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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 2024 03 06 IA-UT 2 RV's to Drapper UT (delivered) ... spending the night at Wendover UT The good ... and the bad. The good - 1st the drop said that they would take my RV with a warning light on (rare) and then the light went off before delivery. The bad - After driving 300+ miles in the direction AWAY from home, we call and there will be no work. So we make a U-turn. One day car rental and one hotel down the drain. Alarm at 5 AM. By 6:30 I have started my RV and the warning light that came on last night is still on. At 7 AM I call RV dispatch. Same as last time, ask the drop if they will take it and if not, leave it at the closest dealer to the drop. I tried calling the closest dealer but no one picked up so I finally gave up when it was time to leave the hotel. Breakfast for me was yogurt again. Last night I just parked where we have parked in the past. That meant I got a sign in the back ground of my pictures. we could have parked where the snow covered hills were in the background. When we pull out, I have a fuel range of 98 miles with <> 60 miles to go. But it is mostly down hill and I still had a range of <> 75 when I fueled. Just as we were coming into SLC, there was a guy on the shoulder of the road carrying his fire extinguisher and looking at his wheels. I'm guessing his breaks got a little hot coming down the hill. Nice thing about these Mercedes is that the cruise and radar will pretty much hold them where they are set. Depending on the hill, we have the cruise set at 55 or 65 mph and that is where it stays. First stop is the Avis in Sandy, about 10 miles before the drop and only a few blocks off the freeway. This one is in a strip mall so lots of place to park. No staff in the office but one customer so BB calls the number listed. They are out back cleaning up cars, including ours. This place had a lot of signs on what they will charge for. The car is supposed to be returned in the condition it was rented in. One of the things listed that would be charged for is 'sand.' I know we have gotten a lot of sand in cars after we walk on the beach, good thing it wasn't here. Cleaning fee is $400-$450. This time we take BB's RV first. If mine hadn't had an issue, I usually would have gone ahead to the drop and BB would have just left her RV at the mall until we came back for it. Today mine had an issue so we took hers first. At final fuel, someone came up and asked BB if she wanted them to pump the gas for her ... BB thought it might be a homeless person wanting money so she said no. But it was the person watching the pumps. These are 'grocery store' pumps, away from the store with an small building that no one works in anymore. This guy was out wiping down all the pumps and posts. He was just keeping busy. At the drop. Our contact sees BB before she calls. At this customer, the check in area is behind a gate so they have to come and let us in. This is when I ask if they will take my RV with the warning light on. He said they would :) ... good news for me. He remembered us (I did not remember him) and we talked a little so maybe a little PR helped today. It took less than a half hour to inspect and sign so we did not go get mine until after BB's was inspected. Back at my RV and ... my warning light is OFF :) Don't think I have every had one go off after only a couple of hours. But it is off and stays off for delivery. No damage with either RV. We do our paperwork from their lot and then we are gone. As soon as we are on the road, BB is hungry ... there was lots of food at the exit where we got on the freeway, but ... By the time she says something we have either Tooele area or one Maverick. We picked Maverick as it would be less time off the freeway. Less time also because some one drove the wrong way down a one way street to get into their lot :( We each got two shelf sliders. Quick and easy to eat in the car. For a rental car we got a Ford Focus. I thought that would be good on mileage. It showed 25 mpg so I reset it. Now it is at 26 mpg, for a car that small I would have guessed 50 mph. But maybe not at 80 mph. By Wells we need fuel and a break and it is the cheapest around. Another two hours and it is Battle Mountain and 3 PM. We had guessed we could be to Reno by nightfall and then only have four hours to the shipper in the AM so picking up before noon. We call bus dispatch ... 'nothing today, and nothing for you tomorrow. Call back tomorrow and I should know about Friday.' :( :( We knew this could happen, but it is different when it does happen. I had high hopes. BB and I sat in the parking lot for about 10 minutes talking before deciding to cut our losses and head home. So I called the dispatcher back and said we were gone ... He understood, he knows it would be a 700+ mile deadhead for a maybe. (I didn't tell him that we had already driven 300 of the 700 miles.) There had been an RV in CA going back to IN, but that would have been close to 1,000 mile deadhead for a 2,000 mile trip. AND it was likely coming out of the auction house. And it was on the load board and gone before we knew we didn't have work. There is also a truck near the buses, but by the time we got there and picked it up, it would be tight getting it to the drop without a Saturday delivery. And then a third truck, but that was the model that we actually lost money on the fuel last time. And nothing out of either SLC at all or out of Grand Jct that works. Unusual. So we dead head back the way we came. Another issue is that I-80 may be or should be closed because of the weather when we get to eastern WY tomorrow. So we need to find a different route. Going to CA was supposed to get us far enough behind the storm to not be an issue. Plan had been for BB to take pictures of the rest area at Donners Pass. It is still closed and I've heard they got 12+ FEET of snow this last storm. By the time we get back to Wells we have used a tank of fuel so we stop again. We will get to Wendover by dark so that is our stop. The Quality Inn is cheapest by $20. Food is from the food truck in the parking lot. Load board US - 205 IA - 18/5 MN - 3 WI - 8 Plan is for 10 hour days the next two days. And to be looking for work as we go. If we find 'great work,' we could go anywhere still. Otherwise we will be home Sunday AM. IF we get home without finding work, we plan on staying in the midwest / 500 mile area for the next three weeks. It's been three weeks since we have been home. And it seems like most of our trips have been less than great so far this year, but we are still ahead of our goal YTD. So it only takes a couple of good trips to keep everything working. 2024 03 07 IA-UT 2 RV's to Drapper UT (delivered) ... spending the night at Spearfish SD Alarm at 5 AM, ready to roll by 6 AM (local) Todays morning clerk has all the breakfast items ready before we get down there. The posted time is 6:30. So we grab some to-go items and are gone before daylight. Before official daylight, seemed light already to me. It is raining and cold this AM so not much time going the posted 80 mph. 1st stop if the Flying J in Tooele for the restroom. Easy on easy off. I try calling my local dispatch from here but they are on the line, on hold so BB dials later and I get through. They do not have anything in MT, ND or SD. I've limited the trips to those three states. Forecast is nasty weather in both WY and NE today, plus CO so we have to go north to get around it. We do drive through ran and snow most of the trip in UT and WY on the freeway. It was mostly after we got off the freeway that the pavement was dry. 2nd stop was in Evanston at the Pilot for fuel. To wet and too close to freezing to use the cruise most of the morning. 3rd stop was in Rock Springs. The fastest food and the easiest to eat is Jimmy Johns. Noticed when we were off the freeway that the local Village Inn has closed. Another one bites the dust. 4th stop was in Rawlins at the Maverick for fuel and restroom. Last chance before we go off-freewaying. From there it is about two hours to Casper. Two lane roads are posted at 70 mph so not loosing too much time. GPS says it is about three minutes faster to go this route than stay on the freeway. 5th stop was another Maverick, this one at the edge of Casper for the restroom. Then another two hours to Gillette. When we talked last night, we were thinking we would be somewhere between Casper and Gillette at sunset, but we'd play it by ear. Lots of daylight left so we keep going. We are most of the way to Gillette when we decide to push on and get to Spearfish before sunset. 6th stop was the Flying J for fuel and food. We decided not to do a fast food place as we've had bad luck on timing and wanted to get to Spearfish before dark. So we decided to get shelf food at Flying J. Not much to choose from. No roller dogs, no soup out. I ended up getting a corn dog. Wanted to get a piece of chicken but I would have had to get a 5 or 7 piece ?? (It was just for me, I wasn't having a party) I passed, they didn't care. We were able to see the Devils Tower for a few seconds from I-90 today. We stopped there a few years ago coming back from a wedding in UT. We also stopped at a buffalo run near there. Not sure what else we did most of that trip but remember those two things. 7th and final stop is the Best Western in Spearfish. Food next door, but we have eaten. Looks like maybe an old Country Kitchen. NOW that we are checked in, BB doesn't want to push to get home. By getting to Spearfish we would be able to get the car returned and get home Friday night saving on both hotel and rental car. Not sure how tomorrow will go. Our plan had been to be home for 3+ weeks once we get home ... then today BB sees two no-tow RV's to ID and is ready to go on Sunday. They are gone by the end of the day and we are still planning on staying more local. There had been a trip in DUL that I was watching. That one is gone now. It would have made a good <> round trip for me/us. There are still three nice trips that may still be there on Monday. ? Load board US - 192 IA - 12/11 MN - 3 WI - 12 So far our plan is to be up at 5 AM. Not sure if we will push or if we will be stopping at the Black Hills. Either way we will be home by Sunday. 2024 03 08 IA-UT 2 RV's to Drapper UT (delivered) 1 box truck to St Paul MN (Monday) 1 trash truck to Ortonville MN (??) ... spending the night at Albert Lea MN (early AM note) Heard last night that extended family was driving 15 mph in ice on I80 in NE. Glad we headed the northern route. I80 is closed this AM. By tonight we should know that everyone is OK. ... write-up continues. Everyone was ahead of the road closure. Luckily, as the road didn't re-open for almost 24 hours. Up at 5, breakfast at 6, leave at 6:30. Eating breakfast was part of not rushing it today. Speed limit is 80 across most of SD so we kept up that pace and only had quick stops, so not much has changed. We did talk about taking an extra day getting home on trips where we don't have work. We already are booking the rental cars for an extra day in case we do get work so the biggest issue for us would be to find something to do on short notice wherever we are in the country. This trip would have been easy. Black Hills. Billboard says there is <> a swap meet at the indoor mall every weekend. IMO, that is a great way to use former anchor space. Most malls have at least one major vacant area. That was in Rapid City. 1st stop today was for fuel in Kadoka. I pull into the Conoco first, sign says $2.99 but the pump says $3.06. So I leave and go next door to the Sinclair. Same thing. So I fill, must be a cash vs credit thing. This town has three hotels. Best Value, Budget Host and Badlands Inn. Each one had between 1-5 cars. Not their busy season. 2nd stop is in Kimball at the 'new' Loves. New as in this year was the first time we had seen it, today was the first time we stopped. It is right next door to a tractor museum. :) Today's food was GodFather's Pizza off the shelf. We split one. Good idea at the time, hungry later. East of Mitchel, we pass Dakota Fest. I've seen it for years, now I finally looked it up. It is a non-Fair farm event in August. With farm vendors getting less and less at the fairs, I might have to check this out. 3rd stop was Brandon ... nope. We would be too close to E for comfort so 3rd stop was Loves in Sioux Falls. Not our favorite place. It is an old Flying J, laid out bad and often crowded. Today was crowded. When I get to a pump and get it started I walk over to a transporter at the next pump. We say a quick 'Hi' and a few comments before he goes inside. I go back to my pump and see it stopped before getting to a half gallon. And all pump prices are flashing. IMO, something is wrong so I go inside and request someone to come and look at it instead of just restarting it. They come out and by then all pumps were working so they just had me restart mine. By then BB was back out from the restroom so I had her watch the pump and I went in to get a receipt as all receipts were coming out blank. By the time it is my turn in line, BB is done fueling, also has a blank receipt and is saying something is wrong. We didn't know what yet, but told the person at the desk that they had issues with that pump. What was wrong with the pump was that I had put in a half gallon, BB had put in 4-1/2 gallons and it was full ... in a 14 gallon tank and we had come in almost on fumes. My guess is the pump was slowly filling my tank as I waited for the staff to come out and look at it even though the pump wasn't running and the numbers weren't moving. So 5+ gallons of free fuel for us. But it did take us 15 minutes instead of 5. One of the times in line I had been to talking to the transport driver. He was heading to Spokane. He had taken this trip instead of the one going to Sacramento because it kept him away from the weather on I-80. But he had already been shut down twice because of high winds ... and didn't know how he was getting out of Spokane because it is Spring Break and all prices are too high. Fuel mileage has dropped from 26+ to 25+, part of the reason we couldn't make it to Brandon. Stiff cross wind. Today we saw prairie dogs. Easy to spot today. It snowed just enough for a light coating on the ground ... where the prairie dogs have eaten all the vegetation. But where the grass was long we couldn't see the snow. Today we saw a few more prong horn's. Yesterday we saw them in dozens of places, with dozens in most groups. We also saw ? mule deer ? with a couple of groups of prong horns. Bigger, darker, not like the ones we have in MN. 4th stop is Blue Earth for the rest area. BB had been watching the load board and doing the math. There are things that will work. And things we won't do because we will be staying home, in our home area. At some point we realized that Easter is yet this month. No mention of it by any family yet but I'm guessing we'd hear about it if we were gone. While we are at the rest area, I call on one of the trips that has been on the load board for a few days. 149 miles. I ask the dispatcher the pay and what I hear is 580 ... 125. He finally has to break the pricing down so I understand. He was saying $581.25. I was hearing the pause in the wrong place and it really did not make sense. I ask if I can call back and he says he has not worked a Saturday in 26 years ... I take that as a 'no.' When BB gets back from the restroom, I ask her how much that trip was going to pay ... $90? I told her what it was paying, and the breakdown and the why before she understood ... and then I called him right back and took the trip :) So far today, other than breakfast, our day has pretty much been on fast track still. But now BB is hungry ... before 4 PM. So ... 5th stop is Shooterz for food. We both had the same meals we had last time we were here a couple of weeks ago. While we are eating, my local dispatcher calls and asks if I would take a trash truck from NE to WA. Ahhhh ... 'no.' That is not close to where I am today, it is too far deadhead to get to it and I don't move trash trucks over 500 miles. 2nd question was if I could go to Ortonville with a trash truck next week. I committed without asking BB ... but the commitment is for SOMETIME next week. So now we have two trips lined up and it is still Friday. 6th stop was also in Forest City at the shipper to pick up our car. Not 5 PM and the office is closed? Didn't know that, I'll have to ask because we used to wait until almost 5 PM to call in for trips. After I start our car, BB heads out and I drop off paperwork. And talk to one driver heading to MI (?) Didn't ask why he was leaving today. He could leave on Sunday and make a Monday delivery. 7th and final stop was the Comfort Inn in Albert Lea. It is minutes until dark. BB had wanted to get further but she also wanted to eat. So we are paying for one more hotel but we will get the car back before 9 AM tomorrow so we will save a day on the car. Once at the hotel, I call the shipper for Monday's truck. I had also called and talked to them from the restaurant and they were to have called back. They did not. They still do not know anything but they do call back after a few more minutes. He can find the truck in his computer because it is 'their brand' but no record of it being at his shop. As we continue to talk, he finally finds it based on a 3rd party who owns it. But the work order does not say it is complete so no truck on Monday. ... then he looks at the notes attached to the work order. 'Carrier has been called to pickup truck' ... so now I can come in to get it. I'm guessing it will still be an issue Monday AM, but at least I have some idea what is going on. Load board US - 161 IA - 3/2 MN -0- WI - 2 Tomorrow, be to the airport before 9 AM then take two days off. ... the trip continues HERE |
