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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2024 07 02 IA-WI 1 RV to Milwaukee WI ... spending the night at Rochester MN This morning, same as yesterday ... just a quicker responce. Shortly after 7 AM there is a truck on the rental board so I call them. No answer. So I text them. This time I get a message back almost right away ... 'it's gone.' The truck I wanted was gone. Someone must have dialed without talking to their wife first ... There was one RV put back on the load board that someone had taken, more on that later. And sometime earlier than other days lately, there were a couple of more RV's on the load board. They also looked like older orders, repairs, missed pickups, etc. So I was beginning to think the shipper was closed. Finally I decided to go out in the garden for an hour plus. That meant when I came back in to eat lunch is was about 1 PM. Before I was done eating, BB yelled down the hall ... 'Look at the load board.' There was one for WI. I called and got it. Now to get ready for the day. I did it today in less than 15 minutes. As we head down I-35, it is raining but not dumping. The heavy rains have moved off. But the water is back up. Some places the ponds and creeks are higher than the last storm based on the kill level, I guess it doesn't take much of the ground is already saturated. 1st stop was Albert Lea for fuel for the car, 15 mile range was not enough to get to the shipper. While we were there there was a transporter in the lot but they looked like they were on the phone so I didn't talk to them. 2nd stop was the shipper. The shipper will not be open on Friday, but the dispatch office will .. so the only trips that might get put out Friday are from drivers who had committed, but had to cancel. Like the first one today. The driver that was supposed to take that one, hit a deer and is delayed. 3rd stop was also in Forest City. Shooterz for food. BB was hungry and didn't want to wait until we got to Albert Lea or Rochester. And she was craving a good burger. She had one last night from Milwaukee Burger and was not impressed. She loves the ones here. I had the French Dip, that was good too. 4th stop was back at Albert Lea. BB just moved one of these RV's and got 15 mpg so we did the math for 17, just in case I got better mileage. The transporter we saw earlier was still there, now they had a blanket/sheet over the windows like they were going to sleep in the cab. It was six in the evening and it doesn't get dark now until 9-10 PM. I am getting better mileage. When I filled, our math still put me 40 short of the drop on fuel range. In 40 miles I gained 80 miles range so I already have more range than I want so unless I hit a headwind tomorrow I'm going to be coming in with a lot of extra fuel. But today I was worried about time. We have 5+ hours to drive tomorrow and we want to be dropped and to be able to get to the next shipper before they close at 3 PM ... if there is work there. Work this week is a puzzle. Take a short enough trip to be able to drop and pickup before the holiday. Then the one that gets picked up needs to long / short enough to be able to be dropped Friday without shutting down too early. Then get to the next shipper the same day and that trip should be about 1,000 miles so we can run over the weekend. Then on Monday we need to drop and be back home in under 48 hours because we have a Doctor's appointment and then are leaving on vacation. All hotel nights are already paid for. 5th stop - Country Inn in Rochester. It adds a few miles out of route but gets me another hour down the road tonight. From here the next hotel is La Crosse which is another hour and a half so that would have been past 8 PM. We could have if we needed to. Not paying attention getting off the freeway, this exit has one clover leaf and I just took the exit, the first one. So I added another half mile to my trip. Load board US - 163 IA - 2/0 MN - 3 WI - 10 Depending on what is on the load board in the AM, we may take a truck from WI to MO and then dead head to KS for a truck coming back to MN. We had thought we might get two RV's to run over the weekend but that doesn't look likely. 2024 07 03 IA-WI 1 RV to Milwaukee WI (delivered) ... spending the night at home Breakfast included finally chopped ham. This AM I was able to get out of the hotel by 7:15 so I was rolling by 7:30, hope that helps later. My thought this AM was ... it sure is nice to be leaving Rochester NOT in a trash truck :) My mileage keeps going up and now I have 80+ miles excess range ... Not too long after I got on the freeway, I noticed someone to my right. And I was in the right lane. They passed me on the right and there was not any traffic on my left for a few blocks. I didn't think of looking if they had come up an entrance ramp. That would be my guess ... they came up an entrance ramp, I didn't see them or move over ... so they just kept driving there instead of slowing down. 1st stop is the Loves in Oakdale WI for a rest break and to look at the load board. Now there is a truck in IL going to KS and a truck in KS going to MN. It would work for us even with the holiday. BUT, I am still three hours from the drop, another two hours from the next shipper and I will need to call both the pickup and the drop before accepting anything. Later. I text BB with the info . A few miles down the road, BB calls back and I pull off at the next ramp. We talk, the trips are already gone. 2nd stop is the rest area near Mills Lake to make phone calls. My paperwork says to call the drop one hour out. And that is what I did, and I checked the load board again. Coming into Milwaukee, in the oncoming traffic ... there was a lady in high heals and a dress running against traffic waving like for people to stop. No one was. And then I was passed. A few miles before the gas station, the low fuel light comes on. Close enough. But it doesn't add up. Often it was showing 20+ mpg but my over all average was 17.5. 3rd stop was for fuel in Milwaukee, just a few blocks from the drop. The drop. We have been here a few times before. An elderly man greets me, I see him two more times while I am there and each time he asks me questions like I am walking in the door for the first time. ... and that is not the only interesting thing here today. I am asked why I did not park on the street as requested on the paperwork ... 'Today it is posted No Parking by order the the Police Chief." Then ... "You didn't say when you called today which shipper this was from" ... 'No, I wasn't asked. And I did say who the shipper was when I called yesterday.' And ... "I will inspect it once you have all of your personal belongings out." Later ... "Why did you leave the unit running when you got here?" ... 'Some of the inspectors like it cooler in there when they do the inspection' ... "Well it wasn't cooler and it was wasting gas." ))) they noted the 'open door' light was on ... (a door was open) ((( ... but by that point I did not say anything. ... they also gave me back paperwork that the shipper puts in the truck that the drop did not want ... Interesting stop today. No load board work that works for us yet. There are still trips. Two to Michigan, one to Ohio, one to Rapid City. Because of the holiday, all will require two extra hotels, leave us further from home and none have a logical third leg to get us home or anywhere close. Rapid City would have been the best, but we were not sure ending up in Rapid City on a four day weekend would be a good idea, or cheap. We actually didn't do the math on any of these trips. I may do and add that later. We decide to head home ... Before we get to the freeway, we decide to head to Janesville which is the closest daily shipper. And a Golden Corral. That was the 5th stop. And before we got on the freeway ... the ramp was metered with cars ahead of me. I get a green and as I go there is a semi right next to me and a very short merge lane, so I slow to merge in ... the person behind me blows their horn ... I look back and they are giving me the one finger salute. What was I supposed to do, drive under the truck? We ate until we couldn't. We watched the load board. We headed home. 6th stop was the rest area near Lyndon Station. Traffic was not as bad as we expected for a holiday weekend. The slow downs were in the same places as they were last weekend. I was fighting sleepiness to the point BB offered to drive. As long as we talk some I am OK. 7th stop was the Pilot for fuel. If we hadn't stopped, we would have gotten home with about 10 miles fuel range. 8th and final stop was home. At 80+ degrees it was too warm for me to mow. But one of our neighbors was out moving ... sort of, they did the 'No Mow May' and added a no mow June. Now they were trying to mow and it looked like there mower was on fire. They were standing next to the mower so we assumed they had it under control. Load board US - 135 IA - 1/0 MN - 7 WI - 7 We are off for the 4th, and maybe the weekend. Not sure anything new will be added or anyone will be working to give us work. Then we have Monday / Tuesday to work before we are on vacation. Then less that two weeks before another family event and then I will need to get my med card renewed. |
