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...My Life as 'Drive away' driver
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.. the trip continues from HERE 2024 12 16 IA-AZ 2 RV's to Phoenix AZ (delivered) spending the night at Gallup NM Been a long time since either of us woke up to an alarm, no alarm today either. Today they had bacon, plus I had eggs and yogurt. Out of the hotel by 7:30. But I guess we were not in a rush as it took our full 15 minutes to inspect one RV. I had planned on stopping at Flying J for fuel. But when I got where I wanted to go straight across the road to Flying J, I could only take a right. So I fueled at a Circle C that was on my right. Faster in and out. I was there only customer with 10 pumps. It was a couple of minutes after 8 AM when I got to the drop but I was still the first one in line. As soon as I got my stuff off/out of the RV I asked if it was OK to go get the other one. It is. We head back and get BB's, I don't follow her but head back to the drop. When I get there, there is now another RV here that will be ahead of BB. It takes this guy a long time to bring in his paperwork. BB gets there and I help her get her stuff off the RV. Shortly after that there is another RV from our shipper that arrives. He takes about 15 minutes to come in and drop his paperwork. It takes then about 45 minutes on each unit. They found scratches on mine. I didn't ask them to point them out but I did take more pictures to show that they were minor if there were any. By 10:30 we are done and heading to the airport. First the GPS takes us to where the car haulers unload the cars and we can't access. Then we get to the front of the building and the only signs we see are for rental returns ... and 'no personal vehicles.' But those signs are posted so far in that the only way to go is ahead. We did get out OK but still haven't found the door. Finally we are now coming from the other direction and there are two signs. One for rental returns, and another for personal cars. Finally. Then BB had gotten a message that our JEEP was ready for us. No, we are not driving a Jeep cross country. We want something that gets good mileage, we don't care if it is a 'double upgrade.' That takes BB a while as she has to stand in two lines before being helped. Otherwise at this location she would have to just look for her name on the sign and walk directly to her car. I missed all that and headed back to the first rental office. Once BB is there and we have our luggage moved we go inside to return the first car. They ask how things are going and BB says how the airport rental went ... ... 'Why didn't you just pick it up here ?' ??? ... it said you had no one way cars. ... 'Oh, I can overide that ...' THERE was an hour wasted, and we might have gotten a better car. By now it is after 11:30 so we stop at the last food before leaving Phoenix. Charlies.' Inside of Walmart. Sandwich was great but it took a half hour. From here on it will either be shelf food or we will call ahead. Next stop was the rest area near Rimrock. When we left Phoenix today, it was only two minutes longer to take the freeway instead of taking the back roads to Holbrook. When we had looked at it before it had usually been 10 minutes plus longer to take the freeway. So we decided we could make up those two minutes by not having to wait for stop lights in small towns. BB is watching our ETA as we go. When we get to Flagstaff our ETA changes by an hour. I-40 is closed. Done the road BB is trying to see if there is a go around but by then we have passed them all. And she doesn't know where we are. I say what exit and what town but that doesn't help because she can't find them on the map. As soon as I see the slowdown, I pull off and look on my phone. I can see roads. There is a frontage road on the map that will take us three miles to the next exit. But it is gravel and one lane. One pick up goes past us down the road. Since we have been off the freeway traffic has backed up another half mile. So we decide to see how the road is. Less than a quarter mile down the road we meet someone who says they only got a half mile further and turned around. We do the same. The road now becomes just two tire ruts in the grass. So we decide to stop at Two Guns. It has been a major stopping point at one time and there are the remains of a lot of animal cages still there. It had been a stopping point in the 1920's and has a story about is fall. After we walked around a bit we noticed that the passing traffic was now passing at the posted. Traffic had cleared. So we headed out. The closer was because of the trucks we had seen in the ditch and on fire on Saturday AM. Most of the debris was gone but there was still the freight of one trailer they were cleaning up. We didn't time it but we are guessing a half hour delay? Before we hadn't had time to get to Grants another hour down the road, now we got to Gallup after sunset. Final stop is the Sleep Inn in Gallup. We've never stayed at this one before, not sure why. We often stay at the Comfort Inn next door or either the Quality or Comfort closer to down town. Once checked in we go to Dickies BBQ. One meat and two sides is too much food for one meal. And even their mile BB is too much for me. A mix of mayo and ketchup is about right. Most of the meat does not need anything. Today we did walk at Two Guns plus here to get BBQ and then again after we were done eating. Load board US - 204 IA - 5/1 MN - 7 WI - 0 No trips that work for us. There were two in KS to IA but they add too many miles to get home for Sat. From here we should be able to get to Greensburg, but not likely to Pratt. 2024 12 17 IA-AZ 2 RV's to Phoenix AZ (delivered) spending the night at Greensburg KS WHY ? This AM again there is a trip from PHX to TX on the load board, We are now 5 hours away and no longer have time to go back and get it delivered and home ... Breakfast this AM is made to order omelettes so that takes a little longer but they were good. We were still able to get out of the hotel before 7 AM. 1st stop is Grants at the Loves for fuel. It's not two hours down the road but we don't have enough fuel to get two hours down the road. And this is the cheapest for the area we could get to. 2nd stop is the rest area past Moriarty. One of the two restroom buildings was closed, of the one that was open, the men's had one urinal, and two toilets. Of the two, one was out of order and the other had five empty water bottles laying of the floor in a six inch pile of toilet paper on the floor. ... and the water in the one sink was on full blast with no way to shut it off. Traffic wasn't at all bad going through Albuquerque. 3rd stop is the Loves in Tucumcari. We could have gone further but we didn't know who might have a microwave. I ended up with a GodFathers pizza off the shelf, not something I would custom order but it was the best of the shelf. We think we were in and out in 10 minutes. I looked at my mileage twenty miles down the road it it said I was getting 65 mpg since my last stop. Not sure I'd be getting that with a Jeep. We did have a tail wind for a good part of the day so our mpg was good, but didn't stay at 65 mpg. 4th stop was the Pilot in Stratford for fuel. Tank is only 10 gallons. WHY ? WHY ?? ... now there is a pickup out of PHX going to OKC. Would have been good money and only added 1-200 miles to our trip. Always, it seems, the days after we leave. We did see a few RV's from our carrier today. And they have been still putting trips on the load board. But we only would have Friday and BB wants that day to get ready for Saturday. Then we have three days to work before Christmas. After Christmas we will have another week to work local before the quarter end. Not sure which town, but we come to an intersection and everyone is stopped. I could have gotten into a different lane and gone but didn't When the car ahead of me finally goes, I go also ... SCREAM ... BB thought we were going to get hit ... Not sure by who, everyone is stopped except on the truck next to me that is taking a left turn. We sat there long enough that I checked to make sure we did not have a stop sign, neither did on-coming traffic and the side streets did not have the little sign below the stop sign (That might have said 4-way/all way stop) I'm guessing that at some point this may have been a four way stop ?? Or people had been walking across recently ??? Really not sure. 5th stop was the Loves in Meade. It is just a convenience store with six auto pumps. New, in town, so we don't stop there with RV's or trucks. When we get to Mullinville where US-400 and US-54 split there was an accident. Maybe two dozen emergency vehicles and traffic was down to one lane so I couldn't see much. BB couldn't either. My truckin' friends drove a lot slower after that accident. 6th and final stop was Greensburg. First we drove to Dillon's so BB could buy food. She had wanted to walk but that was earlier in the day. Then to the hotel to check in and then walk across the street to Subway. I didn't find anything at Dillon's I wanted. The only hot food was chicken and shrimp. Not even any great cold sandwiches. Load board US - 222 IA - 7/2 MN - 9 WI - 1 We did just over 600 miles today, leaving before day break. If we can do the same tomorrow we will be in Clear Lake, but won't get our car until Thursday. 2024 12 18 IA-AZ 2 RV's to Phoenix AZ (delivered) spending the night at Clear Lake IA Didn't get going quite as early today as yesterday. At checkout I asked about the tornado as they have pictures showing on their screen in the entry. This person didn't remember if it had been a Best Western before the tornado but does know all that was left was the pool. (Forgot to ask about the basement) FROST this AM. I thought I would use the washer fluid to speed it up. Nope, that just froze on the window also ... and then stopped working. Finally about 3 PM it started working again. So we are planning on filling bottles to carry with in case it gets sloppy tomorrow. Running long and hard again today. No slow downs, just us. 1st stop was the QT in Newton. Across the street from the Pilot. We just have a car today so we don't need the extra place to park. Brand new. Pilot looked empty today, no one at the truck pumps. 2nd stop was the Loves in Ottawa for fuel and food. Not much for shelf food and I didn't want to stand there long looking so I ended up with a hot dog (no bun) and a chicken stick. Hot, spicy hot, was the chicken stick. It didn't say it was going to be and I have eaten many of them from the truck stops. The first bite was the worst, after that I might have lost some of my taste buds as it wasn't quite as bad. I did end up eating it all. Hot dog was not great, different brand. 3rd stop was the DQ at Bethany. Mine was ready by the time I came out of the restroom. And then a half dozen people walked in. If they had been there when we got here, I likely would have gone across the street to the Kum and Go. Another 10 minute stop. 4th stop was the Loves in Ellsworth. We needed to fuel one more time before the airport so we combined it with a rest stop. BB thought the receipt was wrong so we had to go past the pump on the way out. It was right, not sure what code for fuel they were using. 5th and final stop is the Best Western in Clear Lake. No elevator today, no rooms on the 1st floor. We made it in one try. I walked to the in-house Bennigan's. What I have gotten in the past is good but doesn't always sit well with me. So tonight I just got a bowl of potato soup. Home is supposed to get snow tomorrow. If we were really desperate, we could have headed home tonight and been there before mid-night. Instead we will get going at our usual time and hopefully drop by about 11 AM and save one day on car rental. Work - Our rental board had lots of trips today. Out of WY, out of ND, places that don't work for us right now. And of the 10 RV's on the load board tonight, 9 are going to the same place in FL. But ... that's the way it goes. Load board US - 236 IA - 13/10 MN - 6 WI - 2 Assuming the weather is good enough that we do get home tomorrow, we will stay there and not run any errands until Friday. So that means no working Friday. Anything we do this weekend will have to be picked up on Sunday, dropped on Monday so we can be home on Tuesday. 2024 12 19 IA-AZ 2 RV's to Phoenix AZ (delivered) spending the night at home Weather not looking good this AM. Took our house guest about twice as long to get to work this AM. BB is not wanting to drive into this weather. We decided we can return the car to Ankeny by the 11 AM deadline. Breakfast today is sausage and eggs. Real plates, so we are supposed to eat in the breakfast area. We just make sure we bring the plates back down. I had filled four bottles of water in case I needed them for my windshield. One of them leaked as I was walking to the car so I threw that one away. Didn't end up using them but good to have. It took us about half again as long to get to the shipper and back to Clear Lake as it normally would have. Enough snow that it was slick and it was still snowing. Short staffed at the office today so the door was still locked. They are still getting more RV's daily. We look sometimes but not on a regular basis. BB would rather drive our car in the snow than the rental. Now that we have driven 45 minutes in the snow she wishes we had just stayed at the hotel and paid for an extra day ... or two. Cheaper than an accident. We did stop back at the Pilot in Clear Lake on our way out of town for the restroom. No cruise for the first half hour or so. As the roads got better we drove a little faster and finally when they were dry I set the cruise. In Ankeny we stopped at the Casey's we had planned on. All pumps were bagged off so we went a block down the street to QT. BB moved luggage while I filled the car. Mileage was down to 40 mpg after being 55-65 mpg earlier in the trip. When we return the car, there is a notice that we are only supposed to turn the keys over to 'SAM,' no other person even if in uniform. Seems people have been wearing clothes similar to the agents colors and wondering the non-airport locations. Both in STL and OMA ... offering to take the keys as people arrive and then taking the car ... Not quite noon but we go to HyVee, a regional grocer. BB gets some stuff and I get lunch to eat while I drive. Driving is good back to somewhere in MN. A few in the ditch. Only stop and go one place. We stop at Loves in Albert Lea for fuel. Then on to home before dark. No one has shoveled so I make tracks in our drive. Then our garage door opener will not work so we have to use the key. They key gets stuck in the first lock and that takes 5-10 minutes to get out so we can unlock the dead bolt. (both use the same key) We did get in. Local dispatch did call about a mile from home but didn't leave a message. We have enough to do tomorrow that I will not be working. Plan had to have the car back to MN by 11 AM, not to Des Moines by 11. Load board US - 282 IA - 16/12 MN - 7 WI - 3 Off tomorrow, may call if something looks good for the weekend. |
