouse/Event center. When they had that, they required a staff of 40 people. Once covid hit, they could not find 40 people to fill there staff. So they shut down a few months until they came up with this idea. ] From here I called the drop. I said I would be there between 9-11. But the person who will check me in is not on-site so they need a specific time. 9:30? No, we can't get the rental car until 9 AM and then I still need to wash the bus. As in me go to a self service building and wash the bus. So I said 10:30. I'd rather wait for him than him wait for me. Getting done later means we can't do some of the trips out of here, but those are gone by the end of the day anyway. Again, beautiful ... Devil's Canyon, Eagle Canyon, Ghost Rock. There was supposed to be a 'rest area' at a specific mile marker. There was not, but a few miles later there was an overlook with a pit toilet. Spotted Wolf. This is why we don't stop often on our travels. I had to climb to the highest point and video a 360. ... and tomorrow we will be going through Glenwood Canyon. Final stop is the hotel. I wasn't watching the signage. There were two lanes coming off the freeway and two lanes come from under the freeway so I was expecting a two lane roundabout. Nope. So I ended up heading away from the hotel. Finally did a u-turn in the Days Inn parking lot. It worked. BB decided to get a room at the Clarion instead of the Comfort Inn because they still had king beds available. And they were cheaper. (They also have an airport shuttle but she prefers being chauffeur) Food. The inhouse restaurant left a few months ago and the Village Inn closed down before that. So we walked across the street to Wendy's and both got chili. There is lots of food on the other side of the freeway, but we would have had to cross two busy round-a-bouts. Work. Late in the day, RV dispatch put more trips out. Including some FL. Those are the longest ones and work for us. But talking later, we do not make much money on those because we have to deadhead a day out of FL. Kind of wanted to get down there this week, last year we went to their strawberry festival and was hoping to get back this year. But we haven't been doing great on picking trips this year and now will be deadheading back 1,000+ miles this weekend. Everything that was a maybe out here is gone. Load board US - 262 IA - 88 MN - 4 WI - 4 Tomorrow. Drop BB at the airport at 9 AM, wash bus, drop bus, head out of town in a rental car. We hope to get far enough tomorrow to be able to get home on Saturday night. But we have driven into the night the prior two nights so maybe not. We have the car for three days ... so we do not have to have it back Saturday night. Oh, before I drop BB, we will be on the phone at 7 AM local securing work for Sunday. 2024 03 01 CA-CO 1 bus to Grand Junction CO (delivered) ... spending the night at Sterling CO When we finally got to bed last night, I found out that my side was like a hammock. Not a good nights sleep. At some point I was able to get close enough to the middle to be on flat bed without bothering BB. Breakfast. Good eggs, good hashbrowns ... and some leftover bacon from 'recently.' Last night we had hauled everything out of the bus into the hotel. This AM, only by backpack was going with me, and BB. We are up in time to call the RV dispatchers when they open at 8 AM. I dial at 7:59 and it goes to voicemail, they are not open yet. I dial again ... 20+ times before someone answers. As does BB. By the time they answer, the OH trips we wanted were gone and we didn't have a 2nd choice. Dispatch does say that that was the last of the push, from now on most days will be five or so RV's released. So now we have no plan. I do call on a truck in KS, but that is 800 miles away. Going back for another bus is 900 miles away. Going to get RV's is 1,000+ miles away. When we went to leave the parking lot I had to take a left. Or I could have taken a right and gone down to the round-a-bout. When I tried to go with the bus, it would hesitate and my chance was gone. Finally gunned it and made a left. Somebody likely had to slow down a few seconds sooner for the next light. We've been to this airport before so no issues or surprises. (Until BB got inside) No flights coming or going so the place was dead. All agents for all companies were on their cell phones texting (?) The one who waited on BB made her wait until he was done with whatever it was he was doing. No hurry to help the person who was disturbing them. I know the route to the wash (but why?) but to be sure, I do write it down. I still turn one time too early, I forgot the street should have ended at a T. Later BB and I are talking and we both sort of remembered the route but I had never been to the wash before. BUT we finally remembered I did pick up a tool truck in this town, that is likely when we were on these streets. I get to the wash and pull right in. It takes a credit card so timing is not an issue. The bus in long enough that I can't go all the way around it and I have to flop the hose over the lights on the front of the bus to get to the other side. By the time I am done, there is a line. And when BB comes past later, there is a line. That is why I didn't want to give the drop a time I couldn't make. A few people in line ahead of me and I'm an hour late. Instead, I am the one waiting an hour. My guy shows up right on time and takes only a few minutes to look the bus over for obvious damage. We still have no plan. We head to the closest truckstop to use the restroom before heading ... somewhere. We decided to head to the RV's. We look at lots of pairs. The logistics, the chances of a 2nd leg, the dead head miles, the traffic. At noon, we leave the truckstop. By 1 PM we call on a trip to UT. By 2 PM there is a truck out of Grand Junction, where we just were ... heading back to CA. A nice 800 mile trip right back to CA. Instead we are spending $500+ deadheading and not getting paid. Bad timing. But nothing we can do about it. The 1 PM stop was at a rest area in Rifie. The Glenwood Canyon is always a treat. I got BB to take a few pictures. They don't do justice but it is something. A few people out on the river in the canyon and a few people out fishing beyond the canyon. BB wanted to stop at a rest area near one of the summits. It was closed, snow to the roof. But the sky / snowmobile area's were open. We pull in because we could not see the buildings. While we were there, BB threw some snow on our windshield as the washer was not working. As we are leaving there was a sheriff there, I thought maybe he would ask for our parking ticket but he didn't. So now we need to find a restroom. We stop in Frisco at a gas station. I pour in washer fluid, a cup full and it is full. My guess was it must have been frozen and the de-icer I put in must have been enough to melt it. Worked fine after that. But ... they were cleaning the women's restroom so we finally went to a 2nd station just for the restroom. While waiting for BB is when I saw the trip back to CA :( Traffic is not terrible but there is some stop and go between Frisco and Denver. Next stop is the Loves in Hudson, north of Denver. Unplanned but gas was cheap. Range of 600+ miles so we are good for a while. We may/may not get the rental car back in two days. We had the car for almost three hours before we left Grand Junction so that didn't help. If the days were a little longer, that would help too. Last night we were off the road before dark, but the two nights before that were well after dark. Not something we want to make a habit of. We had hoped to get to Fort Morgan at least, but we've made good enough time we make it to Sterling. From here the next hotel is a hour and half, that would be well after dark. For food we went for something different tonight. Sonic. They had a BBQ sandwich we both tried. 1st, it took about 20 minutes at the drive thru window ... no one ahead of us, to get our food. And they had my credit card for most of that time. Beginning to wonder if someone had quit and slipped out the door with it. BBQ was OK, more kick than I like. Wrong taste for BB. Malt was good though. Final stop was the Comfort Inn. There are supposed to be both girls and boys sports teams here. Or they are coming in later, we have not heard them yet. Hopefully not after we are trying to sleep. Long day tomorrow. Load board US - 197 IA - 60/59 MN - 1 WI - 9 We plan on being rolling by first light, likely without hotel breakfast. If we can get our car picked up before dark, then we will be close enough to the airport to get the rental back within 48 hours. After that we head back to IA and try to get to Lincoln for our first hotel. Push, push, push. We plan on being back the last half of March to work for my local company and catch up on other things. 2024 03 02 CA-CO 1 bus to Grand Junction CO (delivered) ... spending the night at Albert Lea MN Up at 5 AM (local,) car loaded by 6 AM. Then we go back in and grab food. Good food today. Apples/oranges. We took hard boiled eggs instead of scrambles as they are easier to eat in the car. Canadian bacon, fruit cups. To-go food. I thanked the front desk for keeping us away from the sports teams. There were two teams staying at this hotel and we didn't hear a thing. Slept great (not sure why my BP was up) We are pulling out at first light. 75 mph for over half the day. Lots of feed lots. I'm guessing most of them have been there a while but I don't remember all of them. I know I watched one of them from first feed pile to a working dairy in less than a year. 1st stop was a rest area near Sutherland. 2nd stop is for food and fuel at the Pilot and Subway in Wood River. As I fuel, I hear someone backing out. Then I notice their DEF cap is still off. So when the driver got out, I yelled (so he could here me) He was getting out of someone's way so he was hurrying. He had to go in backwards and someone blocked him from going forwards ... it was not that busy here that someone would have to do that. The guy was a transporter. We did see a half dozen of our RV's today. Easy to spot in the winter, they are the only ones with the hoods wrapped. Today we also saw a fire truck, trash trucks, cement pumpers, buses. etc. We were fueled and had our food and rolling again in 10 minutes. Today we did see one field with a few 100 sand cranes. It was foggy most of the day with as little as 1/4 mile visibility so we didn't see much in the air. 3rd stop was the Sutherland rest area. 4th stop was the Adair rest area. Coming up north of Des Moines there was a back up for miles. People were re-loading snowmobiles on the median side of traffic, but the police had the right lane blocked. So my guess, just a guess, is that someone cranked their wheel, lost their load in the median before ending up on the right ditch. A backup like that would have changed how for we got tonight. 5th stop was the Culvers in Clear Lake for treats. :) Then we fueled at Casey's next door as the fuel here is $.50 a gallon cheaper than in MN. We'll see what we do about fueling the rental car. When we picked it up, BB drove less than five miles before she lost her first bar on the fuel gauge. After we fuel it, we have gone 100+ miles before loosing any bars. 6th stop is the RV shipper. Lot is still full, fuller than usual. Still 50 on the load board plus another 50+ that drivers, like us, have not picked up yet. Four drivers were doing their inspections today while we were there. Today was a quick in and out for us. We will just move our things once we get to the hotel. One of the smaller, big farmers was out in his field today with two tractors working the fields. The bigger farmer in the area has four, 4 wheel drive tractors and it seems like they are on a calendar work schedule. Drivers show up for their <> 10 days and get all the work done and then the tractors sit the rest of the year. That farmer hasn't started yet. Last year some of the other farmers had their crops in before that crew started. I was thinking of taking a picture of the local eagles today as I drove past. But they were feeding on a carcass before their nest so I was not ready. Tonight we are at the Comfort Inn in Albert Lea. We had thought we might get to Owatonna but by then it would be after last light. Albert Lea is good. It leaves us an hour and a half in the AM to get to the airport to return our car by 8 AM. We walk next door to the former Iron Skillet for to go food. They closed their buffet when they dropped the Iron Skillet. Now they dish up the food from a few dozen choices. I line when we got there and still a line when we left. Load board US - 202 IA - 57/56 MN - 1 WI - 10 Tomorrow we will leave again at 6 AM to return the car. Then head back to Forest City to pick up our RV's. IF all goes well, we will be in Lincoln by nightfall and in Draper by Tuesday evening. But even if we only back it the half hour to Clear Lake, we can still deliver on Tuesday. The wind is supposed to be brisk tomorrow, but not enough that we should need to shut down. ... the trip continues HERE |
