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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 2024 04 14 CA-TX 1 bus to Fort Worth TX ... spending the night at Albuquerque NM Today it was the alarm that got us out of bed. Breakfast was leftovers from last nights breakfast. Breakfast at the hotel is not until 7:30 and we will be rolling by 6:30 AM. Bus starts this and every time today. AZ scale is closed this AM so that saves us a couple of minutes slow down. Other than that I am running at 62 mph max speed. Weather is still coming in behind us so we keep leaving out at daylight. 1st stop is the Petro in Kingman for a restroom break. 2nd stop is at the Loves in Williams for CNG. Just as I am pulling in off the street backwards, someone fills the seconds CNG island. So I have to go around and back in. I back in behind that was already sitting there but he wasn't the 1st one done so I was able to move. The lines hadn't filled up yet, then. Same thing as last time I was here. As soon as I connect to the pump, it is pumping. I could have gotten a full tank of free fuel but I wanted to know how many gallons I was putting in ... and I want them to keep this pump open. They won't do that if they are not making money on it. I'm pretty sure I would have come in on fumes if I had not stopped in Barstow on my own. And because the pump runs all the time, it doesn't shut off when the tanks are full like it should. I was not going to see how full I could get them ... they are only tested for so much pressure. So I manually shut the pump flow off while I disconnect the pump. When I go in to get my receipt, I tell the fuel man they are still giving away free fuel. He doesn't seem to know anything about it. When I was walking to the station I had thought I could ask to talk to the manager, but I didn't this time. 3rd stop is in Holbrook at the TA/Popeyes. Not quick. It seemed like they would wait on 10 people and then sever those 10 people. My food wasn't bad, BB didn't think hers was very fresh. At some point today we met oversized trucks. Four of them in the on coming traffic ... escorted by many, many police. All four trucks took up both lanes. There was at least six squads in the lead then others between each truck and more brining up the rear. So traffic was backed up a little behind them. A few miles after we pull out of Holbrook, I get some warning lights on the dash. So I pull off at the next exit and call it in. I am OK to keep going. Then we realize there is also a 'beep' sequence. So I stop and call that in also. Not sure what was going at the westbound AZ port of entry. Rarely do they do any inspections. Today they were doing three and there also was an officer standing outside directing traffic. Didn't get to look at that long enough to see what was going on. Today we saw a few transporters including one of our (?) buses from NY heading to HI (?) and one New Flyer bus heading to Las Vegas. My guess on where they were heading based on their colors. Both were 60 footers. And we also saw burnt trucks. One was still on the shoulder of the road getting new tires, it looked like all four sets of rear trailer tires were burnt off. Plus the back of the container was burnt. And there was a semi trailer in a lot near the freeway that was mostly just the shell left, there the axle with the tires was laying beside it. And another semi tractor was sitting in the ditch with the rear tires burnt off. I'm guessing the trailer burnt and that had been hauled away already. 4th stop as the Flying J in Jamestown for a break. I thought this used to be a Pilot, not sure how I would find out. 5th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Albuquerque. We are pushing it again because of the wind that will be coming in behind us tomorrow. Not sure how many more times we will be stopping here. This is by far the worst area we stay in as far as homeless on the street. Maybe because it is all businesses and no houses it doesn't look as bad. But we have to walk past them on the street to go anywhere. And over the last couple of years all the businesses have put up fences so now it is a longer walk and all on the sidewalks. The first two were only a couple of feet from our hotel lot but we were able to walk through the next hotel lot to avoid them. Then behind the gas station there were another half dozen gathering. Some of them looked way to nice to be homeless but they were hanging with the homeless tonight. In the few minutes it took them to make our food, the crowd at the gas station had doubled in size. And there was now one person sleeping partway in the sidewalk on the other end of that building. I almost stepped on that one. And on the opposite side of the highway there were three 12 foot piles of belongings on the side walk with no one around. Food was good. I got enough for breakfast also. Load board US - 183 IA - 4/1 MN - 3 WI - 4 I have to be shut down in five hours tomorrow because of hours. But we still plan on getting going early. Wind gusts later in the day are forecast for 50+mph. Not able to gain anytime the last couple of days. Plan is to make it to Amarillo tomorrow. Not much for hotels before that. 2024 04 15 CA-TX 1 bus to Fort Worth TX ... spending the night at Amarillo TX Alarm awakes us at 5:30 AM. Neither of us are hungry, I don't even eat my left overs from last night. BB does grab two yogurts to go. We pull out at 7 AM local. Some of the homeless are up already, others we can see are still sacked out. One of my warning lights goes out after a couple of minutes driving and the alarm stops. They stop for about 15 minutes before coming back on for the rest of the day. Heavy traffic for a Saturday AM in ABQ. Before we got going this AM, I had looked at my logs and 'found' a few more minutes I could drive today. Legit. The shipper and I had signed off the paperwork at 12 PM and I for some reason had written 12:15. And then after BB and I were done inspecting my bus, she wanted a 15 minute head start to drop the car. So another 15 that I really was not working. 1st stop is the new CNG station in Moriarty. We had seen it last time we where through but I had a diesel. The guy who is in charge of this station pulled in right when we did. So he showed us how it works, doesn't work. 1st I tried my company card, that didn't work. Then I tried my personal card for $200. That didn't start the pump. After the guy looked at the insides of the pump, I restarted a different pump and this time for only $100. That worked. Then we talked. He likes talking to the transporters that come through. One of the ones he mentioned was a trash truck from QC to BC. This location does not have any local companies who fuel here daily, but he said that last month they did double the business they had been doing the previous months. They have been open about a year. For us it beats the congested Loves in ABQ. I wasn't full after $100 but had enough to get to Amarillo so I did not re-start the pump. Back on the road I had a missed call ... 2nd stop was the Santa Rosa rest area. No where near Santa Rosa, but it is called that because it is the closest city. I returned the missed call, it is the main guy at the bus tech support just checking up on me (and they all call me by name) By now, BB has gotten a fraud notice from the same company as the card I used at the last CNG pump. Except the call back number is not the one listed on the card, our card was not blocked and when we called the 'real' phone number, they had no record of a fraud notice being sent. BB is not going to call the number on the fraud notice. 3rd stop was the TA in Glen Rio. Russell's is still the name of the cafe, it used to be the name of the truckstop before TA took it over. So far it still has a 'museum' inside. We've stopped there a few times but have not walked in to it. It also has a row of toy trucks around the tope of the restaurant. All sizes. I didn't see any that I still have. While we were there a transporter drove in with a fire truck headed to El Paso. We asked where he was from ... FL. It has to go to ABQ first to have some final work done on it before it is dropped in El Paso. He was in after and out before us so I did not get a picture of the truck. We were there over an hour. One waitress, two cooks. And it wasn't busy yet. BB had a salad, I had meatloaf. Mine was good, but southerners like their food with a little more kick than I do. They no longer carry soup because the TA does (?) I looked a the soups later and no thanks. Pies looked good though. 4th and final stop is our Comfort Inn in west Amarillo. We stick with the knowns. If there had been something AFTER the CNG stop we might have tried something new. But the next one east of there is 100 miles east of there. ... and I log off right at my 70 hour max (if I hadn't changed/corrected my log for Friday) Cutting it close, but we made it. Nothing new on the roads, the only wildlife is birds. There were a few more transporters today but no more city buses. Neither of us are hungry so instead of Red Robin, we will likely just get a small Jimmy Johns. If we were hungry, there are two buffets just across the side street from the hotel. Load board US - 195 IA - 2/1 MN - 5 WI - 2 TX - 78 Tomorrow, leave early. 325 miles to Denton so a couple of stops somewhere in small towns. Pick up a rental, get a bus wash and then another <> hour to the drop. This drop is open 24/7/365. That doesn't happen when we get into town on a Saturday ... There had been one old trip show up on the load board from TX to CA but that is all for the ones I will drive. We are both still watching ... 2024 04 16 CA-TX 1 bus to Fort Worth TX (delivered) ... spending the night at Alvarado TX Today we did have hotel breakfast. Eggs, sausage, potatoes and yogurt. I wasn't planning on eating again until after I dropped today so I had a little more food than usual. As often as not lately we are not making it out of the hotel on time. Today again it was 7:45 when I was doing my inspection instead of 7:30. Hadn't noticed when I parked or walked that there was a homeless tent a little ways from where I parked. No beeping on the bus this AM, but one warning light still on. Not much for AM traffic our direction, west bound has one lane closed already during rush hour so they are a little backed up. 1st stop is on the other end of Amarillo for CNG. Stand alone pumps, not even any outhouses. Our online safety video stated that walking 32 times around a truck is about one mile. We didn't walk that many times but we did walk until we saw the pump was stopped. When we get back on the freeway, our lane becomes the exit to the US highway. For the next five hours we will be off interstate. There are a few small towns with lower speed limits and stop lights but they are 30 miles apart here instead of three miles apart. Two memorable things from today ... One was the 'It Will Do' hotel in Clarendon TX and the other was the town of Chillicothe TX. Chillicothe still has a population of over 700 people but a lot of the buildings along main street have roofs that have fallen in, or sides that are falling down onto the sidewalk. Block after block of storefronts that are boarded up. 2nd stop for us was in Childress at the Loves for the rest room. I dropped BB off while I pulled around the lot. Then I had to have BB help me back out of the car parking spots I had pulled into. 3rd stop was the Pilot in Wichita Falls for another rest room break. Here it looked like they had re-claimed some of the street right of way and put in more long spots in the car area. So no problem getting in and out of here. Big variety of what we see here. Trash places and estates with cement fences and locked gates. If they had been spaced right, we could have stopped at rest area's. There were a few on this US highway. Today one was being used as a cattle inspection area. I've seen signs before but never seen one open. We didn't exit so not sure what they were doing. The rental car place is in a former outlet mall in Denton. The mall was a little less than half full, but much better than other outlet malls that completely close down. I drop BB off at the door and then it is a mile to the wash. BB has been watching the computer all day and it has been less busy than usual. Way less, to the point she didn't know if the program was working today. 4th stop of the day is the Blue Beacon in Denton. Two bays open, two trucks in each line. Someone else follows me in so I have to pick a line before I can see which one will move first. I picked the right one. The truck behind me was in first but I was out first. Road construction in this area plus a bad design and this area is congested. BB had mentioned bringing me food to the wash but I said stay away. Traffic was too backed up getting out of the wash and the Loves next door. When I am done at the wash, I pull across the street the car area of the Loves so that we can move luggage from the bus to the car. From arriving at the wash to leaving Loves was a total of 45 minutes. Not bad. Just a few easy turns from the wash to the drop. Knowing which lane to be in wasn't as easy. Lanes were either exiting or ending. As soon as I am off the freeway, as I'm coming around a cloverleaf, there is a crosswalk. Someone is there but wave for me to go so I do, but I am watching them and not the street ahead. It had been empty but a light must have changed and now there was traffic and I had no merge lane. Lots of horns. Guess they could not see a big orange bus. BB is following me AND has her GPS on and still gets lost. Not a real nice area of town. A lot of bus garages are not in the best part of town. I find the gate and they open it for me without question. As I drive in, I can see a row of orange buses so that is where I head. 1 through 5 are already there, all in a row. I am number 6. None of their existing buses are orange. Once parked, I call my contact and they say they are on there way out. They must be able to see me as they did not ask where I was. (big complex) They did ask about me breaking down. Not sure if that was me or someone had the bus before me. I never was stopped. Just had some issues. But not now ... the last warning light went off when I left the wash :) The person at the gate had also let in BB so she was right there when I was done. Likely less than 15 minutes to inspect and sign. Homeless. Now we got a much better view. Lots of tents near the tracks, which is kind of normal. But the side streets ... Were pretty much tent after tent after tarp. Also saw a group of teens in the area. Couldn't tell if they were part of the homeless or were there for other reasons. Not sure if this was near a soup kitchen or why so many in one place. We wanted to get out of the bus lot and then out of this area so BB made a hotel reservation as soon as she found one. We were going to eat after we checked in but I saw a McCalisters sign so we stopped there. It was 4 PM and I hadn't eating since breakfast. Good food ... but ... as we were leaving we saw a Jason's across the freeway. We could have had their salad bar and ice cream there :) 7th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Alvarado. I recognize it as soon as I see the building. BB doesn't until we are about a half a block from the hotel. When we get to our first room, the toilet has not been flushed and does not flush. It's broken. They upgrade us to a jacuzzi room. Later we go for a mile walk around the parking lots. We are in a triangle with highways on all sides. So we dodge the cars but we do get our walk in. On the load board, there are/were six trucks going from Forth Worth back to Sacramento. IF we had the time and wanted to do a repeat trip. But they are the electric pickups and they must be hauled. Load board US - 182 IA - 1/0 MN - 3 WI - 4 TX - 64 ... the trip continues HERE |
