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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 2024 12 01 IA-OR 2 RVs to Bend OR spending the night at Burley ID BB is now getting up 2 hours before we are going to leave, so today that was 4:30 local. Plenty of breakfast, just not much we wanted. They used to have Pop-Tarts, they don't anymore. They do have eggs and sausage but today was yogurt and a hard boiled egg again for me. And all the oatmeal here was flavored again so BB had to dig into her stash. Inspecting at 6:30 local, 'first light' is at 6:36. So it is getting light as we pulled out. 20 degrees again this AM but didn't feel as bad as yesterday at the same temp. No wind warnings. The 'wind assist' only kicked on once. Not much for traffic and the roads are clear and dry. 1st stop is the Flying J in Rawlins for a break. Car lot is empty. Most lots are emptier this weekend, some rest area's have been empty. While we were stopped, I checked, the opening for my fuel will not take a truck nozzle. So we can not fuel in back anywhere and the Loves in Green River will not let us fuel in front. And if we try and fail, then we have to back track to get to other fuel. The big dig was working today. As close to the highway as it has ever been in the 20 years I've been driving ... but I was driving, not stopping and watching it. 2nd stop ... so we stop at the Maverick in Rock Springs instead. It costs us an extra $6 because we do not get our discount. But we did save a buck here with my card. We had thought we were going to eat here but it is only 10 AM local so we decide to go on to Evanston. By the time we get to western Wyoming the ground is pretty much covered with snow everywhere. And as we were coming into Evanston, I saw that people were using the hill the pasture where the white buffalo are for sliding. I'm guessing they move the buffalo for the winter? 3rd stop, Flying J ... First it was going to be Arby's but they don't have a microwave for BB. So we go to Flying J which no longer has a Subway. So I was going to get shelf food. But it is Sunday on a holiday weekend and the food area is mostly bare. Two slices of pizza in the area for 4-6 pizzas, two kinds of soup instead of five. Only deep fried chicken where there are usually 10 choices. I ended up with a cup of chicken pie soup and one piece of chicken. It was food and BB had her microwave. This place used to have a full service restaurant with a buffet, that was replaced by a Subway and now they are both gone. Somewhere across Wyoming an RV passes us, one of ours ... not doing the recommended 65 mph. That is the 4th RV we have seen this trip, three of those were with our carrier. And we have met a few stacks of decked chassis heading east. That is it. No mixers, trash trucks, box trucks, buses of any kind or anything else. Very slow right now. After Evanston a few miles we turn off onto I-84. Our less traveled road. And opps, ... BB had told me the next stop was exit 362, so that is where I got off even though it did not look the same as the areal photo. It wasn't. We wanted exit 363, so we had to go to the first cross street and turn around. 4th stop was the Loves in Brigham for fuel. From here BB made our reservation. We could have made a few more miles today but to get to the next hotels would have been after dark. From here we passed both a Wyoming and the Idaho scale, both only require truck over 26,000# to enter so not us ... 5th and final stop is the Best Western in Burley. We've been here before, we've also stayed at Super 8 across the freeway in our early days of running. Most doors here enter from the outside so we want to get our keys before dragging our luggage with us. Then to the room first ... and locking the keys in before we get our luggage ... just to kill some time. This one has an in-house Perkins. That is where I walked to for food. I got a two egg, two bacon breakfast and had them sub toast for the pancakes ... I didn't realize it must have come with toast already so I ended up with four slices of toast. There might be a dozen fast food places within two blocks of the hotel, but I thought I'd have some better food for once. Mileage so far. Friday, shipper to 2nd fuel was 14.5 mpg. Sat 1st tank was 14.2 mpg Sat 2nd tank was 15 mpg Sunday tank was 18.1 mpg ... tomorrow We have less than 500 miles to go, about an hour less driving than today. Our only fuel stop should be to put in the difference of what we have and what we need. The rest will be rest breaks and eat once. And then Tuesday it is less than five miles from the hotel to the rental car and then less than five to the drop and less than five back to pick up the second RV. 2024 12 02 IA-OR 2 RVs to Bend OR spending the night at Bend OR ))) just forgot to do the writeup last night, plenty of time ((( Real eggs, ham and potatoes for breakfast. Headed out when it was still dark, but it was 8 AM home time. Road construction on the freeway bridge so two out of three ... dark, road construction but no rain/snow. Fog today, didn't slow down but did stay focused. BB said at one point that the fog was crystals. I didn't remember being this way often but we have dropped a few RV's near Boise so we have been. 1st stop was Mountain Home. One exit, a truckstop and a few travel businesses. 2nd stop is the Loves and Subway. We fueled first. BB's turn to pay. She had to talk to a few different people that didn't know how to do it. Finally one said, just give me your card and I'll turn on the pump ... YES ... that is what she has been trying to tell them. Then when we came back in, they knew how to do the transaction, plus gave us the $.15 cents off because I had a Loves card. Almost got the money back from not stopping at Green River Loves. Subway. Seems like a lot more bread and less fillings. But a few things have tasted different lately. Shredded chicken philly. More fog, now we are on two lane roads. We start out at 55 mph and I started to think we had put in too much fuel because at times we are getting double mpg at 55 vs 65. Then a ways out of town it goes up to 65 mph. One place it looked like a crash in the ditch covered with tarps. As we got closer I think it as a single home camp. Lots of frosty grass and trees where the fog was. ... and hills. With the speed limit at 65 mph and more hill we are loosing range. As we go through Burns, we see the deli "I" had wanted to stop at. But BB got hungry so we ate at Loves. 3rd stop was Eddies at the south end of Burns. We have lost range. We are down to about 30 miles extra range, but decide not to add more fuel. As we are leaving town there is a sign, 99 miles to next services. Hmmm. As planned we stopped before Burns at a rest area just to check in with each other. BB is upset with herself. She/we should have fueled. Her low fuel light is on and we have close to 50 miles to go. She/we slowed down to 55 mph. That brings me into Bend right where I wanted to be. My low fuel light is no, but I still have a range of 75 miles. BB is down to one bar and the gauge is now off. I stopped at the first gas station but BB didn't want to fuel, it was too crowded even though there were two pumps open. Final stop, Country Inn and Suites. It is in the same parking lot as the gas station. After we check in, I walk across the street to Schlotzsky's. This tastes different also. BB wanted to eat first, not realizing that it would be 14 hours before breakfast is served. And by the time she got done eating it would be dark out. She did get a short walk yesterday while I waited for my Perkins. 92? IA loaded up the board with RV's. West coast RV's. 4 to Freemont, a dozen to Davis. We look at the price to fly back ... $1,350 to get back at noon Wednesday or $750 each to get back at midnight Thursday morning. There is a flight out of Portland that would get us back Weds evening for $150. One daily flight and we would miss the one for Wednesday. Plus luggage and we have lots of it. IA - 92/91 Plan is to call the CA bus dispatcher as soon as we drop. We'll drop by 10 AM, hopefully be done by 11 AM. Then an eight hour drive, plus BB needs to stop a couple of times. Sunset is 5 PM. If no work, we wouldn't be home until Friday. I'd likely call IA about trips but we might try to find work on the coast a few day. Cold here but if we can get down to SFO it should be better. 2024 12 03 IA-OR 2 RVs to Bend OR (delivered spending the night at Redding CA No need to get going early this AM, but we do go down for breakfast at 6 AM when they open. Today I have their egg bake, not bad. We end up pulling out at 8:30 AM. 1st stop if the Shell station in the parking lot. These stations are still not self service, 1st he wanted to put gas in it, that and he wanted me to pull between a post and truck where I wouldn't fit. 2nd stop was the rental car place. We got there early and waited. Then BB couldn't find her car, it was in the 3rd parking lot where we looked it was up above, higher ground, than the other two so we couldn't see the lights flashing when we clicked the FOB. Sounds like the reason the cars are so cheap is there the fog in Portland had grounded a lot of flights so people have been driving to Bend instead of flying. This location already has 20 more cars than they should and they have about that many more coming in today. 3rd stop ... was going to be to stash my car at a retail area parking lot. But they had signs everywhere that <> if you were not IN the store/office for the parking spot you parked in, you will be towed. ... so 3rd stop ended up being the drop. I got the OK right away to leave to get the second RV. But I still had to take off my plate, placards, etc. I told them it was only four miles back to the other RV so we should be back in 20 minutes. It ended up being an our. First issue was the first stop light. Two lanes, left turn lane and the right turn/travel lane. I coming up in the travel lane when someone in the left turn lane started backing into my lane. Locked the breaks up, blew the horn. We didn't get within three feet of each other ... but. Shortest way back to the hotel was past a lot of residential, this street has a median every place there is a cross walk and one place I did not see a person crossing the other lane of traffic until they were in the median. Early AM sun in my eyes and they were in the shadows until they got to the median. They stopped in the median so I didn't. 4th stop was back at the hotel. We load up what we had left in the room plus what was in BB's RV. She goes to fuel at the same Shell station. 5th stop is back at the drop. They are done inspecting my RV so I don't go bug them. Instead I wait for BB and go in with her. My paperwork is done but I wait to talk to the person inspecting before I take it. It only takes them about 10-15 minutes here to do the inspection. We are both signed clear, no driver damage. 6th stop is the grocery store. Not sure how long that took us. Here, likely an OR thing, they charge for bags. While I am in the store, I get a call from the permit company. I thought maybe my carrier didn't want to pay the permit because we had gone a different route, but they had written one of my numbers down wrong. As long as we were talking, I told them that they had sent me the wrong permits and had issued us the wrong type of permit for WY. I've been trying to reach the bus dispatcher a few times but no answer until now. He as work, Colorado. I say we will be there mid-day tomorrow and he says he'll have a bus with my name on it. Down side of a CO bus is we do not make a lot of money on those plus for most cites it will now be five days for a three day run because of the weekend. Being able to leave first thing Wednesday would have been good but we were not going to drive into the night just to get down there. We'll just take what happends. 7th stop was back at Schlotzsky's. I ordered the same thing as last night and then saw that they had no potato soup today. So I just got a whole sandwich. There whole sandwiches are on a different sized bun than there half sandwich. While we were stopped, BB was prepping her food she just bought so I was mostly done eating before she was done with that and would let me drive. So now we are looking at leaving town at noon instead of 10 AM. About a foot of snow on the ground for a ways between Bend and our next stop. But the roads are clear. A little four lane but mostly two lane. But a wider road than coming from OR. 8th stop is the Loves in Klamath Falls for a break. We forgot ... we got to the OR-CA line and there is an inspection station. BB had just bought two banana's and this time someone was there asking questions. (There hasn't been any at the NV-CA line for a long time or they are just flagging us through) Banana's are OK to have ... Coming down US-97 we could see Mount Shasta. So we started taking pictures from quite a distance. Then we got closer and closer. 9th stop - Finally stopped at a view area before Weed. Then seemed to be even closer once we were in the town of Weed. Final stop was the Comfort Inn in Redding. Once we were off the freeway I realized we had been to this hotel before. The restaurant we ate at last time is closed. I asked at the desk the name of the closed restaurant but he's from TX and it's been closed while he's been here. Two doors down there is a Logan's so that is where I called and ordered food. It comes with two sides, but I thought one was enough. Should have gotten what I paid for. It was all good so I'm guessing the extra side would have been also. No call or message from the bus dispatcher and by the time I thought about it again it was after 8 PM. So we don't know what or if there will be a bus when we get there tomorrow. So we will not leave out real early. Load board US - 211 IA - 89 MN - 3 WI - 1 ... the trip continues HERE |
