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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 2024 04 05 OH-MN 1 box truck to Springfield OH (delivered) 1 lawn truck to Burnsville MN 2 RV's to Grand Junction CO (Monday) ... spending the night at Rockford IL 1st stop - Mejier for fuel 2nd stop - Dayton Airport 3rd stop - drop Springfield 4th stop - shipper New Carlisle 5th stop - Dayton Airport 6th stop - Comfort Inn in Englewood 7th stop - Cracker Barrel in Richmond IN 8th stop - Lizton RA 9th stop - Loves Oakwood for fuel 10th stop - Bloomington at Culvers 11th stop - Sleep Inn Rockford Alarm at 6 AM local. Breakfast at the hotel. Last night we had brought everything in so we won't need to move luggage as we switch from a truck to a car and back to a truck. After debating how much more fuel I should put in the truck and where, I finally decided to just stop across the street at Mejier's before we got on the highway. I may have had enough fuel but with a 100 <> gallon tank, the fuel gauge bounces from 1/4 to 1/2 so I don't really know where it is or when the low fuel light will come on. 2nd stop was just put the truck in park (so the horn does not go off) and let BB off at the curb. I really hadn't looked at the drop location until last night. Pretty easy, easy to remember. Freeway, US-Highway, one side street less than a mile. 3rd stop is the drop. I can actually turn in and drive through one of my carriers parking lots to get to this drop. Small location, the guy at the front desk is the person who comes out and does the inspection. He does spend a lot of time looking at my rear wheels, very dirty again, but I get a clean inspection. Everything gets signed off and we are ready to go. 13 miles of back roads and we are at the next shipper. 4th stop is the shipper, I find the front desk, they call someone to bring up my truck. They park it and shut if off. When I ask if there is anything I should know about it they say ... "The closest gas station is two blocks away, you should be able to make it." The tank was below 'E,' and I need to leave it at 1/8 or more (I haven't asked) There is not much room in this cab and the shipper has piled supplies on the passenger seat. Made me wonder if the only storage area was also full. There was keys for the storage, but they were cable tied to the shifter. I was able to get one off and open the storage ... it was empty. So everything we had went back there. Our stuff, their stuff. We do the inspection without the truck running, except for the brake and backup lights. Next stop is actually the Speedway two blocks away. We made it. I put in $100 of fuel. I should have filled it so we would know what fuel mileage I was getting. Too bad it was still early, there is a Rax Roast Beef here in New Carlisle. We'll be back someday. In the past we have delivered RV's here in Dayton and the load board still has 20 more of these trucks waiting to go. Not an area I watch, so I don't know if that is an always thing or this is a one time thing. 5th stop ... was back at the Dayton airport. I gave BB a head start but said I would wait for her call so I didn't have to circle the lot with a 'tanker.' I find the cell phone lot ... weight limit on that road that I assumed I was over. Parked there anyway for a few minutes. Then decided to move to 'private property.' Not sure that was any better. I'm guessing I should have parked near a loading dock somewhere? Not sure anyone would question a lawn truck if there is grass closeby. BB had fun, the drop area was not clearly marked so she had to leave the lot and try again. 6th stop is back at the hotel to load up our things. We get the first load out and when we come back to our room, we are locked out. It is now after 11 AM. We had gotten a late checkout but the computer did not know that. Between waiting at the airport and loading at the hotel we had about an hour of non-travel. BB hadn't thought about food until we were rolling or we could have eaten before leaving the hotel area. 7th stop is the Cracker Barrel in Richmond. BB had looked at other places but she likes the food and the veggies here. So after a half hour drive, we are stopped again. Once rolling we have to cross our only scale this leg. No one else is getting flagged in but I did. And they have me sit so they get a good weight. BB said it was 9,000+ (but under 10,000#) Then I get the go sign. Later I am wondering at what size tank do I need an endorsement? Looking it up later, 1,000 gallons or more. This truck has three tanks totaling just of 600 gallons ... so BB could drive one. 8th stop is near Lizton for a rest break. AND I now have a crack in my windshield so calls to be made on that. And I need to call the drop and leave a message. And call on my car, it will be ready Monday AM so we can take our car to IA ... and I called the RV dispatcher. They are still wanting to get rid of these RV's so it doesn't seem like the 24 hour rule applies right now. We are not sure exactly what will happen when I try to drop this truck with the windshield issue so we are not sure when on Monday we will get to IA. And because of how many RV's are going to CO, we must call ahead and the drop is limiting how many a day they will take. So ... we play it save and say we will drop on Thursday AM. That gives us 500 miles for Tuesday and Wednesday and anything we do on Monday is a bonus. Later BB looks online and sees this dealer has them listed on their website as 'coming soon, used.' We have no idea what that is about. Another driver that has already moved one did say it was used but I didn't realize it was part of the same batch. Also the chassis on the van is different than the new ones we have driven. It will be interesting. ... and last time we moved some we did great on the fuel. This time it looks like we may only break even. Not the money we were expecting before we accepted them. 9th stop was the Loves in Oakwood for fuel. This time I did fill it, but this will be the only time. From here I run <> 100 miles before it drops to 'F." For no real reason, we decide to take the longer route today. It is 40 miles further to bypass Chicago. So we do. The only trucks/units that are really watched for extra miles are ones that are going to be re-sold. This truck is going to the end user, a few miles won't make a difference to them. It will cost me the fuel for the extra miles and save the company a few $ in toll money. The reasons for doing this are it is slightly a different route, but we have been on I-39 many times in the last couple of weeks. And we avoid Chicago traffic and finding a hotel in town. And the road from CGO to IND was really bad in a normal truck. it would be even worse in this cabover. 10th stop is the Culvers in Bloomington. This place is a maze. Way more interior walls than most fast food places. Interesting guy ahead of us. All he was ordering was a cup of ice cream and the clerk couldn't get him to respond as to what size he wanted. The guy was just kind of staring into space. ... BB and I split a reuben and each had a scoop of ice cream. When we thought we were going the short route, we had talked about staying in Merrillville, Schaumburg or Rockford. Once we added an hour to the trip, only Rockford was still on the list. We could have stayed anywhere once we got into IL but we pushed on ... knowing it would be late. 11th and final stop is the Sleep Inn in Rockford. Long day. 11 stops and 13 hours. It is Friday night so the cars from the Tavern next door are filling my usual parking spot. Not an issue, just a change. Don't think I have mentioned this before. A hotel right on the freeway at was built originally as a Marriot something low end. It had been a Motel 6 for years. Then recently it changed to a no-name, then last month it was a SureStay (Best Western.) For about a month. Now it is an EconoLodge. It will be interesting to see how long it stays that. It's been a long day for BB. She shuts down right after 8 PM (we had gotten up on east coast time) By the end of the day, all of the Grand Junction trips have been taken but there are still 30+ other RV trips to CO left. Load board US - 276 IA - 34/31 MN - 5 WI - 1 2024 04 06 OH-MN 1 lawn truck to Burnsville MN 2 RV's to Grand Junction CO (Monday) ... spending the night at home No alarm but still up before it would usually go off. The only plus side is on the rare occasion, we don't get woken up out of a deep sleep. Minimal breakfast. Frost on a few vehicles but not on ours. Traffic is light but steady. We pass one toll today. 1st stop of the day is in Mauston at the Pilot for fuel. We do the math and guess we are getting about 10 mpg. First pump I pull up to is not working but is not bagged off. ... math says we should put in 20 gallons. Today we saw three city buses heading to NY, not sure if it is my company or the other's. We also saw a few other dispatchers including one that passed us a couple of times with a carrier I hadn't heard of before. 2nd stop is Grizzly's in Eau Claire. Great food, a real people person for our waiter. Over $50 but we have a meal or two in leftovers. For the last 700 miles I have been driving this truck at 60 mph. Rough ride and in hopes to get better mileage, and we are in no rush. About a half hour from home, someone pulls along side of me and stays there ... and stays there. Finally I speed up a little, so do they. I hit the breaks, so do they. The driver and the passenger are both just staring straight ahead. Something is off and I don't want them next to me. Finally, instead of waiting for the next exit, I hit the breaks and the shoulder. They keep going. But ... traffic must have gotten backed up about a mile why they were beside me, it took a long time before there was a break for me to get back in traffic. I had been watching traffic the whole trip. I don't think there was another time where anyone had to wait for one or two cars to clear before they could get past me. I hadn't caused any bottle necks before on this trip. 3rd and final stop was home. I had thought that maybe I would be able to fit in the garage. No, the top of my windshield was about the same height as the door, and likely still had another six inches on top of that. So, it will be parked in my driveway for the next two nights. Hopefully none of the neighbors think that this is a sign that I will now be taking care of my lawn. We under guessed on the fuel. Based on the last tank, it was about 44 miles from 1/4 to 1/8. And from my house to the drop is 37 miles. Right now I have over the 1/4 tank needed so I will be leaving a little extra fuel in this truck. Load board US - 275 IA - 34/31 MN - 5 IA -0- Tomorrow we will need to use our old car to run errands, drop off paperwork at the local dispatch office, etc. Then Monday we will drop this truck, hopefully at the customer and head to IA and then maybe as far as NE the first night. 2024 04 07 OH-MN 1 lawn truck to Burnsville MN 2 RV's to Grand Junction CO (Monday) ... spending the night at home. ... the trip continues HERE |
