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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 2024 04 30 MN-MI 1 trash truck to Battle Creek MI (delivered) 1 box truck to Roseville MN (Wednesday) ... spending the night at Elkhart IN Much better rest last night. We are ready to go ... Breakfast, they had real ham ... and potatoes. But the eggs were not even close so I took a yogurt instead of the eggs. Today BB and I go our separate ways. I stop in the same town for DEF and fuel. The TA in DeForest. BB doesn't stop until she gets to IL and then stops for fuel at a Loves. Still in WI we see a semi that is being lifted back on to the roadway. Not sure why they were not trying to drag it with a wrecker. But the cab was pretty much gone and it was a ways up the upside of the ditch bank. Chicago was fun as always. This time I was able to find a truck that was actually doing under the speed limit so I hung behind him even though it was costing me time. In road construction where the posted is 45 mph people had to still be going 70 mph plus. Trucks are only supposed to be in the right two lanes but most of the time they are in all four lanes. 2nd stop for me was the rest area welcome center in MI, three and a half hours from fueling. BB had stopped about a half hour before that for her second stop at the Pilot in Burns Harbor for food. I had thought by stopping in DeForest for fuel I would need to stop again. I don't. I'm going to come in with a little of the one quarter required at the drop. Three scales today. WI is closed. IN and MI I have to exit the freeway but then get the bypass to get back on the freeway. Overall not a bad ride for a cabover trash truck. 3rd stop was the drop. I see that two other drivers have just pulled in ahead of me. When I get a better look at their trucks I see they run for the same carrier as I do long haul for. The pair of them had gotten the two trucks from Indy to Battle Creek and back again. I did say a quick high but that was it. This is my first time of having to take pictures of everything at the drop. Later when I send them to dispatch I find that the files are 10x the size they should be and everything is distorted. Not sure what happened. I know something has changed on the camera but I can't get it set back because I don't know what had changed. I will take pictures of my truck tomorrow even though I do not have to, just to see if the camera is working right. Once I get signed off, BB and I have to decide where to go. Cell service is bad so it is taking forever to look things up. We think the truck on the load board from Battle Creek is at the customer where we are sitting. I didn't call, wish I would have just so we knew. IF the truck paid like most, it would not be worth it. Which is why we didn't call. IF it paid great, we'd have made money ... we won't know. Instead I call a couple of times on a truck from IN to MN and then decide to take it. It is a non-CDL so the pay is not great but it is a sure thing and could/should have us home tomorrow night. After I agree to take it, we find out that they close at 2 PM so we will be getting a hotel here for the night and picking up in the AM. 4th stop is a truckstop a mile away called Arlene's. Looks nice on the outside. Inside it has one set of shelves down the middle of a small room. The rest of the building is under construction. BB and I take turns using the one restroom. Then we look for something for me to eat. I haven't eaten since breakfast and it is now after 3 PM here. We end up with an ice cream bar and a bottle of 5% juice. I take the first bite of the bar and then BB wants a bite. Bad. She looks and the bar is expired. And it tastes like very old ice cream. Even the texture isn't right, I throw it away. Interesting place when we drove in ... there is a port-a-potty in the middle of the parking lot. At a truck stop??? BB doesn't want to take the back roads to Elkhart but then sees there is road construction on the main roads so back roads it is. It is just over an hours drive. Most of it on two lane, but it is all paved and all had a center line. Other than that it was the path less traveled. 5th stop is the Comfort Inn in Elkhart because that is what we know. It is still most of an hour to the shipper in the AM. Once we are checked in we go to Callahan's. BB isn't hungry so my choice. Chicken salad sandwich for me, plus fries and soup. BB has salad and soup. After we sit at the hotel for a bit, we go for our one mile walk in the neighborhood. When we come back, there is a transporter out of FL that has picked up where I did at the hotel. Never see the driver. Just the truck. BB checks the weather at home. Looks like the fields that I wouldn't be able to get in until mid-week next week are going to get another bunch of rain today and tomorrow ... and ... ... so not sure when or if I will get back up there. Load board US - 216 IA - 17/15 MN - 2 WI - 8 It is 500 mile home from the shipper tomorrow. We hope to make that. It would have helped if we had not stayed an hour from the shipper, there were closer hotels. 2024 05 01 IN-MN 1 box truck to Roseville MN ... spending the night at home Breakfast ... we had some. I get a call shortly after 7 AM. Rare that I answer an unknown number but I did today. It is the shipper. Letting me know they got my message last night and a few other details. Like we can pick up 24/7 ... not just 8-2 like dispatch said. When we get to the shipper, we find out more details. Like we only deal with the guard if the office is closed. At the office, I get more details seeing it is my first time there. Yes, we can pick up 24/7 but if the truck doesn't start, we are on our own. We find the truck and for some reason this cab is heavy. Bruised my hand when I didn't get it to stay up the first time. Still heavy the second time but I was ready. On this model the tranny dip stick can be reached without lifting the cab, but to reach the oil dip stick I need to lift the cab. And when I was done, I just un-latched the brace and let it fall, usually I have to pull it down. Something wasn't balanced right. And the truck was below 'E' so I only started it to make sure it started and to check the backup lights. Then shut it off until we were ready to pull out. The closest gas station was only a couple of blocks away and I made it. Just before we got to the town where the shipper is, there was a younger couple sitting on the ditch bank with their backs to the three cops that were standing there. We noticed them and talked about it. I also noticed that the guy was grabbing grass, pulling it and throwing it. ... we came back the same way and now there was a tow truck pulling a car out of the ditch, we hadn't seen the car before. But the young couple is gone and there is an older lady signing some paperwork for the tow truck ... mmmm I don't drive these Isuzu's very often and they have a different cruise set up. First it took me a while to remember where the settings were, but I got it working. Then when I got on the freeway I couldn't get it to set again. ??? I think it was after the speed limit slowed to 55 mph that I got it working ... and realized that the max cruise speed is 60 mph. So I drove 60 mph in IL. In Chicago they are working on the I-290/I-294 interchange so it is worse than usual ... and today there was a semi broke down right there in one of the center lanes. This time there was a snow plow behind the broker truck so people could see there was an issue before they got there. And someone was standing behind the plow waving people to move left or right. Seemed to be working. Once I got to WI, I didn't use the cruise and held it at 65 mph. I'd gone over 250 miles before I realized that 65 was the governed speed. From there on I just kept my foot on the floor. 3rd stop for me was the Pilot in Beloit for fuel and food. I put in 25 gallons hoping to get 250 miles, I got 220 miles. I was going to put in another 30 gallons because I had 300 miles to go but this place had a $100 limit per fill and I didn't restart the pump. For food I had two taco's from Taco Bell. Nothing too major today. Saw a few transporters including of our buses. Not much field work being done yet here in the north. Lots of water in the fields. BB and I texted each other each time we stopped and sometimes would see each other. 4th stop was the Loves in Menomonie for fuel. This time I was 80 miles short so I am not getting 10 mpg. BB was waiting for me at the rest area a few miles further down the road. I call and we decide it is too late and too close to close time to try and drop the truck tonight. 5th and final stop is our house. My driveway is the only one on our street that has trees hanging over the driveway so I don't dare park in the driveway or I might scratch the paint. So it sits on the street, hopefully no complaints. Load board US - 223 IA - 15/14 MN - 4 WI - 10 We have 25 more miles to go tomorrow to get to delivery. We plan on leaving at our usual 7:30. No other work close yet. There is one RV in IA but because it is towable it does not pay enough to make it worth our time. No rental units today either. 2024 05 02 IN-MN 1 box truck to Roseville MN (delivered) ... spending the night at home "It's a good thing it is not Wednesday, or your truck would be in the way for the trash trucks." was one of the first thing BB says to me in the AM. ... opps, I had forgotten. Our trash truck comes on Thursday, today, and I will be in the way. And in the way for any other larger than car vehicle like the bus. We need to get going. We pull out before our usual 7:30. Traffic is not too bad, but the rain is coming down heavy. It would have been less time if we had done this later but I wanted the truck off my street and also be available for any other trips that might show up. None did. At the drop, I bring in my paperwork. My contact walks out to look the truck over. I stay inside, it is still raining. No issues, they sign off and I am good to go. 2nd stop is the local dispatch office to drop off paperwork. While I am there, one dispatcher comes out and 'apologies' for lying to me last week. They needed to get me in for a drug test without letting me know that is what was going to happen ... That was it for work stuff. We kept checking the load board but nothing showed up and we need to be in town for Saturday. Load board US - 154 IA - 5/3 MN - 1 WI - 7 |
