Trips 21 and 22 - Knoxville/Copley, OH

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

I had called dispatch on Monday to let them know I was available. They didn't have anything at the time and requested that I call back, which I did several times throughout the day. Don't know why they don't set up to just call me when something comes available, but they always request a callback.

Finally, on Tuesday afternoon, they said they had a truck to go from Forestry Equipment in Forest, VA, about 32 miles from my house, to Knoxville, TN - a 300 mile trip. Occasionally, Spirit Miller also has a chase car sitting someplace that they ask you to take with you. This time, the chase car was already in Forest and they asked I tow it to Knoxville and drive it back. I sort of liked that because it would answer early on one of the great mysteries of each trip - how are you going to get back from wherever you are going?

I picked up the truck in Forest first thing on Wednesday morning. It was a GMC 7500, 6-sp, no radio. With some difficulty, I hooked up the company chase car. There are several of these, and this is the first time I had seen this one - a Hyundai Accent with 368,000 miles on it - well worn. Naturally, after getting everything hooked up, the lights on the chase car wouldn't work. After trying everything I could think of, I called the company tech. guy, but he didn't have any suggestions other than to say the lights often don't work at first due to a poor ground and to go ahead and maybe they would start working after 20 miles or so. They never did work for the entire trip. Since this was a chipper truck with signal lights on both top and bottom on the back, I didn't feel it was a great safety issue, but it was the one pain you have to have with each trip.

The drive to Knoxville was relatively uneventful, except for getting pulled on to the scale at the one weigh station I had to pass through in TN. I'm not sure why I was selected. Usually, my experience has been with a new truck you get to pass on through. I wondered if the weight of the tow car perhaps set the pre-weigh scales off. Anyway, I was hoping they wouldn't notice the non-working tow car lights, and they didn't. So went on and arrived Knoxville around 3:30 pm. I managed to make a wrong turn just as I was arriving at my destination, which sent me down a steep hill to a lawn service company with not much room to turn around with a chase car attached. I sort of jerked it around anyway, and managed to get on down the road to the final destination at Wolf Tree Service.

Everything was fine at the drop off. The tow car actually started, and I began my trip back home. As hard as that car looked, it drove great. I bedded down in Bristol, TN for the night and came on home on Thursday morning. Was a good trip with the exception of the tow car lights.


Sunday, January 29, 2006

The dispatcher had called on Friday rather frantically hoping I could leave right away with another truck from Forest, VA to Copley, OH, just outside of Akron. I wasn't available to go out before Sunday morning - had an oyster feast planned with my mother and family in Augusta County. I did say I could leave Sunday morning, and they insisted that I make the 450 mile trip and get the truck there by Sunday night. I'm not sure why the desparation, but I felt I could do it.

So Sunday morning, bright and early (and still full of fried oysters), I headed to Forest to pick up a chipper/boom truck along with a chipper trailer. I noticed when I arrived at the pickup, that their bull pen gate was open and the chain and lock were gone. More on that later. The truck was an International 4300, 6-sp, no radio - one of my favorites except for the no radio part. I'd found on a previous trip to Houston with a chipper that they tend to offer few problems other than just making sure you stay aware they are back there and not backing over anything. This company does a great job getting their trucks ready, so this one was an easy pre-trip. The chipper was already hooked up and ready to go, so I was on the road to Copley, new area for me, by 8:00 am. Since I had to do 450 miles, I was glad to get an early start.

I hit rain before I got to WV, and drove in that off and on the rest of the way. And as alway, each trip has some little excitement, even if you're driving an International 4300. This one was small excitement, but it did manage to show a Check Engine light twice during the trip - once about an hour into the trip and again about 150 miles from my destination. In both cases, it was enough to really wake me up and keep me watching those gauges as I puttered along.

I took my new toy, a Dell pocket computer with Garmin GPS and mapping software along with me on this trip for the first time. I was testing the Garmin City Select mapping software to see if it could guide me and perhaps, some day, I could quit lugging around so many maps. I also wanted it to provide where fuel was available, etc. It turned out to be a big disappointment. It had pretty good maps, but it kept crapping out on me at all the wrong times and didn't provide very good travel information, so this morning I sent the GPS and mapping software back to Amazon for a refund. I'm profoundly disappointed at this point in that.

I made Copely around 5:30 pm and dropped off at the Extended Stay Hotel. The company had a rental car set up for me to pick up the next morning at the Akron airport. Unfortunately, I found that was 25 miles away and a $50 - $60 cab fare. So the search began for another option. Finally found a shuttle service that would take me there for $20, leaving at 6:20 Monday morning. Since the company reimburses me for taxi fare, I'm not sure why I worry about getting the cheapest rate, but it just bugs me to pay such outlandish fares.

I did use my new Dell PDA to check my email that night, and found that my main mentor in the Driveaway business, Dick Williams, was going to be bringing a truck from Kansas City through Charleston, WV on the way to Henderson, NC. Since I would be returning on Monday via Charleston, I called him and we set up to have lunch at the Tamarack Travel Plaza on I-77/I-64 at Beckley, WV.

The shuttle arrived the next morning right on time, I was at the airport and with the rental car by 7:30 am. Have never had Hertz provide such quick service.

I-77 took me right by the Pro Football Hall of Fame at Akron. I was considering visiting, but the early hour was long before they would open and I wanted to get on to WV and meet Dick at 1:00 pm for lunch. I got to Tamarack a little before noon, and got some exercise for the first time in days by walking around and going up to the very large building on the hill that houses the artist shops, etc. From up there, I could look down on the parking lot and see Dick as he arrived about 1:00 pm (that's him in the little Izuzu box truck in the middle of the picture - click on the picture to enlarge and actually see Dick arriving).

Without sounding too weird, it was a real pleasure to finally meet him. We've exchanged a lot of notes since I first got interested in Driveaway, and he can truly be credited for giving me the information I needed to get started in this. And he's quite an interesting fellow. He retired from the National Weather Service and has been doing driveaway for several years. He's very meticulous, and is just an encyclopedia of driveaway information.

I left Tamarack around 2:15 pm and was home by about 4:45. This trip went about as smoothly as any I've had, but it's always good to get home. I think driveaway is good for at least one thing - it really helps you enjoy coming home a lot more.

Now, more about the chain and lock missing at the pickup on Sunday morning. I got a call from Spirit Miller this afternoon (Tuesday) asking if the bull pen gate had been open when I arrived. I told them it had, and asked what the problem was. They said a truck was missing. They called back later asking if I had seen a brightly colored boom truck on the lot when I picked up. I told them I did vaguely remember such a truck. That's the one that's missing. I'm thinking nobody will notice a big orange boom truck in my back yard :-)

Trip 19 and 20 - Daleville, VA to Hattiesburg, MS

Monday, January 9, 2006

I had told dispatch I'd be available this week, but they didn't have anything lined up by Friday, so they told me to call back today. Took them a while, but about 11:00 am got a call from dispatch saying they had an Altec truck from Daleville, VA to Hattiesburg, MS. No indication of how I'd return.

As I've told many, I first got the idea to do driveaway work the last year or so before I took early retirement from 30+ years in higher education. I got the idea from watching out my window the drivers leaving from the Daleville, VA Altec plant with their shiny new trucks to points unknown. After all those years in office work, the idea of driving around the country seemed right appealing. Since this one met my final major goal for driveaway work, I took it.

Daleville is only about 10 miles away from where I live, so after doing my pre-trip work (packing, paperwork, maps, etc.), I headed on over and got there around 1:00 PM. Easy pre-tripping since this was a new International 4300, 6-sp. Was on the road by about 1:30.

Had a good, uneventful trip down I-81, to I-40 and I-75 in TN. Made it to Athens, TN by about 7:30 PM and decided to call it a day at the Days Inn.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

I'm of the belief that each trip has some unusual challenges, so I thought it strange that this trip was going so well. This morning gave me the challenge for this trip. I did the normal daily pre-trip and all was good, so started it up. I noticed that Air 1 was low, which was unusual, but it started building up right away. However, along with the build-up in pressure, came the very distinct sound of air escaping from someplace. I immediately had flashbacks of the Sterling air problem in KY. Don't recall if I said the "F" word out loud or not, but I was a bit taken back anyway.

So I turned it off and started checking for the leak, which continued long enough for me to unlatch the hood and find that it was coming from an air hose connection on the firewall. I pushed it in, and magically, it stopped - never to be heard again on this trip. But, knowing it was there was enough to keep me well awake for the rest of the trip to Hattiesburg, which went well.

I arrived at the dropoff point at an electrical contracting company in Hattiesburg. Dispatch told me they were trying to find a rental car, since bus schedule and train schedule was missed for the day (OK!). I was to go back to Meridian, about 90 miles away, to bring a truck from there to be staged at Roanoke, which was on the way to MA. They also told me that it had broken down on the previous driver and had been left at a Cat. dealer for repair. Needless to say, that didn't leave any really good feelings.

Dispatch also mentioned they'd found no rooms available in the Hattiesburg or Meridian area (still due to the hurricane), so I'd better be careful. That made me feel real good, but I didn't have any trouble getting a Days Inn at Meridian. Took a while to get lined up with Enterprise, who picked me up. Found that I was only a block from the Enterprise location, so I'd waited around for nothing. I could have walked there easily.

Got to Meridian around 7:00 PM and saw the Cat. dealer location off I-59. Got a quick glance at an old boom trucking sitting in the back, and I had the feeling it might be mine.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

This was where the trip started going in the tank. I arrived at the dealer by 7:30 AM, while I still had the rental car. Thought it might be a good idea to make sure the truck was roadworthy before I gave up the car. On first glance, my heart pretty much sank. The truck was all I'd hoped it could be. Very old looking GMC 7500 boom truck with Spicer 7-spd - my first time with this type tranny. Even though it only had 27k miles on it, it was really well worn. Passenger window was down about 3 inches and had been duct taped in that location since they couldn't get it all the way up. Looked like everyone who'd eaten a lunch anywhere near the truck had left the remains inside. I'm guessing it had been brought from MA for hurricane work in the gulf area. I pre-tripped it and tried to find enough wrong to say "no", but didn't, so decided to give it a try after talking with the mechanic that had worked on it.

The mechanic basically said he couldn't find anything wrong with it when they brought it in, so he changed the alternator (go figure). And, by the way, there may be some panel problems that would have to be fixed at a GMC dealer. The panel problems became the bane of the trip. I assume the driver that dropped it off had made up a problem so he could get out of the truck.

The shop foreman was kind enough to take me to the rental car place to return the car, which then got me on the road about 10:00 AM. Within 5 miles up I-59, the Check Gauges light began flashing intermittently. That, along with the exceptional roar of the taped window kept me very awake until the audible alarm began sounding about 20 miles down the road. All the gauges were looking good and it was running good. I checked fluids again and couldn't find anything wrong. Called my tech guy and he said to keep on driving, so I did. I put up with all that noise all the way past Knoxville, TN, where I stopped at a Ramada for the night. Nerves were frazzled from all the noise and commotion in the truck, but it had basically driven well, except for no cruise control, but I did sleep well that night.

Got on the road to Roanoke early the next morning and staged the truck at the T/A in Troutville. Never been happier to be out of one, but it did get me back safely and I guess that's all I should ask. Don't know when it will be picked up for delivery in MA, but I do know it won't be me, and I pity the next driver.