1 Trash truck to Cedar Rapids IA (delivered)

... spending the night at Waterloo IA

Hostage Situation - IMO

When we look at our emails this AM, we have one. Our email host has changed their rules and we are now 3x over on storage. They do this without any recent warning (they likely sent us something months ago) And they do it mid week when people don't have time to react. So pay up for increased storage or have all your emails refused until you have time to delete excess files. Not a good AM. And we are on the road so I have no idea what or how we have these files backed up.

:(

I thought we'd maybe leave early this AM but instead we are leaving later than usual. Today BB is driving so I can make phone calls once the dispatchers office opens. I send an early text message to dispatch in hopes they start working early. Instead, a few minutes before the office opens, I get a text reply to contact a different dispatcher.

I call them and they do not pick up the first few times. Finally they pick up and tell me that they will be in the office 'in a bit.' That turns out to be an hour later. Not a big deal this time, we are still three hours from the shipper and no other trips are being taken off the load board.

I do ask the dispatcher which drop has the later close time. One is 4 PM and the other is 5 PM. We take the 5 PM, both are almost the same number of miles.

We stop in Avon and switch drivers as I am done on the phone. We stop again in Owatonna for food and fuel and the rest room. It's early to eat but this way the trip in my truck will be non-stop.

No one else here picking up today at the shipper. This time it was easy. My truck was the third one I looked at. I throw my stuff in the passenger side as usual. We do a good walk around and check the fluids.

... I open my 'drivers' door and ... no steering wheel. This is a right hand drive. Dispatch did not tell me / ask me about that. Not an issue for me, just a surprise. So I need to move my back pack so it rides on the left side this trip.

No issues, we are in and out in less than a half hour.

Nine miles down the road and a check engine light comes on. I call dispatch and am told as long as there are not any other issues to keep driving ??? Different carrier? Different drop? I've got the OK to go so I do.

Before we knew it was a right hand drive, I had decided to stick to the 4 lane as much as possible. Now it is an even better idea.

About an hour into the drive we get stopped for one lane traffic. That is long enough for me to look at my drop. Easy. Only about a mile off the four lane with a total of four turns. Memory.

When we get to New Hampton, BB pulls off for a break ... at the wrong exit. But the main road goes around town so she just figures she will go through town. She missed the turn in town that she wanted so it took a little longer. She ended up putting the GPS on then and later it took her off the four lane to avoid Waterloo. Interesting I hear.

Likely the worst of driving the right hand drive was in Waterloo where there was not a white line on the shoulder, just the curb. It looked like I was driving on the curb to keep my left side in my lane. As far as I know, I didn't hit anyone. No one even blew their horn at me. But it has been a long times since I've driving one. Not sure the last time.

My drop ends up being behind another business. We have to drive between the skids and stacks of parts they have to get to my drop. Not sure if it is the only way, but it is how I found it.

By the time I am taking my pictures of my dash, someone is walking out to look at the truck. It is 4:30 so I'm glad we took this truck and were able to get it delivered today. BB has to call me for directions she doesn't think she is at the right place but she is. I sit higher so I had seen the other trash trucks in the distance so I knew I had to be able to get there somehow.

Earlier, at the shipper, I had tried to call this place. One phone number would disconnect as soon as I dialed it and the other was a computer answering machine. I did finally get a real person but 'it was not their area' so the couldn't help me. I finally said forget it and I hung up on them. I should have asked for a phone number when I was here, they have more trucks coming.

BB has not lined up more work nor is there any that is 'great' so we head to find food. When I call in to let dispatch know I have dropped, they try to talk me into my next trip. This dispatcher is good at trying to do that. Most dispatchers just let us do our own thing.

I'm not going to say where we ate tonight because ... as we were paying for our food, the cashier/cook says it's been a long day. BB has a comment and then that person says ... "especially when you aren't feeling well." NOT what I want to hear from the person who just cooked my food. :(

We did eat in today. It is not an easy food to eat and drive. And we were not sure how far we were going to go.

Waterloo/Cedar Falls is as far as we will go. Once we are checked in, we go for our nightly one mile walk. The Hilton something is just across the street from us. Acres of parking and less than a half dozen cars.

1st stop - Rest area in Avon

2nd - Kwik Trip for fuel and food

3rd - shipper in Dodge Center

4th - road work near Lime Springs

5th - drop in Cedar Rapids

6th - food in Cedar Rapids

7th - Comfort Inn in Cedar Falls.

Load board

US - 189

IA - 11/10

MN - 9

WI - 6

There is another tanker in IL, this one going to NV. IF the timing was right it would have been fun. But we are already one week into our two weeks work and the shortest route still requires chains.

There are still two trucks in MN that will work for Friday. There are also two rental trucks that would work if it wasn't Friday.

We have spent hours talking about which trips could work for tomorrow and then for the weekend. None are idea. We are still waiting for those.

Most likely we will take the trip we didn't take today. We should be two hours earlier and their close time is only one hour earlier than today. So we should be OK with that one.