1 trash truck to St Louis MO (delivered)

... spending the night at home

BB had leftovers for breakfast, I had yogurt and a cup of packaged fruit. Last night they had said it was a 'to go bag.' Instead it was all packaged items. There were also burritos and pastries.

Luckily BB and I BOTH look at our computers to see where my drop is. My computer found it right away, but the names on the trucks didn't match, which isn't unusual. But BB's wouldn't find the location and when we looked closer, mine was pegging 196 NW __ Drive next to buildings in the 13000 NW __ Drive range.

Her computer insisted on using 196 NW __ Court. That location was about a mile away from what I had found and the names on the trucks did match.

So a little after 7 AM I did call dispatch. They 1st insisted that the 'Drive' address was correct. When pushed, they said call the other number on the paperwork.

So I did call, that person had been transferred and wanted to pass me off to someone else. But I insisted all I wanted was to know if the address I had, where he used to work, was correct. I gave him the 'Drive' address and he said that was correct. When I told him the names on the trucks didn't match, he THEN looked up the correct address. 'Court' was the correct address.

So the paperwork was wrong, I was wrong, dispatch was wrong, he was wrong ... the 1st time. But I was persistent.

All the other trucks in the hotel parking lot had left by the time we were ready to go.

Two hours to the drop. BB's routing software didn't want us to stay on the freeway near our drop but we/she planned on over riding it so it would re-route.

10 miles from the drop, traffic comes to a standstill. I am in the former right lane and I know two lanes will exit shortly. But traffic keeps moving in the right lane and the white lines are do not indicate the new right lane will end, so I make a move.

I'm good, this lane keeps moving and it splits in two at the exit. I could see the overhead sign almost right away so I knew I was good. Then a few miles down the road people are starting to move left. Once I have a clear sight line I can see there is an accident ahead. But I can also see an exit, then an over head sign showing a re-entrance. It looks like the re-entrance is past the accident so I 'make another move.'

As soon as I am committed, I see that traffic is backed on on the frontage road to get back on the freeway BEFORE the accident. So I look to see if the frontage road continues, it does, so I decide to stay on the frontage. Had I looked closer at the accident instead of the frontage road, I would have seen the last of the people were getting into their emergency vehicles and leaving.

Now I am stuck on the frontage road for another few miles. It moves at about 45 mph and only one stoplight. But by the time I am back on the freeway, traffic is coming in all four lanes again. The road is back open.

To get to my drop, I had written down the street names, but not how far between each turn. Then I see a trash truck heading back to the shop. I just follow from there.

Once I'm stopped, I go to the office, they find someone to sign. He does a quick walk around and signs everything I ask him too. I'm done in about 10 minutes.

We pull back on the street and park so BB can send copies of the paperwork in. We aren't sure about work yet. We decide not to pick up the truck 20 miles from the drop and instead head home.

Two hours down the road, we stop for lunch at Wendy's in Hannibal. Someone's kids are walking across the parking lot and I had missed the 1st open spot to park. By the time we got out of the car, half of the bus load of people from the DQ next door had gotten line ahead of us. We go in and use the bathroom (as did the couple with the kids) and then we both left after seeing the line inside.

I called dispatch, they have included me in the count of available drivers to pick up in Dodge Center again so I am <> committed.

We decide to do Wendy's drive thru. In about five minutes we have our food.

I had hoped to do longer legs between stops but BB thinks the cheapest fuel is in Wayland.

So our next stop is at the Flying J in Wayland ... again. For fuel and the restroom. Turns out fuel is one cent cheaper at the next Pilot in Iowa.

IOWA

Instead of stopping in Cedar Rapids, like the way down, we stop in Center Point like we do with the RV's. Quick restroom break.

We look at our routing software and the suggested route is up US 63 via Rochester instead of getting out to I-35 so we try that route instead. We will likely do that again instead of heading out of Dodge Center though Austin.

MINNESOTA

5:30 is meal time so we stop at the DQ in Spring Valley.

We ordered ...

Fish sandwich

6 piece chicken sticks

Vanilla malt with whipped cream

Oreo malt

We got

Fish sandwich with fries

4 pc chicken with fries

Vanilla malt with no whipped cream

Oreo malt

Two hours left to home.

We get home less than 49 hours after we left. In the last couple of hours, BB starts asking why we are pushing the long days. We don't need to, but if we were going to stop, I would have liked to do it before we are an hour from home. And now it is still daylight at that time of night.

Local dispatch never did call me back so we have the weekend off ... again. This will mean we have worked 2 out of the last 11 days (another 2 of those we were NA.) Doesn't make us feel real good when we see 200+ trips on with the other company and we could have been working every day. I'm still in it for the long haul but maybe this 'being available for quarter end' is not going to work. We would be better off just checking in on days we are home anyways for local/metro work.

We'll see what next quarter end brings. We don't notice it as much if the load board is empty but we may not see that again, this year. Next quarter is the end of June and then we are off for most of July anyway so not a big deal next time.

The money per day on this trip will likely be in the top five for the year. Our last trip for this company was about the lowest of any trip for last year.

Load board

US - 486

IA - 219-3

MN - 5

WI - 5

486! I didn't remember seeing anything over 400 before this year, now we may be hitting 500 trips on the load board.

Today, or yesterday, our state announced that starting Tuesday anyone can get the vaccine. So BB got online and got an appointment. One week from Thursday.

So we have next week to work. Then home for Easter. Then 2-3 days we can work. Then an appointment. And somewhere in there I am going to start doing some non-road driving for about 14 random days. So we likely won't get back to the west coast until May ??