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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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2024 08 13 IA-AL 2 RV's to Huntsville AL spending the night in Cedar Falls IA We are up and hitting re-fresh by the time dispatch opens. Nothing. Nothing near the 9 AM hour. Or near the 10 AM hour. Finally at 11:15 they put four trips on the load board, two going to AL. As I am dialing dispatch, I am asking BB if we are going to take these or wait for something better. (We've been waiting two plus weeks for something better and the window to leave for the west coast is closing in) BB says take them ... I get through and am talking to dispatch, they ask me a couple of questions and then are quiet. I finally ask if they are waiting for me or something on their end. They were just quietly listening to BB and my conversation, for some reason they could hear both of us clearly. :) While we were on the phone, we did decide to leave yet today. We gave ourselves an hour or so to get ready. We each eat our lunch, pack and are ready to go about 1 PM, almost. It was a few minutes after. One stop for fuel and restroom at Loves in Albert Lea on the way to the shipper. While we are there, I call the bus dispatcher in AL. NO buses. Sometimes he gets the short ones going <> 100 miles. He is moving other trucks, right now FL to TX and other places but I'm not interested in driving 600 miles to move something 500 miles and still be 1,000 miles from home. When we get to the shipper, they have a new way of doing things. We are now dispatching ourselves ... so I asked them who was getting let go if we are going to be doing all their work for them. We have had the option to do this in the past, but last time BB tried it, we had to fill out all the bill of lading paperwork and other types of info. Now it is just <> four question on being dispatched. ... same dispatcher as I was on the phone with so I told them they have to cut in on the phone or they could be listening to BB and I for hours as we discuss things. There are only 4 RV's to pick from, we are taking two. It didn't take us quite an hour today to inspect, learn new things and fuel mine. BB had enough fuel to get to Floyd. I had to stop at Casey's and put in $5. On the way out of town, the road to the freeway was closed so we had to take a rare trip down through Garner. Usually we only do that when the roads are bad in the winter, it is a little better and more traveled road. While we were in the office, a dispatcher from my other carrier called. They have a truck they are trying to get to Chicago yet this week. Sorry, already busy. 3rd stop of the day is the Loves in Floyd for fuel and food. As we were pulling in, someone with their windows painted was just leaving. "We are not panhandlers, we are just trying to get home to AR" and other things. After we fuel we park and eat. Subway for me. BB and I used to split a personal pan pizza but she's bringing her own food now. Loves and most truck stops have microwaves. Today at least, it took her longer than me to get food/food ready and eat. She is usually done eating when I am half done. From here we make reservations. We decide on the Comfort Inn in Cedar Falls. Cedar Rapids would be cheaper but by then it would be almost 8 PM. Nicer to shut down before 7 PM. 4th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Cedar Falls. When I saw merge signs ahead I decided to get off the road early. Good thing I did. I usual street is closed so we would have been back tracking. And we will be back tracking in the AM to get back out of here. Lab work from yesterday came back bad so now I need to be adjusting things and get retested sooner than average. Load board US - 278 IA - 1 MN - 1 WI - 3 We have tomorrow planned. Paducah KY for tomorrow night and then we should be able to deliver by noon on Thursday. And we have a rental car so we are set to come home if that is what we decide. TX has almost 150 trucks to move. That is often how many are on the load board nation wide. And they are all chassis so I am not planning on heading that way. 2024 08 14 IA-AL 2 RV's to Huntsville AL spending the night in Paducha KY BB was up and ready to go for a walk before I was out of bed so she walked alone. Then she started doing her 'prep' and we got going a half hour later than usual. Road work, we had taken the best way in last night. This AM we went out the same way we came in and 15 minutes later we were looking at the hotel from the main road. Not sure what was slowing us down but made for a late start. BB doesn't like the Pilot in Mt Pleasant because the parking lot is too small. So we stopped twice instead. 1st stop was the rest are near Cedar Rapids. They are building a new building. Not sure the point of having out houses for the crew at a rest area. Central dispatch calls early today. They have a truck in AL coming back to IN. We've looked at it. I didn't call them back. Yet. 2nd stop was the Flying J in Wayland. It was supposed to be a rest break but I was loosing range and may not have enough to get to the planned stop. So I was going to just put in $5 until BB told me fuel was cheaper here. Even without a discount. I hadn't used my discount card because it was only going to be $5. I put in almost $50 instead. Somewhere before the next stop there was an RV in the ditch. I didn't get a good look at it but BB did. Lots of cops out today and busy. One cop car had two semi's pulled over, but nothing too exciting. 3rd stop was the Loves in New London for fuel and food. We need to re-fuel here to make it to KY where fuel is $.50 cheaper than IL. I eat chicken tenders from Hardee's and BB has salad. Looking at the load board we see another truck in AL, this one going to ND. Haven't called on this one yet either. Both could work, but we are looking at getting back to IA and getting two more RV's. When we did get a chance to look at the load board there was a trip to CA. One. No way of knowing if there had been two. 4th stop is the rest area in Renz Lake. Small truck parking. Or maybe drivers just didn't know how to park. The spots are marked so incoming trucks drive down the middle and park on each side and then pull ahead when they leave. But trucks were not pulling ahead far enough so that drivers could get between them. From here we make a reservation in Paducah, same place as planned. Somewhere between Renz Lake and Paducah, while going through single lane road construction at about 55 mph ... my RV slammed on it's brakes and there was a 'brake message on the dash. I had my foot on the gas peddle to the floor and it got down to 20 mph before it released. Luckily there was not someone right on my bumper like there sometimes is. Noooo ... The Mobil station with the Charlie's is now a Casey's and Charlie's is gone. That was going to be my food tonight. 5th stop is the Pilot in Paducah. It is cheaper than Loves. We just put in enough fuel to get to the drop, not fill it. This place has a Subway, I had Subway for lunch. I'm not happy with Casey's so I don't even go there to look. There is no other fast food at this exit with Charlie's gone. But there is a Waffle Hut. I head over there and BB goes to Casey's to see if they have veggies. They don't. Neither did Pilot. I order eggs and bacon to go. It is ready in minutes. BB is at the hotel when I get there. Comfort Inn. This place only asks who I am and gives me the key. They don't look at my ID, they don't look at my credit card or have me swipe it and sign twice. We're in. Mileage on the first tank was 15.7 for me. 16+ for BB. For the second tank it was 17.1 mpg for me and 18+ for BB. So she has a bit more money left to use, if we need to stop again. Load board US - 243 IA - 7 MN - 4 WI - 2 Hope to deliver around noon. There is a Walmart Market and a gas station across the street from the drop. We will stash one car there and then head to the rental car place, come back and switch the car for the RV and deliver together. Then one of us will walk across the street to get the car. We go right past the drop to get to the rental car place, it is less than two miles from the drop. 2024 08 15 IA-AL 2 RV's to Huntsville AL (delivered) spending the night in Paducah KY Back in the same town, but not the same hotel in Paducah. Quick breakfast this AM. Ready to roll at 7:15, a whole 15 minutes early. There were two small trash trucks in the hotel parking lot this AM. Not sure where they were coming from or where they were going. 1st stop today is the rest area welcome center at Clarksville TN. When we pull out of here, my 'auto(matic) tow' has turned on. I will have to check sometime to see the why. I've read the mileage is worse when using tow mode, but today I was getting better mileage than BB. 2nd stop was the Loves in Columbia for another rest break. The half way point was Nashville and we didn't want to look for a place to stop there. 3rd stop was the WalMarket in Huntsville, almost across the street from the drop. We stash BB's RV there and drive the mile plus to the rental car place. 4nd stop is to pick up the rental car. While BB is doing that, I call dispatch to make sure when we need to pick up a trip after we have committed. Today is Thursday so it would need to be picked up sometime <> on Friday, or before open of business the next day. But Sat and Sun are the weekend so we would need to have it off the lot before they open Monday AM. :) Now if there was just work. Not sure what they put out in the AM as we were driving and only saw a couple that didn't get take right away. Next stop was back at WalMarket to move all our luggage from the RV's to the car and leave the car in the lot. Directly across the side street from the WalMarket was a gas station. Had been a Citgo and still says that on the receipt. I remember this place. Last time we were here someone driving past, stopped and asked me for money. We talked for a while but I didn't give him any money ... as he walked away, he turned back and said 'it must be nice.' Later I realized that he might have thought that I owned the RV ... if I had realized that soon I would have told him that he was making more money where he was working than I was driving these for hire ... Final work stop was across the main street from the gas station. They told us where to park them and we went inside to wait. It was going to take a few minutes so I walked back to the car. I had to cross the main street. I waited until there weren't any cars coming and crossed, then someone pulled out of one of the lots so I tried to run ... brain said run but I'm guessing it looked like a waddle to anyone looking. It only took us an hour to get both of them inspected. When I got my paperwork back my 'review' was all excellent ... and he said it would be $20 per 'excellent.' :) Then we got talking and he went to school with someone with my last name in WI and they pronounced it the same way. But he could not remember their first names ... but would likely at 3 AM some morning. That sounds familiar. (I wouldn't have known them even with names) BB ate her lunch at the drop, then we stopped at Jacks and I got a burger and a malt. I had to look it up. Jack's is not the same as Jack in the Box. Jack's was started in AL shortly after McD's and KFC was started and is still mostly in AL. From there we bypassed the stop in Columbia and stopped a mile or so from the Clarksville stop, the rest area/Welcome center in Fort Campbell KY. I looked for some lemonade but they had five vending machines with basically the same drinks. None had lemonade. Final stops are back in Paducah. First at McAllister's Deli. BB had ordered ahead so it was ready and waiting on the shelf. But we sat there and ate. Next stop was a few blocks away at the Walmart. BB needs more diet food. Lettuce, veggies and cheese. Then to the hotel, Country Inn and Suites. It was before 8 PM. I had wanted to get further but the next major town was another hour down the road and here we knew where everything is. RV dispatch did put out a few more trips. WA, ME, SC, TX nothing that really went together. Load board US - 212 IA - 2 MN - 1 WI - 1 Tomorrow BB should be able to watch the load board all day. We plan on getting going at our usual time and between being able to drive faster half the day and not having to stop for as long or as often we hope to gain an hour compared to yesterday. So we should be near Clear Lake or maybe even Albert Lea by night fall. We do not plan on making it all the way home. We could, maybe. But it was no fun last time. Saturday AM we will return the rental car to MSP. From there we will either head back to Forest City and leave out, or head home if we don't find work. 2024 08 16 IA-AL 2 RV's to Huntsville AL (delivered) spending the night at home No work, computer broke, found, truck/tractor notes from yesterday. Up at our usual time but re-packing the food cooler every day is taking a tool on our routine. We did not pull out of the hotel until 7:45. Which is normal, if we were doing our truck inspections so we today we looked at is as running late. Here's a few things I didn't mention yesterday. 1) When we had exited the freeway near Huntsville, we were going through a smaller town and I had missed the sign that said my lane ends but I could see there was only one lane going under the rail road bridge ahead and I could see that the dashes on the road were ending ... So I was watching for a place to get over but the car next to me was keeping pace in almost stopped traffic. One time I glance over and the car in the left lane next to me is way back ... so I quickly pull over. The next thing I see is the car that had been pacing me is now sitting next to me in the center turn lane. My first thoughts are that I could not see them in my mirror and I had 'pushed' them over when I came over. So I was watching that car the rest of the way to Huntsville to see if this was going to turn into a road rage incident. Hours later when BB and I are talking I asked if she remembered that situation. Yes, the car next to me had gotten into the turn lane as if to turn into the gas station across the street and then turned on their blinker to get back in their lane but by then I was already there. Whew ... glad she remembered that. I hate 2nd guessing myself like that. Then on the return trip, as we are finally leaving Nashville traffic behind, the freeway goes from two to three lanes. I was doing the speed limit (+) and a pickup was just passing me. For some reason there were very few cars ahead of us and as soon as we passed where two cop cars were sitting ... they put on their lights and pulled into our lane. Both the pickup and I got into the right lane but the cops did not. Whew ... just a few seconds of ??? And not a whew moment. As we were getting our stuff out of the car at the hotel, a something went passed the hotel and made a u-turn and went past again. At first glance it looked like a modified tractor they use in tractor pulls. Looking closer it had truck tires all around and was not built on a tractor chassis. If not a complete custom chassis the closest I can think of is a grader chassis but no cab. Never seen one like that before. Back to today ... Not only did we leave late, but when I was packing up, my computer case cracked. I had bought two laptops that were almost the same at the same time a few years ago. The other computer started warping so the keys didn't always work and then the case on that one cracked. So when this computer started having issues when I opened and closed it I tried to be very careful as I knew where the other one cracked. But this AM it cracked anyway :( Today was pretty un-eventful. BB hit refresh. There were only two RV's going to the same place and that was just a short one to IN. If we leave tomorrow we can still get to the west coast and back before Labor Day. But that didn't happen. They released less than 10 RV's all day and we didn't take any of them. And when we got to the lot there were not any on-site to do a huge drop in the AM. We were hoping to cut an hour from our day compared to heading to AL. That 15 minutes this AM didn't help that number. We did stop two fewer places and took a half hour less for lunch. Our GPS ETA changed about a half hour so we were keeping the pace. 1st stop was Mascoutah west bound, but nearest freeway exit is called New Baden. We didn't stop at Rend Lake today. When I came back to the car I saw a nice pen on the ground so I picked it up. Then I realized I could use one as I had just lost mine :) ... better than me finding someone's glasses when I was ready to step out of my car at Loves, tires must have just missed them by six inches. Some will be looking for those. First plan was to stop at Loves in New London next but we had stopped there on the way down and I was not looking forward to another Hardee's and we realized fuel was going to be cheaper IA. Not sure if this was today or yesterday. BB had looked for something in her cooler and had taken most of the stuff out and re-packed it. Then later she dropped her Chapstick and was trying find it between the seat and the council. Instead she found a bag of cherry tomatoes. Hmmm. She had to look in her cooler to find that she was missing some so these must be them. We had already found a key and a plate and other things so we knew the car had not been well cleaned when we got it. 2nd stop Huck's in Hannibal. This one is new and part of a chain. The only ones we have stopped at are co-branded Pilot/Flying J. This one had Godfather's and Cluck's. They alos had chicken salad sliders which I looked at a couple of times. But I went with Godfathers to be save. BB and I usual split a personal pan but today it was all mine. (Not sure her diet is helping me any) Gas would have been cheaper at the Flying J in Wayland but that would have added an additional stop, so we will pay the extra <> $1 and keep going. 3rd stop was at the Pilot in Mt Pleasant. This is the one BB doesn't like to stop at with RV's. The place is fine, just not easy parking. We stopped here instead of stopping in Wayland and Cedar Rapids. 4th stop is Evansdale at the Flying J, a few miles from here is where we started our day yesterday. There is a RV transporter in the lot so I ask where he is going. 'East' So I ask where east ... 'East' but first back to Waterloo and closes his door ... OK, conversation over. Plan had been to get to Clear Lake or Albert Lea depending on how good of time we made today. BUT ... once BB started looking at hotel prices, she got motivated to make it all the way home. I had suggested last night we push on past Paducah in case we want to get home Friday night, but no. Now we realize that would have been a good idea. Also that 15 minutes we lost this AM getting out of the hotel. We would have almost been at the airport before dark. 5th stop was the Pilot in Clear Lake so BB can nuke her food and eat on the way to pick up our car. We remembered road construction so we went around it. Almost empty lot at the shipper. It will be interesting what work we can piece together having to be home over Labor Day because of our Dr's appointments. They've changed the building code so we can't get in to drop off paperwork or use the restroom. BB has to stop at a rest area and then for delivery fuel. She filled at the station less than a mile from the airport, the closest gas, and the app still showed she returned it with less fuel and she picked it up with. I was still full from my pizza so I just had a malt from Culvers. The Culvers in Owatonna now has about a dozen Telsa charges in their parking lot. At the airport, traffic in the right lane was backed up out on the main street by the cemetery. The other lanes are supposed to go to parking but there is a last minute unmarked crossover. My plan had been to just circle today because it was after dark and the cemetery was closed and the street past the cell phone lot is now a one way. But seeing all the other cars parked/stopped, I just pulled in in front of the row and waited. BB was there in less than two minutes. Just after 9 PM when we got home. Long push. Money was good, but we need to work more than four days a month to pay the bills. Now we sit until Monday. Local dispatch did call sometime today but did not leave a message so I did not call them back. There is nothing on the load board in MN, IA, WI and nothing on the rental load board. Load board US - 177 IA - 0 MN - 0 WI - 0 |
