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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 2024 06 06 IA-MN 1 RV to Brainard MN (Friday) ... spending the night at Albert Lea MN Up and eating breakfast on time. Leave out at 7:30. As we talk and look at our options, we decide that we would save a little time by returning the rental car first before moving the RV. As we now had realized that there was no way we could make delivery yet today but we still would have extra time left at the end of the day. 1st stop is at the Loves in Floyd for fuel. Fuel has gone up $.10 but is still lower than anywhere else. 2nd stop is the shipper in Forest City. BB goes in to drop off last trips paperwork and to talk to them. ALL units are on hold because of the wind. So returning the car first is now our only option. While we are stopped, I call on two shipments I have not gotten paid for. The first was my show up fee for the broken truck. That one I will not get paid until final delivery, same as a breakdown. The second one was the 1st trip in KC. The dispatcher was quite frustrated with what I had done, then said that was the way it should have been done, then said they would let corp deal with it. A few hours later I was paid for that one. 3rd stop for me was the airport. BB called just after I went past our pickup point the first time so we had been pretty close together. 4th stop is the clinic and then Smashburger in Burnsville for food. BB called dispatch from the clinic and they will not be letting anything go before the close of business at 5 PM. I guess what happens after that is on the driver. But BB didn't want to deal with the wind ... but later she was second guessing herself thinking she should have picked up and at least gotten back to Albert Lea tonight. If we pick up first thing in the AM tomorrow, we should be at the drop two plus hours before they close. So do able but tight. 5th and final stops are the Country Inn in Albert Lea. BB booked the wrong hotel and didn't realize it until the confirmation email came back. After we check in, we go to the closest State Park for a one mile walk. No major wildlife sightings today. When we got back we ordered a meal from the Green Mill next door. We split it, not as good as last time. Load board US - 131 IA - 5/0 MN - 6 WI - 7 Friday we should be at the shipper by 8 AM, off their lot by 9 AM. One or two stops before we drop at 1 PM. Done at the drop by 2 PM and home by 6 PM. Plus some shopping before Saturday AM. I'll be watching the load board to see if there are any pairs of RV's. If so, we might leave on Sunday. If not, we will wait until Monday AM to call on more work. Plan is to stay mostly local unless we both get RV's going to the same place. Right now there are two trucks going 70 miles each within MN, and there are two pickups in IA going to ND. And there is a truck in WI going to NE. And if we don't get RV's I will be calling local dispatch to see what they have for short work. I <> plan on helping the local company the rest of the month as it is the end of their quarter and things are usually a little busier for them. 2024 06 07 IA-MN 1 RV to Brainard MN (delivered) ... spending the night at home Breakfast with real plates. Omelette and potatoes. Potatoes were too spicy for me, so just an omelette. When I was checking out, I was reading the posted messages on the desk. There is a wedding party here, last night someone was serving them in the breakfast area. The sign said a 52 passenger bus would be making two trips from the hotel to the venue on Friday after noon and three trips late in the evening to bring people back. Must be a fair sized wedding. We got going a little early today so we could be at the shipper by 8 AM and we were. No one else around today. One local driver came and parked in 'his spot.' I've seen him there a few times, just watching the load board and to see who comes and goes. BB's RV had a half a tank of fuel so she will not need to fuel right away. Quick inspection with a small unit and two of us looking at things. We were ready to roll by 8:30. 2nd stop for me was the Loves back in Albert Lea for gas for the car. It is the only place today we are going to see it under $3. 3rd stop is the rest area north of Faribault MN closer to Northfield. BB was just coming back to her RV when I arrived. We talked briefly and rolled out. Earlier the plan had been for BB to stop for fuel in Clearwater but she's not getting the mileage she was expecting so it may be St Michael. 4th stop for me was the Holiday Petro in Clearwater. I had gotten a ways behind BB and didn't see her pull off the ramp at St Michael so I kept going. At the Holiday, when I got out of my car I had an uneasy feeling about a group of people who were between me and the building near their pickup. So I walked the long way around them. When I came back out, they were still there so I walked the long way around the other way around them. Couldn't hear what they were saying but it was 'off.' As I sat in my car looking at my Notepad, I heard sirens and thought 'great, now I'll be blocked in here while they work this out.' But the sirens faded and I forgot about it. Until I backed out of my parking spot. There was a cop in the parking lot talking to the people I was avoiding. But I was able to get out of there. By the time I got a few miles down the road, the road dipped enough that I could see an RV in my rear view that looked like BB's. Once we got back on the four lane, I let traffic pass and one of them was BB. So I followed her the rest of the way to Baxter. 5th stops, Brainerd/Baxter. First she stops for final fuel and ends up blowing her horn at someone who was backing out while BB was driving past. A few miles down the road and we are at the drop. It took an hour or so but no issues. We thought we'd get there at one, even with everything ahead of schedule we got there at two. And they close at four. Once BB is signed off we went to Five Guys for food. Another one meal after noon. At 3 PM. We looked at all the options and there were a lot of them. Some would have taken a little longer and cost twice as much. Two good burgers in two days. I decided to head home a different route. It said it would take two minutes longer but I knew it would avoid a lot of the road construction we came through. 6th stop was the rest area on Hwy 10 in Anoka. We ended up hitting this road construction instead. Both in Elk River and Anoka. 7th stop was for food. 8th stop wand we are home. Looking at the crops in IA and MN. Some of the corn looks waist high and other of it is just being planted now. Lots of places it is drowned out. My gauge at home still showed 3 inches. That would be what didn't evaporate since we left 10 days ago. More than we need. Load board US - 117 IA - 3/1 MN - 5 WI - 6 Nothing good on the load board so no leaving on Sunday. Plan is to call on a local trip on Monday AM. IF the truck looks OK, I'll likely do the 2nd one of them. If still no work on the load board by Monday afternoon, I'll be calling local dispatch. 2024 06 10 MN-MN 1 RV to Duluth MN (Tuesday) ... spending the night at home We had talked about doing one or both of the metro to metro trucks this AM if nothing else showed up before dispatch opened. Nothing showed up but BB was no wanting to work today so we did a pass on those for now. But mid-day I notice a RV on the MN load board so I call as fast as I can and get it. I had been out in the garden after watching the load board for a couple of hours. Then I get a call from BB that they have started putting RV's out. Two to CA but they were not going the same route/same part of the state. There were others but no pairs. So I decided to come in, we hadn't really talked about what we would take. Just about anything. I'd like to stay local but we don't have to. So while she was hitting refresh on the RV load board, I looked at it and then checked MN to see of the two metro trucks were still there. This RV showed as a no-tow so it should have paid more, but it was a breakdown so we will see how good they want to be to me. Not sure what happened. The prior driver had put in 'final fuel' so that means they should have been less than 10 miles from the drop. And then it got towed 150 miles back to the cities? Oh well, makes money for me. IF we were pushing to work, we could have still gotten it delivered today. Might have if it had been hot outside and we still didn't have central air. We used to run up there just to cool down for the weekend. Load board (weekend) US - 137 IA - 4/1 MN - 4 WI - 11 Load board (Monday) US - 84 IA - 1/-0- MN - 2 WI - 7 |
