 |
|
|
|
|
...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
|
2024 12 10 IA-AZ 2 RV's to Phoenix AZ spending the night at West Des Moines IA My page tags already show what ended up happening but that was not how the day started ... By this AM we had decided to do one set of the TX trips. We had our 1st, 2nd ... choices all written down. We start calling at 7:59. The first two times I dialed it was before office hours because they have a different recording during non-working hours. Once I finally got past that and was listening to the automated answering machine, BB hung up ... ??? ... I finally got her to call in again as I still hadn't talked to anyone. Good thing she did because after four minutes on hold, the automated receptionist sent me to voice mail and hung me up. Now I had to dial in again and I was at the bottom of the list. About that time BB got through but all our trips were GONE. I sent an email to the boss, and got an email back. They aren't happy either. Later when we got to the office I found out something else. Both BB and I call the same number and try to get the same dispatcher. That didn't used to be a problem, the next person in the office available would pick up. NOPE, no more. Now if you dial in, you are in que for that dispatcher only. So no work ... maybe because of their new phone system. BB was planning on stopping at the store before we headed out of town so we actually left shortly after find out we had no where to go. After shopping there was still no work but we headed in the direction of IA anyway. WHY ? ? ? Today there is a truck in Grand Junction going to Hugo MN. Where was that trip on Friday. We have never gotten a trip out of Grand Junction but there always seems to be one a few days after we pass through. We could have just used the car in Grand Junction as a local and the truck would have gotten us to our car and then to the drop less than 50 miles from our house. 2nd stop was the Loves in Albert Lea for fuel and then across the street to Trails End to wait and then later eat. We sat in our car for a while, reading the news and hitting re-fresh ... WORK. I don't even look at the whole page before trying to call. BB thought she had been looking every few seconds but was caught off guard. As I was calling, she was looking at which trips to take. AZ. We got them. We must not have really thought it through. We went inside to eat at the truckstop. I looked at Sbarros and their shelf food before getting there 'dish up food.' Meat loaf and hash browns. Opps ... we were sitting there eating and almost let the time expire on our trips before remembering we now have to accept them online. 3rd stop is the shipper, we get there a little after 1 PM. And it takes us about an hour to do our inspections. Still 20 degree's and windy. We each have a half a tank of fuel so we are good until cheaper fuel. 4th stop is the Loves in Ellsworth for fuel. 5th stop is the Sleep Inn in West Des Moines. I walk next door to Steak-n-Shake. I get the garlic burger but instead of a malt or fries, I get chili. Chili was way to spicy for me. Just two tips of the spoon to see if it was cool enough to eat was too much for me. Trashed it all. Days are too short and our timing is off. We got to the hotel just at sunset. Tomorrow there is not a hotel where we would be at sunset so we will come up short on miles. We should have waited and picked up tomorrow. They want us to drive 500 miles a day so these should be delivered on Friday. But we can't do that in daylight hours. So we are going to have two extra days and two extra hotels because we will miss the drop by an hour or two. Drop closes at 3 PM and no weekend drops. And cars are not cheap, or available everywhere. We are going to have to get a local rental to drive to the airport to pick up our one way and then our one way is double the price of our west coast one. And by delivering on Monday we will not have enough time to do any work on the way home. Load board US - 101 IA - 5 MN - 2 WI - 5 Tomorrow we are likely not going to make our 500 miles. There is a motel 20 miles short and then almost two hours over ... unless when want to stay at a Ma-Pa hotel ... 2024 12 11 IA-AZ 2 RV's to Phoenix AZ spending the night at Greensberg KS Seems like I am taking eggs less and less often if they look like they are from powder. Today again I took hard boiled eggs instead, also took a sausage. Out of the hotel and inspecting by 7:15, rolling by 7:30, sun up at 7:32. My mind didn't drift today by Patterson, but memories can back at Cameron ... 1st stop is the Loves in Cameron for fuel. We had had enough fuel to get to Ottawa IF our mileage holds (it didn't, so good thing we fueled.) Somewhere along here there was a semi that passed me, then wanted to come into my lane before he was passed. I was still there so he kept going. Once he did start to pull into the right lane again, he got halfway over and then started drifting back to the left lane. The pickup behind him laid on his horn, and kept laying on it until he was all the way past the semi. Sounded sort of like a train horn ... KC traffic was not too bad today. Light and slow cars and trucks. Right through down town. On the north end there is a lot where they park transporter trucks. It used to be all Kruger Foods vans. Most of those are gone and now there are a bunch that look like un-decaled electric vans. And the back lot looks full of USPS vans. Scale is open south of KC, we have to cross but no issues. 2nd stop is Loves in Ottawa for fuel and then food. Chicken tenders from Hardee's today. In Emporia we get off the freeway. They have built a new Flying J building and there is no longer food there, Huddle House is gone, no fast food either on any sign. Very light traffic on US-50, we didn't often cause a back up going the speed limit. 3rd stop was the Pilot in Newton. Wow. This place used to be packed, restaurant used to be backed. Store shelves and racks were close together and full. To the point we didn't often stop there as it was hard to find a place to park that wasn't in the truck parking. The last couple of times we noticed the lot has been empty so we were not eating today so we stopped there just to use the restroom. Restaurant is closed. Hot food area was empty and doesn't look like it is being used anymore. Shelves and racks were empty in places. Like three feet of empty shelf and then a few partial boxes. One of the coolers looks like it is the leftover stuff from the restaurant. Large loaves of bread, five pound bags of cheese, ect. But the truck islands and truck parking area was being used. But one inspection and it won't be a Pilot anymore. 4th stop is a small convenience store, gas station in Pratt. A Loves. They had a lot of them at one time before they got big in the truck stop business. Not sure if they are building new ones or not. We are running out of daylight. We will not make it another 100 miles to Liberal so we call for a reservation in the next town, Greensburg. 5th and final stop is the Best Western in Greensburg. This is the only name brand hotel between Pratt and Liberal, 130 miles. We walk a couple of blocks to a Dillon's for the grocery store. Their deli is mostly empty with help wanted signs. I did get a chicken salad sandwich and some macaroni salad. BB stocks up on more vegies. Load board US - 119 IA - 2 MN - 1 WI - 4 Not leaving Albert Lea yesterday as soon as we called is costing us. Now the only way we won't be sitting in Phoenix the weekend is if they will take them on Saturday. I will need to call tomorrow AM to find out. If we can't deliver until Monday, then we have to slow down. Our AZ permit is only good for three days, which means we can't get into AZ on Friday. The permit needs to be for Sat, Sun and Mon. Otherwise it would have been nice to get to PHX Friday night and spend two whole days there. Now we are looking at staying in Santa Rosa, Gallup and then two nights in PHX. 2024 12 12 IA-AZ 2 RV's to Phoenix AZ spending the night at Santa Rosa NM Breakfast was bacon ... eggs and potatoes. Lots of guns at the hotel. About dozen hunters were leaving about the same time we did. Didn't ask them what they were hunting in this part of the country. Leaving out before sun up, just shortly after first light. 1st stop is at the Loves in Liberal for fuel. I haven't been writing them all down, but I have been averaging anywhere from 10 mpg to 12.9. Getting paid at 11 mpg so not a huge money maker on the mileage. Better on the fuel price. National average was $3.04 and we are paying closer to $2.50 +/-. After we fuel, I call the drop. I get voice mail so I can't ask about Saturday delivery but their greeting does give the hours ... and says 'no weekends' ... so I guess no weekends. Then I call for permits and after I tell them I want the AZ one for Sat-Mon, they tell me the permits are good for four days. So we change it to Fri-Mon. And they also ask if I want an oversized AZ permit. No, if we needed one, dispatch should have put one in our paperwork. But to make sure, I call dispatch. They do a double check to make sure. No, no one has had an issue with this model yet. And yes, they are still having issues with their phones. My son just posted on FaceBook that 14 years ago today our local 'Dome' collapsed (and all flights were canceled) ... I was in PHX that day. I had delivered and headed to the airport. I told them flights were canceled before they knew about it. I was able to catch a flight the next day. Remember the story well. If you are on standby, never leave the area until the plane is gone ... 2nd stop is Dalhart TX. We park in our usual spot ... on the street behind the hotel. And then walk across the street. I had a very hard time understanding the cashier at the Witch Witch (she did have speech issues) but when I got back to the table I had the same issue with BB (?) ... I got a chicken salad with cheese. They are made to order, we pick a bag off the wall and check off every item you want on the sandwich. All I got was bread, chicken salad and cheese. Good but maybe could have been better ... While we are there, the RV dispatcher calls ... wants to know if we can help test a different version of their fuel card. Sorry, this is our last trip until Feb-Mar. And he is hoping to have answers before then. 3rd stop was the Port of Entry in Nara Vista. For the past few years I have just been holding up my permit as we go over the scale. Today we only have the online copy and I don't know how scales treat drivers having their hands on electronics. Huge fine on the road. So today we get flagged in. We show him our permits and I ask ... they are good with us showing them the 'lite up screen of the permit' as we go over the scale. They know our company and we are <> good about permits. First time I've been in that scale for years. Used to stop every trip when we were buying our own permits. $15, exact change. One guy was really particular. Not much traffic today. Only a few cars past us. Sometimes we have a mile long following because we are driving the speed limit on a two lane highway. 4th stop is the Flying J in Tucumcari. When we came back out to our units, a couple was asking us questions about them. They are from Rochester MN. Then I saw one of the staff emptying garbage in the lot so I asked him why half the parking lot was fenced off. That is where the new EV charging station is going to go. Someday. So I looked it up and Pilot Flying J is putting in EV stations at 500 of their 750 locations. So far these all seem to be for cars. Can't find anyone doing anything large scale for trucks. Those all seem to be for local P/D trips so far and being charged at the home terminal. From here we made hotel reservations in Santa Rosa. Plan was to stop at the Loves and fuel before the hotel, but when we got to the exit I could see the price signs for both locations. Pilot will be $.05 cheaper after discount so I headed there. BB was not happy. The auto area at this station is very small and we have two RV's. She did mention that a few times before we settled in for the night. Next time she will be going to Loves no matter where I go ... 5th stop was the Pilot in Santa Rosa. Then two doors back to the Comfort Inn for the night. Lots of big spots. Six semi sized and six half sized. I've never seen them all full. It is still three in the afternoon here so we go far a walk up and down the side walk. The old Budget Hotel I used to stay at has a new name. The former Hampton, then Super 8 is now a Blue 66 and not open ... temp sign says open but no cars there at all. (looking now online, Google maps shows it was the Blue 66 nine months ago ... and under construction.) The parking lot next to the Motel 6 still has huge craters all over the parking area. The Denny's and then a few other names is now a Cannabis shop. Other buildings that still stand have been closed for 20+ years. When we were done walking, BB went back to the room and I went to the Silver Moon for food. Since 1959. I've eaten here a dozen plus times. Today I get their blue enchiladas. I do remember to ask for the sauce on the side. ... It comes with beans, not refried beans. and without the hot sauce it is just dry white chicken meat and the blue enchilada. I finally ended up eating my leftover macaroni salad from last night with it so there would be something moist. I did eat it all but it took an hour plus. Load board US - 139 IA - 0 MN - 6 WI - 4 We've changed our minds a couple of times and changed the car reservations as well. Now the plan is to stop tomorrow night in Winslow, BB likes that grocery store across the street from the hotel. Then Sat we will get to PHX before the rental car place closes and pick up our can on Sat instead of Monday morning. And we can do something ... not sure what ... but something over the weekend where the weather is nicer. The rental car place is in the hotel next to the Comfort Inn so we can just walk across the parking lot after we park our RV's. There are three food places right there also but not my favorites no matter where we are and the last time we were here there were homeless moving in mass from one place to the next including blocking the sidewalks at the restaurants. We could get past if we wanted, if we had to. Then Monday AM we will already have our rental and can move our RV's to the drop before either place opens. ... the trip continues HERE |
