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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 2024 08 22 IA-AZ 2 RV's to Phoenix AZ spending the night at Winslow AZ Trains, check out, road construction, Logan, Loves, Lisa's, TA, Love, RA closed, scale, hotel parking, rain, Safeway. Yes, this hotel has train noise. But with two major train tracks crossing there isn't a hotel in town that is more than three blocks from the tracks. The EconoLodge has a US highway on two sides of their building and the train crossing at the other two sides. We heard a train just as we shut down last night and then I was away about 1 PM and heard one that much have come from behind us so it was not as loud, but a few minutes later there was a louder one. So not constant. Breakfast had seasoned potatoes besides other things. Turned out they were seasoned with bacon bits. If I had known, I'd have taken more. Tow U-hauls with trailers have parked behind us on the street last night. We are rolling at 7:30 AM. A train just went past so we didn't have to wait for that one. More road construction, and from here it is almost all two lane highway for the next 100 miles. Speed limit is 65 mph, so we aren't holding up traffic. Legal traffic. I'm trying to find out what people here think these yellow dashes and lines mean ... Dashes mean be kind of careful? Double yellow line means be constantly careful? They sure don't seem to think it means do not pass. But people do seem to have given up on driving on the shoulder. When I started this route, if someone wanted to pass, the person in front of them would drive on the shoulder as would the on coming traffic. Just leave them an open hole to drive right down the center of the road. Logan. The Yucca restaurant is gone and it is now a weed shop. But I did notice a new cafe in town. Between Logan and Tucumcari there was an RV that was going so slow that even BB and I passed them ... on a two lane road. There is also a very small S curve there that has the speed reduced to 55 mph, from 65 mph. I think there are sharper curves where the speed limit is 85 mph that don't have us slow down. 1st stop is the Loves in Tucumcari. We circled, we ended up parking one behind the other and laying the hose down while the first one pulled away. Freeway. 2nd stop was Moriarty. Room to park with the cars. This TA still has a Country Pride, today there are two customers at 11 AM. It also has a Pizza Hut and Burger King. I had to wait for them to finish boxing the first pizza's for the day before they would ring me up. In and out in a half hour. BB made smaller salad's so she can eat them in a half hour, but is realizing they do not fill her up. When we go to leave the TA, I'm at the stop sign and glance back and see BB's RV rocking. She tells me later that she was watching traffic and thought I had pulled out. Her RV radar started beeping and when she saw me sitting there she slammed on the brakes. Shook her up for quite a while. Going through ABQ, we got to see where we would have been picking up the rental car and where we would have dropped ... and been done. If there wasn't the damage to BB's 1st RV. But clear sailing as far as traffic. 3rd stop was the Loves in Grants for fuel, final fuel maybe for us. We have a few more miles to go up hill before we drop from Flagstaff into Phoenix. 4th stop is the rest area on the AZ / NM border. Sign says closed but we are able to pull off. Only the building is closed. It does have out houses. Missed a good photo op. No other trucks close where we parked when we got there but when we walked back I saw the hills in the background would have made a great picture. But by then there were trucks next to us and none ready to go. Temps are in the 80's and 90's today. Some times I am running the AC, but the air is dry enough that the 80's are cool enough with the window open and driving. 5th stop was the scale. 1st time at this scale without having a paper permit. So I have to hand my note pad to the officer so he can look at the online permit. We have them on the screen before we get there because there is not always the best cell service to be able to bring them up. He asked if I had a permit and I thought he then was going to close his window so I started pulling ahead. WAIT. He needed to see my permit and was just reaching for something else when he was talking to me. No issue. Same with BB. 6th and final stop was the Clarion in Winslow. BB had tried to make a reservation at the Quality Inn while we were at the rest area but there was no cell service. Lucky she did not. When I got off the freeway BB was wondering why, this was on the exit listed for the Quality Inn. But it is the exit for the hotel we have always stayed at. They changed the names. As soon as we get in our room, the phone rings. We have to move our RV's (??? we parked them the same place as last time) We moved them and then walked to Safeway so BB could get her daily food. I was going to get food from the China House but the store had what I wanted and less off it. One bottle of Naked Juice was good so I wanted another. There was some at the hotel so I picked up one of those. $6. Next time I will walk back to the store across the street. Load board US - 254 IA - 8/2 MN - 1 WI - 12 2024 08 23 IA-AZ 2 RV's to Phoenix AZ (delivered) spending the night at Winslow AZ Breakfast, fuel, Loves, calling Budget, Fuel, homeless, rental car, BB at delivery, work, traffic, Loves, In-n-Out, gas, road construction, Walmart, QI I kind of forgot that we had a two hour time change yesterday. So 5:30 was really 7:30 home time. BB was out walking at 5:30. I was up and washed up by the time she got back. Hard boiled eggs or nuked food was our choice. But the price was right. We head out by 7:30 local. Up hill to Flagstaff, down hill from there. 1st stop is the Loves in Mayer. I thought we were good, BB pulled in to fuel so I fueled also. We each put in another two gallons. I had called many times today to the rental car place and never got through. After a few rings it goes to corp. The first time it was all in Spanish. The 2nd time it greeted me by name. I still hung up. 2nd stop was the Flying J in west Phoenix. Before we pulled in I had noticed all the homeless lining the street. That had me re-thinking leaving one RV in their parking lot. But as we were fueling I noticed the mass start to move. For a minute I thought they had all been waiting for a bus. Wrong. One of the Flying J guys went over and told them to move along. It looked like they were starting to move by the time he got there so they may have seen him coming. BB did find a place to park and hoped in with me. On the way to the rental car we went passed a Pierce Fire service center. The last truck in line was the same as one that passed us earlier today. Casa Grande. I had pictured the rental car place inside the hotel in an office area. Nope. They were just using a hotel room on the corner of the building and replaced the front door. Hotel doesn't seem to have changed much since I used to stay here. A few long term guests. A dozen truckers and cheap rates. Across the parking lot at one of the fast food places there were a dozen plus people camped out in the shade of the building. Once BB had the car and we moved the luggage I was on my way. I knew where I was going. BB went in the wrong gate and had to do a u-turn once she got out of there. The help was just moving the RV's that had come in earlier. When they were done with that, they started on mine. I did ask if we could go get BB's RV and they were OK with that. The Flying J was only a mile or two away so it didn't take us long to pick hers up. They were still inspecting mine when we got back. BB wanted to keep her food cool so she sat in the car with the AC running while I sat in the customers office until they were done inspecting both of them. No issues. When I got back to the car it said 119 degrees. It stayed over 100 until we got closer to Flagstaff. No work so we are heading home. KS shipper has a couple but they are at a dealer instead of at the shipper so no weekend pickups on those. There are also trucks in IA but that dispatcher does not work weekends. STILL no dump of RV's. We only saw three today. One was likely BB's heading to ABQ. We head out and traffic is slow. I was hoping that we'd gain time by going 75 instead of 65 mph. Way too much traffic today. Next stop is back at Loves in Mayer. It was faster than stopping at the rest area. It was getting later than we had planned and I had not eaten lunch so we planned on stopping in Flagstaff at a drive thru. How long could that take? There was an In-n-Out just past where I-17 ends but on the same road. Quick? First, me and the car behind me missed the cones and had to turn around in their parking lot. Then we have to take a right when we exit. Then there is road construction and heavy traffic so making a left turn would have blocked traffic for a while. So we kept going until we found a gas station. By now we needed gas. This car only has a seven gallon tank. BB fueled this time so I could eat now instead of while going down the road at 75 mph. When we were ready to leave, there was someone trying to cross on the sidewalk so I stayed way back. Too far back, someone with a trailer in the parking lot came and made a u-turn between me and the pedestrian barely missing the car. New rental to me and I couldn't find either the horn or the reverse it all happened so quickly. By then traffic had backed up on the street to take a left so we went right. GPS said to take the next right, I did not ... and we ended up on a college campus and classes must have just ended. This whole off the freeway thing took about an hour instead of just 10 minutes. Opps. And then BB doesn't suggest we stay in Flagstaff until we are back on the freeway. We drove right past the hotels we would have stayed at and there is also a Walmart right there. Now it will be after 8 PM home time again, before we get to the next Walmart or our hotel. Winslow Walmart first. Three items. Last stop was the Quality Inn. It was cheaper still. So we back track to the last exit. First time for this. We had reserved a room with a King bed. Their reservation showed a queen? So we switched rooms. Load board US - 241 IA - 6 MN - 0 WI - 13 Not sure which way we will head home. We had this all mapped out from our ABQ trip where we wanted to be coming through KS on Friday. It looks like we will be in either Liberal KS or Amarillo TX tomorrow night. Then somewhere in IA on Sunday night. We may find work for Monday in IA or we may head home for the MN State Fair. We have tickets for two days, and going back to back days doesn't work for us anymore. Got an email that one of our shuttle drivers at my local company died. I'm guessing she had worked there 10+ years and I had ridden many times with her. And we'd still see each other at some of the shippers. She was the last of the shuttle drivers that still knew who I was. She had lived for a few years up by where I grew up but long after I was gone from there. 2024 08 24 IA-AZ 2 RV's to Phoenix AZ (delivered) spending the night at Guymon OK Up at 5:30 AM local, breakfast at 6 AM, ready to roll by 6:45 AM. BB is finding it takes about 15 extra minutes just to pack all of her things in the cooler the correct way. Very light breakfast, likely would not stay here again. When we walked past the front desk they asked about our stay, seems there has been no TV since early last night. Not an issue as we rarely turn on the TV. Then when I went to check out, it took the person a while and then they said they had taken $10 off our bill because the TV wasn't working. OK, great. Later in the car, BB looked at the bill and yes, they had taken $10 off ... after first adding $10 to the bill. So it was a wash. Saw a few transporters today, tried to stay away from a few drivers we could see were looking at their phones. But no issues. 1st stop was the new One 9 truck stop in Gallup. BB had wanted to stop at the last rest area in AZ but some sites said it was closed, the AZ DOT site didn't even list it anymore. But when we passed it, it was open. By then we had changed our plans. We fueled at the One 9. This tank is only 10 gallons and shows 'E' when we are down to two gallons. As we drove, we finally started looking in detail at our choices for work. But today is Saturday and very few of the dispatchers work Saturdays. I tried to contact the TX dispatcher but he did not respond. I did contact the KS dispatcher but the trips we were looking at are in the shop, not the shipper, and the shop is closed weekends. So after a few hours we decided that won't work for us either. 2nd stop today was Freddy's in ABQ. BB was eating her salad so I picked something we/I do not have every day. I tried to ask for a cherry malt but all they have now is the Maraschino cherries which they could put in a malt. No, not today for me. Today they have apple pie custard, so that is what I got. Two doors down from the Freddy's was a gas station with a former lawn. There were dozens of people standing there, they looked more like the homeless type than the teenager type. 3rd stop was the Loves in Santa Rosa for fuel. When we got to Tucumcari, I took the road through town. This is part of the old Route 66 and some area's hadn't changed much when I started this job. Not sure if I have write-ups from other times but a lot has changed. Coming into town, the original truck stop is still standing but has been closed for 20 plus years. Of the first five hotels, only one is still standing, barely. I think for of the five were still open my first trip. The Blue Swallow is still open, it opened in 1939 and is in the best shape of any of the old buildings. Some still have the open sign and cars in the lot but it's hard to be sure. And a lot of the old ones are gone so it's harder to match up with what is still there. At one time I had thought that I would try to stay at the cheapest hotels to see how bad they were. At that time they were as low as $16. The least I paid was $29 which was common at the Motel 6's at that time. In Tucumcari for me, that was the Tucumcari Inn. I think that one is now gone. There is one standing next to it, the Route 66 Inn, looked to still be open. Depending on where we are and if a shower has just crossed our path, the temps have been 100-105 degrees for a good part of the day. 4th stop was back in Dalhart, this time at the Toot n Totum truck stop across the road from the Best Western we stayed at two nights ago. Plan had been to eat here but it is still early or I would have eaten at the Which Witch and likely gotten their chicken salad sandwich. 5th and final stops were in Guymon OK. We had thought we were going to get to Liberal KS but that is another hour and it is late enough. The first of our stops is the Walmart where BB picks up another dozen items. We will see in the AM if they all fit in her cooler. Next stop is Mr Burger for a burger for me. Drive thru. Burger and onion rings. Final stop is the Quality Inn for the night. We've stayed here a few times over the years. Might be the only place we have ever stayed in Guymon. Load board US - 233 IA - 6/0 MN - 0 WI - 12 Still talking about which route we will take tomorrow. Plan is to head in the direction of Sheldon IA. There are trucks there going to NE, TX, OK. But the dispatcher did not respond today so we are taking our chances. We will likely take the road most traveled. BB doesn't like being off the freeway and away from rest area's too long. Not sure if we will get to Sheldon, or even Sioux City. It might be Omaha. But the plan is to be back home by Thursday for day one of the State Fair for us. Day two will likely be Labor Day. 2024 08 25 IA-AZ 2 RV's to Phoenix AZ (delivered) spending the night at Sioux City IA BB went out for an early AM walk this morning before it was daylight. I was still half sleeping and every time she walked around the building her phone would re-connect and then dis-connect from her speaker that was still in the room. Breakfast was omelet and bacon. We had thought we'd get going at 7:30, then 8 AM, then finally rolling at 8:15. So a few minutes earlier than yesterday. 1st stop was in Mead at the Loves for fuel. The place is big enough for a car, but not two RV's. I still haven't found where to re-set the mpg but based on the range when we fill it, we should be getting about 46 mpg. No road construction so the only slow down was the one lane traffic across one bridge that had stop lights. Some area's were 75 mph, but most area's today were 70 mph. 2nd stop was Hutchinson KS for lunch. We didn't need fuel yet so we stopped at Freddy's, again. And I got a patty melt and malt, again. Smaller burger and larger malt :) From here it was a new road for us up to York. It did have rest area's and towns so lots of places to stop if we had needed to. 3rd stop was at Belleville at a Loves for fuel. We were going to try to make it to Omaha without another stop but ... 4th stop was in Lincoln at Shoemakers for the restroom and some chips to keep me awake. 5th stop was less than an hour away at the Loves in Omaha for BB to use the microwave for her food. We had tied putting the food in the front window to warm it up but by then we were heading east in the afternoon. Our stop in Lincoln was still to early for her. This stop was still too early for me so I only bought lemonade here. 109 was the top temp we saw today driving. A few hours of 100+. 6th stops were in Sioux City. First was Walmart for more veggies. I looked for 'ready' food but the lights were off on the deli case and not much food in the cooler case so I passed here also. Then the hotel, the Comfort Inn. No elevator, no office area for me to print out paperwork in the AM. But no one in our room so that was a plus. There was a Cassey's across the street so I walked over there. I was looking for yogurt, this place did not have a dairy section and the only yogurt was 'fresh' and would expire in a couple of days. The chicken sandwich expired a few hours ago. They did not have roller food, just pizza by the slice with no names or times on them. I got a Naked Juice and walked back to the hotel. Tomorrow we will both call in the AM when the dispatch has said he starts taking calls. We'll see what happens. ... the trip continues HERE |
