Heading east in this nasty rain. It has been raining , misting or snowing since Wisconsin. Yuck. I am assuming that their memo must have gotten lost along the way, because I am pretty sure I read mine correctly that said it was SPRING and not winter.
Last night I drove us into Indiana. I got to a Service Center on the east side of North Bend. I started driving in Hudson,WI which is right on the border of WI and MN. We stopped at a TA there and grabbed a shower and did laundry. That ate up 2 hours real fast. So I hit the road around 1700 and drove till 0315. Only made it 488 miles in that time, but I was going through Illinios, Chicago in particular, where it was snowing. Only stopped twice also. Once for the bathroon and once for fuel (and of course the bathroom again.)
It seems that our fuel mileage is really sucking. We are doing everything that I can think of to conserve fuel. We are driving between 58-60. Sometimes around 63 depending on the terrain. We are shifting at 1300 rpms, trying not to get the rpms up much above that except if we are going up a hill and downshift. I guess I need to just chalk it up to being up north and having to deal with these hills and mountains. Coming from WA to MA doesn't leave much of a choice in what route you can take. You have to stay up north. Hopefully the next run we will get will be something down south where we can make up some mpg's and do a little better.
Our first delivery on this load is at 0200 local time. And our second is at 0400 local time. Luckily they are both at the New England Produce Center in Chelsea,MA. So that will be nice since they are close. One is at 91 and the other is at 110-122 so they should be almost next door to each other. Then our next stop is in E Providence,RI at 0600 and it is only 60 miles away. Should be able to make that since the first two are at the same place. Then we will see where will go from there. We only have 384 miles to go and it is ust 1437 so we will be a little early. It says that we can not park there overnight, so since we will be a few hours early, I found there is a Service Plaza on the I-90 Turnpike so I will stop there I guess until it is time to drive in. It also says that we have to pay cash for a lumper and that they will not take a Comcheck. It would be nice if I knew how much they were going to charge for a lumper so I would know how much to get. Hmmm I guess we will just take the advance off the Comdata card and hope it is enough.
So that is it what we are doing and where we are at today. We still HAVE to find a Walmart so we can exchange our Microwave or buy another one. They are dirt cheap now and you can get them for $35. But since our brand freaking new one broke, we are spending more money eating out. And the whole point of the microwave was to save money! Maybe we will find one while we are cruising through PA. We shall see......
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7 comments:
Hey Tnet and J... yep I've been back and for between PA and IL a bunch of times in the last three weeks. Some of those hills really eat you up. As you know it's against Schneider's policy to draft but I notice when someone passes me, and they do it a lot, that they almost suck me along with them.
TNet,
Your fuel mileage sucks because your truck is brand new. Mine did the same thing. It's just now starting to get good mileage, and looking better since I finally rolled over 20k. Nothing much to be done except wait it out, I'm afraid.
-drzebra
Does your weekly truck payment also include your insurance? We have been following you and also Jim T. as you switch from company drivers to lease operators. Scary thing to do during these economic times, and positive thoughts and encouragement is sent your way. We need a picture of Bandit in the truck!
Not sure what a lumper these days cost. A few years ago in expediting, it was 50 bucks per hour, and me on his heels all the time...I'll check back for your answer on that!:)
Hey Guys.
You don't write, you don't call, tsk,tsk, lonesome out here.
I had the same problem with the microwave from WalMart. Is yours a GE 700 Watt??
It might be the inverter you're using. I don't have an inverter in here, but I cranked the generator down a couple of weeks ago and the new microwave stopped heating. Cranked the generator back up, and it's fine. If a microwave doesn't get full 120AC it won't work properly.
Steve, that is so funny. Yes, it is a GE 700 watt microwave. But it worked fine for several days so I don't know what the deal is. We actually wanted the smaller 500 watt one just because of the size so we may exchange it for the smaller one when we get a chance to get into a Walmart. We couldn't stop headed to MA this time. Got there with no time to spare. But we are headed to Lousiville,KY now so if you are around there, maybe we can meet up tomorrow or something. I told J to call you in the morning and he said he would.
Bob, I know what you mean! You just get sucked right into their draft. Nothing you can do about it! :)
Craig and Diane, it is a little scary, but we still think we made the right decision. We will see what we think after a few months though. LOL! And I will get a picture of Bandit up just as soon as I can. :)
Silvia, I'm not sure what it cost because it ended up that we didn't need one for any of the stops we had in MA and RI this morning. The one we did use up in WA was $150. Yikes!
Z-It was GREAT running into you. Funny that we happened to be in the same place at the same time. And isn't J's cop face intimidating? LOL!
What Z said about the fuel. When I started training with Trent in this truck, it was pretty much brand new and we were getting the same MPG as you. now we have over 70K on it and we are around 7mpg consistently. Weird looking down and seeing 7.04mpg instead of 6.2 or 5.9. It will get better as the truck gets broken in.
GREAT to see you at PRIME, TNet and J!
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