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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 2024 09 22 CA-OH 1 bus to Columbus OH spending the night at Oklahoma City OK Breakfast, I ate the last of my bacon, plus a few eggs and a carton of yogurt. I had looked at a map so I knew where the streets were to get out of the lot. At the hotel exit there was a highway median so we had to take a right. At some point, both BB and I had thought we could just get back on the freeway if we took a right ... then we remembered we had to fuel before leaving town. Because of where I parked, I needed to maneuver to get out of the parking lot without hitting the trees or the curb. Just takes time. My plan had been to get out on the street and then take rights and go around the back of the hotel and get back on the main street where there was not a center median. But when I got to the street behind the hotel, there was a truck parked against one curb and a crater hole full of water in the rest of the lane. Nope. Instead I cut through the Family Dollar parking lot where I again had to take a right away from my fueling station. I had looked at Google maps last night and saw that there was an area across the street that had a lot of ally's. :) Then I looked at the satellite view and saw that Google was calling anywhere with tire tracks in the sand ... a street. I did get to where I could make a u-turn without backing up so that is what I did. 1st stop, two blocks from the hotel for fuel. Here I have to pre-approve for the amount of dollars I am going to put in. I guessed $200. Ended up putting in $184. Lisa's truck stop next to the CNG WAS one of the older style truckstops with a nice diner. Now it has changed to a 9 One with a Krispy Chicken, Sbarro's and an Indian deli. 2nd stop was for lunch at the Loves near Amarillo. Not a good truck stop in town to just stop and eat at so we picked this one. I got a Godfathers. Not one of the better ones, I think it had been on the shelf too long. The graffiti cars are still drawing a crowd just west of town. Now I see that someone has done the same think in Amarillo on a city street. I didn't note which exit it was near but basically the same thing. OK scale said closed, so I pulled out to pass another truck. Then I saw that it was just closed because of a long line and the trucks staying in the truck lane were getting messages. 3rd stop was the welcome center in Erick OK for the restrooms. 4th stop was the Loves in west OKC for fuel. Today both CNG pump island were empty so I just pulled in instead of backing in. Then I realized the island I didn't pull into had the diesel pumps bagged off so it was closed. Got 3,600+# so the fill was good. Had to use my corp card to pay at the pump, they no longer take personal credit cards at the truck islands. 5th stop was ... was going to be the hotel with food from next door. We forgot it was Sunday and some places are not open. The place next to the Sleep Inn was closed ... and the IHOP that had been on the other side I knew was closed but now the building is gone also. Not sure why some at some places the buildings are gone shortly after closing and others the buildings can stand empty for 100 years before the start falling down on their own. ... so we drove to the truck stop just beyond that. They have a Krispy Chicken. I've seen it for years and never tried it. Asked once and staff said it was spicy. Not many choices without driving further so I bought a three piece and a corn dog. Final stop was the Sleep Inn. Dark and still only five cars and with me, three trucks. Could be why the price is under $100 tonight. This place had a full sized fridge, plus the smaller one. Party room? BB was glad to see it, everything fit without doing a puzzle. I see online that OYO is buying Motel 6. Guess neither one is going anywhere soon now. I think the last Motel 6 we stayed in was 10 years ago because we shut down early due to a snow storm. 2024 09 23 CA-OH 1 bus to Columbus OH spending the night at Edwardsville IL Not much of a breakfast here. I settled for a yogurt. We are ready to roll by 7:30. The freeway has gone boothless. And we do not have a Pike Pass. So we will need to go online and pay the bill before they snail mail the bill to the owner of the plate. 1st stop is Tulsa, Flying J. 'Car' area is so full of trucks and cars that I double park while BB goes in. I see they have also added a city bus stop inside the parking lot. Not sure why that is. And I see that this place does have CNG. Or someplace close to it, I didn't go past the pump so I'm not sure who's property it is on. The toll road from Tulsa to Joplin is still a toll booth. That is supposed to change by the end of the year. This bus does 65 mph which is good because the mini is now 60 mph. Some buses I've taken in the past were governed at 55 mph. That would have added a few extra miles to stay off I-44. 2nd stop is the Loves in Sorcoxie for lunch at Arby's. Today was a beef and swiss. Parking spots were a little small up front in the car area. One end of the pumps had one parking space and that one was taken, The other end had five car spots and I parked in two of them. With my tires on the yellow line both sides. No one else parked next to us and there were open spots on the perimeter for others to park. 3rd stop was the Jonesy's Travel Center in Lebanon. Interesting place. The store front looks all brand new and includes room for a couple of more stores. The gas pumps look a little dated. And the back lot? No truck pumps, just a truck scale. Huge lot full of craters. BB said the inside was a mix of old and new also. Like someone is trying to bring the place back from the dead. While stopped, I called back my local dispatcher. They had called and emailed while I was driving. They are looking for BUS drivers for this weekend ... I left a message. Then I called the drop. No name or phone number on my paperwork so I looked it up online and someone, a real person, was able to put me through to someone's voice mail. I forgot that there are other parts of our online paperwork that I had not looked at. I would have had a name and number. 4th stop is the rest area in St Claire. Small lot but enough room to park today. By now the drop has called me back. Something I said made them think I wanted to drop today. And by the time I called back, they had left for the day. 5th stop is the grocery store in St Louis. The map made it look like there was plenty of room. There was room, just a lot more cars than expected. I dropped BB off and then parked. But to get out I had to go out the entrance, and then around the block because we were going the wrong way. 6th stop was the Flying J in Pontoon Beach for CNG fuel. The pumps are not blocked off with trucks ... this time ... but none of them are working. Luckily I had looked at a map earlier and saw there is a 2nd station a couple of miles away. 7th stop was the Gain CNG fueling statin in Hartford, and that one worked. 8th stop was the McAllester's in Edwardsville and then back track to the Sleep Inn. Again and almost empty parking lot. A while after we have checked in, BB thinks the fridge is not working. While she is on the phone with the front desk, we can hear it kick in. So hopefully it keeps working. Saw a few transporters today. Including two on the side of the road. One was a school bus and the other a small Krispy Kreme van. Load board US - 157 IA - 1/0 MN - 1 WI - 6 One more fuel stop a couple of hours down the road and then a wash a couple of hours before we shut down. Tomorrow is less than 500 miles but we also loose an hour against the clock and the drop closes at 4:30. We have often been getting in after 6 PM. Now that we know local dispatch has work, we will not be trying to find any on the way home. If we drop early on Wednesday we could be home by mid-day Thursday. I'll be ready to go on Friday but likely BB will not be coming with. If not, that will be a first in 10 years. 2024 09 24 CA-OH 1 bus to Columbus OH spending the night at Englewood OH BB was up and walking before I got out of bed this AM. But even with an early start, it was 8 AM, not 7 AM when we got going. 1st stop was in Effingham, it was supposed to be about 10 miles before Effingham but that rest area is closed. And by the looks of it, maybe closed forever. So we ended up at the Petro. They used to have an Iron Skillet and have a huge parking lot in front. Now they have a IHOP. It was big news a few years ago that all/most all the Iron Skillets and Country Prides were going to be converted to IHOP's. I can't think of any others that were converted. 2nd stop was in Brazil for CNG. Two of the three pumps have been removed, but the one that is still there, still works. While stopped, I call my local bus dispatcher. I agree to take something on Friday, we have not decided what. I had wanted to go to New Orleans, but cars right now are $400 a day so $800, not sure the pay would cover the travel. I mentioned that to the dispatcher and they said they have gotten a couple of cars for $60 daily. I've tried lots of things, so far nothing works. MA was the only bus I said I would not do, 1,300 miles in two day? No longer an issue, the last one of those is coming down today and will be leaving out before Friday. IN is the most likely bus for me. It is within my normal travel range for this carrier and if there is not work in IN, the car home is under $100 and I should be home in one day. DE was the las bus, miles are right, I am just no a fan of the east coast. Maybe I will end up in a tanker truck instead? 3rd stop was at the Loves in Knightstown for lunch. I kind of got spooked parking. Someone had parked a car in the RV parking spots and I didn't come in quite at the right angle. I got within three feet of it, not that close so it must have been that I lost track of it for a minute. Lunch was Subway. I ordered a garlic chicken. When they rang it up there was any extra line for 'spicy' something. I didn't ask, and I didn't notice anything. From here, less than an hour to the wash. It's been raining on and off all day. Kind of like yesterday only warmer. 4th stop is the Blue Beacon behind the Petro in New Paris. One truck just pulling into a bay when we get there, we pull in the other bay. No wait. And they are almost done by the time I have paid. Not sure what they did nor did not do but I have a receipt within a 100 miles of the drop saying it was washed. Once we were done with that I tried to call the drop again but they must go home before the 4 PM listed on the website. I don't really need to talk to them, they already know I am coming. While we are stopped, I call the Best Western near Columbus. On line says they have truck parking. On the phone they say they do not. And that people who have been parking on the street have gotten towed ... and in their lot there are storage containers. So maybe next time. We looked at a few others again, we had looked at them last night. The only one in Columbus that would work was the Holiday Inn ... for $180. We decide to pay half that and stay an hour outside Columbus. Didn't really want to get up that early but it's worth the price. 5th and final stop was the Comfort Inn in Englewood. It's 4:30 local and we have about two hours to go before we are at the drop. Once we are checked in and have the bus unloaded, I walk to the Waffle House next door and order eggs and bacon to go. Load board US - 150 IA - 0 MN - 0 WI - 5 Hopefully we make it back as far as IA tomorrow, then we will have less than a full day until we get home. 2024 09 25 CA-OH 1 bus to Columbus OH (delivered) 1 bus to Blackwell NJ (Friday) spending the night at North Liberty IA rental car pickup, drop bus, back to the hotel, lunch at Steak-n-Shake, RA at Farmers City, local dispatch calls ... NJ is the only option, Morton Culvers, Loves Davenport, Trader Joes/Walmart, Chicken Chick, Jersey Mikes, local dispatch tomorrow?, Sleep Inn, BB's back. --- 4:30 AM home time, five time zones away from where we were five days ago. We had decided to leave our things in the hotel and just eat and run this AM. Traffic was not bad, but we didn't have the GPS on and I turned too quick a block before the rental car place. Found a casino that has plenty of room to turn around int. 1st stop was the rental car place. Small strip mall so I parked on the side street until BB text me that she had a car. She was the first one there and it still took a half hour to get the car. They had to wash and vac it, plus all the other things to get the office open for the day. And all at one speed. From there I was about 10 minutes from my drop. I didn't take any of the suggested routes, instead I stayed on all four lane roads. Still only five turns. 2nd stop was the drop. I called when I got there, no answer. As I am taking pictures of the dash someone walks up. It is my contact. They have me move the bus and then they do their walk around and through and then sign off on my paperwork. Then I look at my phone and BB won't be here to pick me up for another 10 mintues. 3rd stop is back at the hotel to pick up our things. We are still out of our room almost an hour before we need to be. We are making good time. Driving through the city streets in Indy, there is a panhandler on one end of the median. Someone across the street waves some money out the window. The guy hit it right for the traffic lights and was able to get across for the money. Other people behind the giver might not have liked to have waited for the extra light ... The old man was using a cane and he didn't seem to be able to move any faster at the sight of money. 4th stop was the Steak n Shake in Brownsburg. BB had ordered on line so I just got a burger. Good burger. Their season malt was apple and cinnamon. But that had not shown online and we did not wait at the store and order again. At some point local dispatch called. There are no IN buses and the only two LA buses are taken. So I am going to NJ. 5th stop is the rest area in Farmer City. Bought some chips. 6th stop is the Culver's in Morton. This town much like it's ice cream. It has a Basin Robbins, a Culver's, a Steak n Shake and now is getting a DQ. All within about three blocks of the freeway. Where they are putting the DQ, it used to be a Ruby Tuesdays but has been empty as look as BB and I have been coming this way. 7th stop is for fuel at Loves in Davenport. I say hi to the guy at the next pump ... he is moving from WA to FL. He can't handle the 180 days of rain now that he is retired. But because of the storm coming in, they are staying a few days here in IA. 8th plus stops are near Iowa City. The first of those stops was the Walmart in Coralville. The plan had been for me to go in and get something off the shelf to speed things up. But before we got to Coralville, BB sees there is a Chicken Sandwich Chick a couple of blocks away. ... and I looked it up while BB shopped. ... and we get there and it is not open yet. Now I need to find other food. 9th stop is also in Coralville, but a couple of miles away. Jersey Mike's. Chicken Philly. 10th stop is the Sleep Inn in North Liberty. Luckily nothing interesting on the interstate today. A couple of days ago in OKC there was a semi that dropped it's trailer in the travel lane. They had three of five lanes closed. Earlier that day I was coming around a bend in the passing lane before I saw a cop car up against the cables. I was able to get slowed and into the other lane. There were about five cop cars before we saw the opps. Someone had hooked the cables and made a mess of their car. Load board US - 152 IA - 3/0 MN - 1 WI - 2 2024 09 26 CA-OH 1 bus to Columbus OH (delivered) 1 bus to Blackwell NJ (Friday) spending the night at home No rush to get going this AM so we didn't get an early start. 1st stop is the Loves in Floyd for fuel and restroom. We didn't need fuel but it'll save us a couple of dollars because of how much cheaper it is. 2nd stop is the shipper to pick up our car. Their one lot that has had van shells in it for the last two years is finally empty. Once we are at the lot, we switch out our stuff from the rental to our personal car, BB goes in to use the restroom and I go in to drop off paperwork ... and to see if there is anything new interesting on the walls. Boss is walking my direction when I walk in, he thinks we have a trip. No, we don't. We are just getting back. He has time so we talk, he used to be a driver and he seems to like to reminisce about his driving days. Including when he used to drive buses for the same dispatcher that is still dispatching the buses today. BB has switched the drop location from the airport to Burnsville. It's easier and then she can eat while I stop at the lab. She leaves out first from the shipper and when I get to Burnsville, I do not see her at the gas station so I head directly to the rental car place. She's not there either so I go to Honey Baked to get my lunch. By the time I get back to the rental car place and parked, she is just walking out. She had gone to a different gas station this time. As we are leaving Burnsville, local dispatcher calls. Just confirming that I am leaving tomorrow and that I will run on my own I-Pass. I had thought about asking who the other drivers are but didn't. After my lab we make one more stop, at Walmart. They've changed things. 1) they have put up posts so people can no longer park on the sidewalk. 2) they have moved the order pickup area and increased it from 6 to 40 spots. My lawn is still shorter than everyone else's. I assume it hasn't rained in the three weeks we were gone. Load board US - 192 IA - 3/0 MN - 3 WI - 0 Tomorrow, BB will drop me about 7:30 at the office where the bus will be. It is almost 600 miles to Holiday City OH. The Quality there has a huge lot if I can make it. The 2nd night will be somewhere in eastern PA. We have not stayed in that area so we are guessing and looking at maps. Saturday I will the the bus washed, then Sunday there is a Cat scale about 10 miles from the drop. We must scale within the state of delivery on these buses. From the drop it is less than 10 miles to the airport. Cars should be <> $100 a day. Two days home. I had tried to call about NY buses but never got an answer. May or may not call on Friday. There are two RV's in IN going back to Forest City but I'm leaning toward not committing to anything until this bus is delivered.. |
