Trp 84 for 2007 - Cincinnati to Elizabeth CO - Venturo Crane with a Mace missle alongside Cool truck - ok trip. Ford F550 chassis with a Venturo truck mounted crane arm moving from the Venturo factory on the north side of Cincinnati to their sales rep in Elizabeth Colorado - about 30 southeast of Denver - east of Castle Rock on Hiway 86.
Winter trips are speculative trips. You see them on the job list then check your calendar for conflicts - as with medical or dental appointments or perhaps a wedding anniversary. If none of that going on and it's ok to be out of town you check weather - short range, long range - all ranges taking into consideration the time to get to the pickup - the time en route and the way home. Winter adds so much uncertainity to this work if you're a weather chicken as I am where the goal is essentially to avoid almost all 'weather'. Nice dry pavement - I love it. Light winds, no fog, no sleet, snow, no freezing precip - no black ice on road after dark - the whole range of winter conditions I'd like to avoid.
There's one winter condition that can't be avoided - the dark of night. With the sun setting at 5 pm and rising at 7 am it's guaranteed much of this work will be done in darkness - for me increasingly another factor I want to avoid. Over and over however I find the logistics require at least some of each trip to be done in the dark. I'm not afraid of the dark - just not crazy about a long night drive and in winter the nights are indeed long - 14 hours out of each 24 hour day.
This trip would entail a deadheading leg on both ends as there wasn't any obvious tie in. Also I got the job on about Dec 6th, 2007 and the job order indicated teh truck would not be ready to move till Tuesday the 11th and needed to be delivered no later than Tue the 18th. That's a large window and the more time we have to work with in winter the better.
I booked Megabus from KC to Chicgao then a second leg from CHI to Cincinnati for the night of the 10th - arriving CVG the afternoon of the 11th. Had planned to spend Thursday the 13th in KC - leave early on Friday and deliver Friday afternoon so I booked a 7 day advance Greyhound DEN-MKC seat for $59.
Any plan in winter is a hope and this one got caught up in an ice storm - freezing rain - that fell Sunday night into Monday. The ice was worse to our north and south - St. Joe and all of north Missouri took it hard with most home in St. Joe going dark for two or more nights. Here in KC some lost power - we didn't - and there was about 1/4 to 1/2 inch accumulaltion of ice on lines and surfaces. Bad but not real bad.
The low and storm moved east and I was concerned about the 90 minute connecting time I'd have in CHI Tuesday morning so opted to slip my travel by 24 hours - leaving KC Tuesdday night vs Monday night. This got me tanged up with Megabus' policy on changes to existing reservations. They have a stated and apparently strict "no change" policy within 24 hours. If you decide at 8 05 pm on Sunday that you want to change a reservation you have for 8 pm on Monay you're "SOL" - out of luck. No changes - no refunds - no way. I managed to get on their website and screwed things up pretty good - it's cumbersome to use if trying to make a change and somehow their site allowed me to change one leg of my two-legger but not both. Hmmm - a call to a human could surely straighten this out.
Called the 1 800 BLUE BUS number and heard the no changes policy verbally but also got a 2nd number for Customer Service. That rep repeated the policy - no matter we'd had a semi-major ice storm - all trnsportation was disrupted. She simply parroted the policy that if their buses were running then all reservations remained in effect and if you couldnt' get to the bus that was your problem and no refunds and no changes since by now I was within the 24 hour no-change zone. Hmm - we both restated our positions - major ice from me - no changes withing 24 hours from her. That call ended badly - the rep hung up on me and I was facing a botched up reservation that now wouldn't work at all since I'd disconnected one leg from the other by a day. I could opt to buy a totally new reservation but that would be good money after bad with no way ever to recoup the $44 fare from KC to CHI.
Waited a while and tried the CS number again. Got a different agent - started at the beginning and got a much better receipton. This rep could not refund anything but I was able to add about $28 to the $68 I was already out and get a pair of seats that would work. Not great - I was now paying about $90 for the MKC-CHI-CVG travel - more than I would have paid on Greyhound for a more direct routing via STL and IND but I had seats and if past experience held true a less crowded coach than with anything Greyhound runs across I-70. So I was ok - not great but ok then the rep sweetened the deal by comping me two future travel legs - those could be used last minute so they're protentially worth quite a bit more than the additional fare I was paying. One way to make me forget past hurts - comp me or send me out with a tank full of diesel or spiff me. The work is about money and a freebie is always welcome.
Nice lightly loaded coach to Chicago - about 10 boarded at 10th and Main in downtown KC - another 15 joined us for the 1 am stop in STL and we arrived CHI about on time, 6 30 am. That was great - time for a breakfast panini at the Corner Bakery Cafe - time to admire the Great Hall's trees and decor and time to board my 8 am southbound coach for CVG. The trip was looking up as this was the one main question mark - making the connnection in CHI.
Arrived downtown CVG at 3 pm - city bus to Tri County Mall and a courtesy pickup by one of the owners of the Ventury plant - got my truck and was out of town by 5 pm - in rush hour traffic but the truck's small and agile so I had no problems reaching the open highway - headed for Louisville and west toward home.
Even though I complain about night driving I still do plenty of it -" the exigencies of the service" an old Air Force phrase. This one quickly became a night drive with the early onset of dusk then dark. I had opted the southern routing from CVG to KC - the choices being north to I-70 or south to I-64. Either way I'd end up on I-70 at STL but the I-64 routing see less traffic and fewer scales than I-70. It's a lonlier road with fairly long stretches between services - there's good and bad in that aspect of the route but overall I prefer it to I-70.
The Great Hall in Chicago Union Station - Chirstmas 2007
I got the truck with 3/4 tank of fuel - nice way to start a trip and thought I'd make it easily to the major truck stops east of Evansville IN - at Exit 25. However not far into the trip I could see I was not getting primo mileage - these F550s with any sort of load get fairly low mileage for small trucks. I do better in a full size road tractor - the Mack daycab single axle units typically getting 9 to 10 mpg. This F550 was showing me about 8 or 8.5 mpg - that was an estimate before a fill to fill calculation was possible . 75 miles per quarter tank which meant I'd need fuel before Evansville - and it would have to be ULSD. Found a regular station at Ferdinand IN - not cheap but then I saw I had to have fuel to reach Evansville so added 4 gallons of $3.529 fuel - about 35 miles worth and even with that I was sweating Exit 25 - not truly a diesel scare more of a diesel heads up. Filled at Pilot after circling two stations and probably 20 diesel bays to find the ULSD island.
Evansville and fuel at Pilot for the "bargain" price of $3.059 per gallon - nice to be close to three buck fuel again after the excursion to higher prices over the past couple of months. Still wouldn't have a good mpg check till the next fill but the vibes were 8 or so mpg and the dashboard readout agreed. Game plan was as usual - "drive till you drop" and I dropped not too long after Evansville. Got to the Nashville IL exit between Mt. Vernon and STL and gave it up - cab nap in the 25 degree sleeping bag as a vacant parking lot. Couple of hours there and I was a go for STL - wanted to get through there before the morning rush and I made that goal - fueled again on the west side at QT MP 222 - less the bargain - $3.199 but still ok. Saw later I cudda shudda gone another 16 miles west to Mr. Fuel where diesel was I think $3.09 but no crying over a few cents now and then.
Daylight run on to Kansas City with home in sight around 10 am. The rear ouriggers of the truck kept me from getting into our driveway which is steep and a lot of vehicles drag trying to get up it - so moved the unit to the "concrete washout" are near our place where I can walk to and from the truck in about seven minutes. Home and done with the first leg - home also to wait out a snow forecast of 3 to 5 inches overngiht and into Saturday.
My timing on delivery was originally set for Friday and I'd planned to use the Mon to Friday commuter but - Front Range Express Bus AKA FREX - from Castle Rock to Denver and then Greyhound's 10 pm coach to KC. That was then and this is now - my delay by a day on the pickup meant my delivery would shift from Friday to Monday still tied to the FREX sked. Receiver was ok with that and volunteered a key ride from his home/office north of Elizabeth CO into Castle Rock's Park and Ride lot. Also it meant my Firday bus ticket was no longer "great" it was only "good". Normally Greyhound drivers don't much care about the dates on a ticket but in case the coach is full they do sometimes get sticky about such things and that would be a problem I'd deal with in Denver on Monday - my new delivery date.
We did get about 3 inches of snow - I'd moved the truck to Lowes from my closer in spot - thinking it'd be safer at Lowes in case of a big snow - the 7 incher we didn't get. As it was up on the Lowes lot it looked like a scant two inches and there was no problem. I opted to leave KC around 4 pm Sunday - drive for several hours and either cab nap or get a bone fide, honest to God motel room then do the rest of the trip Mondary morning. Part of the "new" deal was delivering between noon and 2 pm - receiver's preference and since he was offering a ride that would otherwise cost me $40 or $50 I was intent on keeping to his sked.
The only real weather concern was the night crossing of Kansas. They'd had a foot of snow around Hayes in central KS on Friday night. The Kansas DOT showed I-70 to be snow packed Saturday and I was concerned about the slush and wet roads refreezing Sunday night - but as I got to Russell then Hayes I found roads to be dry or merely damp -no ice and no problems. I got to Wakeeny - a little more than 300 miles into the 600 mile trip and decided I'd had enough. I could actually go on - sleep weary and make Elizabeth by daybreak but no real reson to and I'd feel much better getting a motel - doing a mostly legal ten hours off the road and completing the trip in an orderly manner Monday morning. Good plan - first motel in the small town of Wakeeny on a Sunday nigh was "NO VACANCY" - big surprise since there was no highway problem to force travelers off the road. Here rose an "X" factor - the sort of thing you can't know from a distance.
Big pipelline project undeway in central KS and the cheap motels of Wakeeny were filled with pipeline workers. Hmm - might be the case everywhere but no way to know without trying so on to Motel number two. They did have a $30 room and that was good for me - supposedly "non-smoking" bu I knew that didn't mean much in small, indie motels. Anway it was a room - the heat was already on - a nice surprise on a cold night - and the TV worked and it had hot water. Nothing more was needed.
Up and out at 6 am CST - 5am MST for the final six hours driving and a couple of hours food/bathroom/fuel stopping. Breakfast stop at Flaglher I'd planned on eathing at the new Hiway 70 Diner right at the exit but it didn't open till 10 30 am -t his was around 8 am - so went into town and at at Ron's - a BBQ place with a blues motif if the wall decor was any guide. Good but standard breakfast. Would love for someone to surprise me someday with something for breakfast that broke all the rules - but two eggs, hash browns, bacon, toast and coffee is the norm and it always hits the spot so why the question? I dont' know - just want to see what other people eat - surely the whole world doesn't do two eggs, bacon, toast every day.
Flagler -in addition to the great Mace missile display in the park - shown above - is also famous as hometown of Hal Borland. I may be the only person who reads the highway sign about Hal Borland and knows who he is. And I've even read his books! My own personal sign on I-70. Hal Borland was a writer who wrote of nature and the out of doors. A nature writer and a native of the west. He pursued his craft in the East so he must have loved writing about the west more than he loved living in the west - probably just following the money and publishing contacts.
I noticed a sign on a building two doors from Ron's that mentioned the "Hal Borland Room" in the City Hall/Library. Well that was too good to pass up since I was there and I figured the Borland Room didn't see many visitors so I went in and found the Library not yet open for the day. But a helpful person in the other side - the City Hall side- invited me around to the Borland Room, turned the lights on and let me scan the exhibits - mostly copies of his books.
He did most of his writing in the 50s and 60s - hence this little downturn in interest since his fans are dead or dying mostly. I'm sort of en route to the latter. For some reason I'd read "Sundial of the Seasons" - a collection of essays about the changing seasons and "Beyond My Backyard" - more nature stuff. He'd be something like Charles Gusewelle, newspaper columnist here in Kansas City. Or rather Guswelle would be something like Borland to keep things in father/son order. Both love the outdoors and wrote/write passionataly of it.
Not much to the Borland room - I signed the visitor log - the entry before mine was back in September 2007 as testimony to Borland's fan base. Someday they'll need the room for storage and I fear the Hal Borland Room wll become "dead storage" and Hal's awards and books and photos will be boxed up, placed in the corner and and made part of the storage room. Anyway I did my part and you've just read of Hal Borland so you're in on his fading legacy.
Here are three Hal Borland quotes:
A snowdrift is a beautiful thing - if it doesn't lie across the path you have to shovel or block the road that leads to your destination
A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart.
April is a promise that May is bound to keep
Lots more at:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/halborland121885.htmlThe Mace missile is the showiest thing in Flagler -well some would argue for the grain elevator but every eastern Colorado down has an elevator not many have an actual 1957 TM-76A guided missle to call their own. I do also like the Loaf and Jug gas station right much as a restroom, Diet Coke and sometimes a soup stop. They didn't have their soup out yet Monday hence the trip to the Mace missile site, then Ron's and that led me to Hal's so it was an hour well spent in Flagler. In fact I seldom pass Flagler without making a stop. Funny the routiines we get into and Flagler CO is one of mine.
On to Elizabeth but first the Limon scale - and a quandary. Small truck - glorified pickup I call the F550. Looks like a pickup, drives like one, it is a pickup but the gross is 18,000 pounds and this is a commercial move so by rights I should hit the scales which are normally open. I was legal enough this day that I had no reason to want to avoid so I did the right thing - I didn't take the road into Limon which is an easy way to bypass the scales - even though signs specifically indicate they're onto such a dodge. This Monday I crossed the scale and it seemed to be round up day - looked like everybody was getting the "Park Left and Bring in Papers" sign. So that meant me along with the OTR guys.
I showed the inspector the faxed registation Dispatch had sent me - the one nobody could read since it was a lousy fax copy. They tried - you could sort of see that it might be a registration and in the end he said "Oh, you're a transporter - go on." I gathered my stuff and left - to hit the TA for one more final fuel - this was my second final fuel. I'd added 3 gallons at Flagler but when I got to Limon decided to add more as a cosmetic thing and partly because i knew the receiver was going to give me a ride. Didn't want to drop a truck on him with 1/8 tank - since he was doing me a major favor. So I added five more gallons - so I'd drop with 1/4 tank. I was still gaining half a tank so I could afford to be generous.
Looked for my cell phone - couldn't find it - looked again - still didnt' find it and figured I'd left it at the scale. Called back to the scale from the C-Store and they looked over the counter - even sent a guy outside to check the lot and walkway - no phone so I thanked them and thought it above and beyond to go outside and check for some forgetful trucker's cell phone. In the end it showed up - down in the dark spaces of my backpack - I mulled it and since I still had the number at the scale called back to let them know I had it and re-thank them for their trouble. Pretty nice - taking time to do me the favor. I'll think a bit better of the Limon westbound scale in the future.
A new Flying J truck stop is a bulding at the last Limon exit - an upgrade in size from the one currently back at the first Limon exit.
Hiway 86 is a two laner - takes off from I-70 at MP 352 and heads across the plains into the rolling countryside - it'd be called the piedmont in other parts of the country but I never see that term applied to the slopes leading up to the Front Range. You see the Rockies - you're in undulating territory but you're not yet in the mountains along most of CO 86. Patches of pines open back to grassland - very pretty drive across CO 86.
It's 50 miles to Elizabeth and my drop was 2 miles north of town in a new housing area on a loop road. It took me two turns around the loop to spot the address - this road was snowpacked from fresh snowfall - maybe overnight - maybe a day earlier and not a lot of it but made for a pretty delivery site. Dave - the Venturo rep, came through with the ride to Castle Rock and the timing was great - I waited about 20 mintues at the Outlets of Castle Rock mall then boarded the FREX for the 30 minute ride into DEN. Four bucks and a bargain for the distance and difficulty otherwise of making the trip to Denver.
Lots of time - I was shooting for the 6 10 pm coach to KC - my ticket was for 10 pm the prior Firday and I decided to do the right thing (again) and show the agent my ticket - mention ice and snow and see what would happen. Wasn't sure how they'd handle the change since my ticket was a seven day advance purchase ticket for $59. It worked out good - I paid another ten bucks and got a nice and legal ticket for the 6 10 coach - thus in case of a filled coach I would not be sent to the back of the line for having a wrong date ticket. Ten bucks to be legal and I was early enough to be not quite first in line but fourth in line. Good enough. Basically you set something in the line to keep your place - any one piece of gear or all your gear then depending on your comfort level with a bus station full of strangers you can stand or sit near your stuff and watch it like a hawk or you can leave it and come back about 45 minutes before the bus time and hope it's still there. Either way the "honor among thieves" works pretty well and i typically am all over the place - in and out of the station, all over the station. I don't leave the are but also don't sit alongside my stuff. Years of such trust have so far been rewarded with never a lost bit of gear other than the bag that burned on the JL coach earlier this year.
Driver Ron was our coachmaster - I've ridden with Ron several times - a steady driver who does what you most value on an overnight ride: he stays awake, stays off the PA, holds lane position and you don't hear the rumble strips every 30 seconds. Zippy sked - DEN- Colby KS meal stop, Salina meal stop and driver change, Topeka smoke stop and Kansas City. Depart DEN 6 10 pm MST arrive downtown KC 6 30 am CST - 11 hours 20 minutes. Excellent way to cross Kansas. I don't sleep well but managed a few hours and the coach was blissfully quiet - no crying kids, nobody on an all night cell phone call, no Nextel walkie talkies, nobody with pounding hip hop music coming through their ear buds. Nice ride - on time arrival and when I walked across Troost to catch a Route 12 city bus one showed up almost immediately.
Trip stats: Contract Cincinnati-Elizabeth 1229 miles - my trip 1230 miles -over by one mile. My fuel burn 138.762 gallons at cost of $456.26. Fuel economy 8.8 mpg and fuel cost 37 cents per mile. Trip will pay I believe $1.07 per mile making net after fuel 70 cents or $860.00. Costs beyond fuel - motel $35 and transportation $79 Megabus and $73 Greyhound and $6.00 other buses for total transportaton $158. Net after fuel, motel, transportation and KS turnpike around $700. Not bad for what "could be" a 2 day trip. In my case it spilled over part of four days but that was due weather and my own choice to spend time at home en route. The per day calc is thus sort of muddied but call it four days and the per day comes to $175 per day - decent enough.
We're running under new pay scales and in fact a new pay scheme at Driveaway USA. We now have just two tiers - Class C units (26K and under) and everthing else - Classes B, BB and A. Class C pays 40 cents a mile and Class B and up pays 60 cents per mile. The big change is in the fuel surchage which is set for a rig getting 7 mpg. At national average fuel of $3.50 the surcharge would be $3.50 divided by 7 mpg or 50 cents per mile and the motivation is that for a 7 mpg rig the surcharge pays for the fuel - leaving the drivers with the entire base pay of 40 or 60 cents per mile. Thus we're more or less doing fuel paid type moves. The fuel surcharges for diesel at current price is 47 or 48 cents. I haven't checked the DOE hot line this week to see where we stand.
You win under the new pay plan if 1) you get better then 7 mpg in a Class B or better truck or 2) you find fuel onboard since we get paid the surcharge on every mile - not just those we're actually buying fuel for. You lose if you get worse than 7 mpg but there is also a 6 mpg guarantee so the driver is protected against the 5 mpg rigs like the Sterlings we're moving to Dixon California.
One more closing shot from the Colordao trip shown below - the Megabus double decker loading at Union Staion Chicago for Minneapolis in the morning chill - Thurday - 12-13-07. Capacity of about 100 souls and a pretty darned efficient way to move a lot of people with one employee - one driver. No plane or train can touch that for ratio of pax to employee and the capital cost of a bus - even a Megabus double decker - is a fraction of any plane or train. Of course that 35 million dollar Regional Jet can make two round trips to/from MSP wile the Megabus is moving 100 people one time so there is an offset but still the numbers scream - Megabus for efficiency. I think a double decker costs about $600,000.
So why not more such buses? I guess infrastructure - most Greyhound terminals don't have canopies and alleyways that can handle the height. I'm sure they have to pick their routes to avoid standard height bridges - the bus is surely over the 13' 6" height of most semis and large trucks. Actually I don't know that but I'm assuming. Need a fact checker to get to work on that. Neat sight - lots of people moved pretty efficiently.
Megabus - I hope they retain the KC to CHI service but so far I've not been on a coach out of KC with more than about 10 pax onboard and that doesn't pay for the diesel. Must take at least half a coach anymore to pay the overhead - fuel, capital cost, driver, maintenance even for a curbside outfit like MegaB. I booked a $1.00 seat to Chicago for Feb 4th at 8 pm. No idea if I'll need it or use it but saw it and wanted to say I'd gotten a one buck seat to Chicago. That buys about 1/4 gallon of diesel - enough to get from Tenth and Main to about Tenth and the Paseo - two miles.
Thirty Miserable Souls lost in Greyhound Disaster - satire from the Onion. Mean spiritied, biting satire - I can picture myself on that bus.
Have a good Christmas - be safe if you're on the roads and when people tell me that I actually do appreciate it and take it to heart. It sounds trite and routine but trucker to trucker it's a very sincere sentiment. You can tell me that every day I'm out and it won't be taken for granted.
Happy Trails
Dick Williams
Home on hiatus til ??/??/2008.
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