1 mixer (trash truck) to Gilbert MN (delivered)
... spending the night at home
Bacon was good, egg patties were good, juice might have been 'enhanced water,' it was a hand written sign.
We ended up getting going a little later than usual instead of a little earlier than usual. We could have gotten to the customer at 7 AM instead it was about 8:15.
I was pretty sure after looking at the drop location that we were looking for a trash truck, not a mixer. But we drove past all the mixers first and the VIN in the window did not match any of them. But the first trash truck we got to, the VIN matched and the sign in the window was the name of my drop. Bingo.
We did our inspection and found I had a light out. I asked the yard driver and he called service. My light is on the chassis. Not their problem. (It likely could have been fixed in five minutes.) I call dispatch and they say run with it, so I do. I also let dispatch know that I am moving a trash truck not a mixer, no real comment that they opps'ed. And I find out that I need to leave 1/4 tank of fuel in the truck and I am picking it up with about half of that.
I do have enough fuel to get to Owatonna where the fuel is cheaper. It also gives me a slight idea of what the mileage will be. I'm guessing 10 mpg for the 300 miles plus another 8 gallons to bring it up the the 1/4 mark. No one seems to be in a rush here at the Kwik Trip. One guy is just blocking a pump, the truck ahead of him has long gone and he never does fuel when he gets back to his truck.
Others have to pay inside first and then go back in after fueling before pulling ahead. Luckily there was just me in line. When I leave there is a half dozen people waiting for pumps ...
Richie Bros auctions is just north of this Kwik Trip. They just had a two day auction ending yesterday. Not sure how that works now. Lots of stuff parked in their lot but do they have an auction truck like old style auctions? Do they drive the equipment past a set of bleachers? Is it all online? I have no idea.
Yesterday, BB's map software had us going up county roads and via St Paul. But when I looked at mine this AM it had me getting to I-35 and going up through Minneapolis. That is what I did and why I was fueling in Owatonna.
We were behind rush hour so no major slow downs. BB stopped a few times to look at the load board, I kept going. Plan was to meet BB at the Kwik Trip in Cloquet. As we pass Forest Lake, I see the southbound scale is open. Hmmm. The main scale from Hudson is closed so they may have more scales inland open.
They do. And the sign before the scale in Cloquet says all trucks must stay on I-35 and cross scale, so that means no exit to Kwik Trip. As soon as I cross the scale and exit the freeway, I text BB and let her know. She had not caught up to me yet since we parted south of Minneapolis.
Traffic wasn't stop and go or even slow and go but it was Friday of a summer weekend leaving town. Lots of traffic, lots of packs where cars bunch together from one slow moving vehicle to the next.
Just north of Cloquet there is a 2nd scale on Hwy 2. Both are open today so I get to scale again. No issues. Just a little lost time.
I had called my drop both last night and the AM and got voicemail both times. When I called again after the 1st scale today and got no answer, I called the number listed for the company online. They did answer and got a message to the person who didn't answer my calls. They texted back and wanted me to call them 20 minutes out from the drop.
It looks like I am getting closer to 7 mpg instead of 10 so I need to add more fuel. I was going to do that at Kwik Trip but I wouldn't have added enough. Now that I am closer I can see how much I do need to add.
I do see one SA station but not soon enough, so when I see a Cenex near Evelyth I stop. One set of pumps and no canopy but it's the fuel I need.
I did look at a map this AM and found which way was the most direct and wrote down those directions. Not the ones the computer wanted me to take.
At one point BB did follow the GPS directions when we got closer to the drop. A few miles down the side road and it became a gravel road. Nope. She did a u-turn and went back to expressway. :)
I found the right roads, but I forgot to look for the street number. I thought I would see the shop and other trucks from the road. But when I felt like I had gone too far, I realized the fire numbers were also their street numbers. I had gone too far by then so I had to turn around and come back a short ways. If I had seen this drive, I would have known where to turn, it looks the same as online but I must have been looking at something else right then or met someone right then.
When I get to the drop there is one guy standing by his pickup. No one else is around so it is good I kept calling so he came in to meet me. Him and three grade school kids :) They all did a good look over of my truck and as soon as I had all of my stuff out of the truck ... they all climbed in and went for a ride. We saw them in town taking a tour with their new truck. (missed that picture)
Dispatch never dispatched me this morning so I can't close out the trip myself.
Neither of us have eaten a meal since breakfast so we decide to go to Gordy's Hi-Hat that we have heard about. That is about another hour back in the direction of home. By the time we get there it is almost 3 PM.
... and there is a line. I'm guessing most of the time we were there there were 20-30 people in line waiting to order. Busy, and it is the middle of the afternoon.
We have never been here so we want to try as much as we can. We order a burger, rings, wildrice soup and a blackberry malt.
The burger was good, we'll order that again. This time we split all of the above. The rings were OK, onion was good, batter was OK. Soup was not the best we've had, that is still Mystic Lake Casino. Malt was good, but may try a different flavor next time.
We hadn't realized how long the line for food was so we had sat in the car at the restaurant while I called dispatch about my last truck and then a different dispatcher about my next truck. The truck to IA was gone so the best one now for sure is the vac truck to IL. I called on it before but we didn't want to end up in CGO for the weekend. Today I call again to line it up for Sunday and ...
It is now not ready until Thursday. Not sure when that changed, BB and I had looked at that trip many times and the dispatcher I talked to earlier hadn't said anything about it. My guess is another driver called the shipper on the trip and the truck was not ready.
So now we have no where to go. There is one truck going to Cicero but it is a trash truck so we don't want to pick up over the weekend (too many issues recently) and there is not enough room for BB to ride with and it is too close into CGO for comfort.
We watch the load board for the rest of the day but nothing good. I did not call the local dispatchers, sometimes we have trips coming out of Duluth :)
As we drove, we checked hotels again today. All of the chains that are in our price range ... usually in our price range, are either sold out or are 4x our price. We didn't see any cancelations, or they were gone as soon as someone else canceled. So we head home. We used to come up to the north shore more in the summer, before we had AC in our house. Now I guess we just sit indoors.
We are stuffed, but we still stop at Tobies for donuts. All they have left is rolls. Caramel rolls, cinnamon rolls. And a few cookies and a few sugar donuts. So we go next door to the gas station :) And get their last lemon bismark, last glazed donut, last maple long john. Would have gotten the last blueberry bismark but it was already gone, only the sign was there. They could tell which kind they were by looking at them but we couldn't. They are better fresh but not when one is already stuffed.
One more stop at the Loves in Forest Lake. Cheap gas, place is packed, line waiting.
... and home again, safe at last ...
Loadboard
US - 118
IA - 1/0
MN - 7
WI - 10
We still have two weeks to work before heading out on vacation so we will be watching the loadboard starting Monday AM.