I was hired as a drive away driver by Classic Transport in Elkhart and spent 2 months, from late July to mid October, driving around the country delivering new vans, trucks, and cab-over trucks to various businesses. And once a Class C RV to a dealer. Mostly the rigs were UPS or FexEx trucks. Generally, no radio, cruise control or AC. And usually uncomfortable drivers seat. I traveled over 10,000 miles in the rigs, and the same amount in bus, train or plane on the trips back to home base. So 20,000 miles in 2 & 1/2 months. I had so much free time that it doesn’t seem like I traveled that much. But I kept records.
This business requires the driver to pay all the trip expenses, and then you are reimbursed for a portion of your fuel (as it usually works out that they pay less then the cost). The driver will also receive a fixed amount per mile for doing the driving. As you can imagine, if your expenses are to high, it can be touch and go whether or not you’ll make money. My gross income came to $7,000 for 2 months, but the net was only $2,000. So my expenses came to 70% of gross income. A 30% return. Better then a savings account and easy work too. (I haven’t figured taxes yet but they should be low). Some trips I netted 47% but others were much lower. The lowest return I made was -4.7%. Yes, I lost money on a trip to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Of course I made several mistakes, including missing an exit and running out of fuel. If I did the same trip again, I think I could make 25% income or so. Canada is pretty expensive. Travel and learn…
One big thing I found while driving was that I love the train! What fun during the return trip. Low cost, often being the same as bus. Easy to make or change a reservation, fun to ride and watch the scenery, easy to stretch out and sleep (some trips took 3 & 1/2 days). OK to bring your own food and beer onboard, etc. I had been using the bus…what a nightmare. The train is the only way to go. As they say on SNL, “Amtrak, the travel choice if you’re carrying weed”. But no, I didn’t see anyone doing that.
I didn’t have the room to take a camera with me, you must travel light, I used one carry on luggage sized backpack/wheeled bag. I had to have a blow up mattress and a blanket, plus clothes for all seasons, plus shaving kit, phone, etc. No room for my camera. So I didn’t get any pictures of my adventures on the road. Neither did I get any of my stay in Elkhart. There really isn’t much in Elkhart that is worthy of a picture. The 3rd month I spent in Elkhart I was nursing a back problem so I didn’t get out much then either.
I resigned my association with Classic Transport in mid October and headed out of town on my way to Quartzsite, Arizona. But first I got lost…
I use a program named MS Streets & Trips 2002 that I had gotten free at Lake Tahoe. Usually it was accurate enough for my travels around the US but it lead me wrong on my way out of Indiana. I was trying to bypass the major portion of the toll hiway into Illinois to save some bucks. Well, I did accomplish that, but the misdirection by the program cost me an extra 4 hours of driving time. Damn Microsoft.
So, since I’m four hours late, I arrive at my son-in-law and daughters farm in the dark. I’m driving down the gravel road, and since they haven’t cut down the damn weeds from in front of their driveway sign, I miss the turn and float out onto thick, sticky, clay infused mud! I get 100′ into this stuff before I realize that I ain’t goin’ no further. And that I can’t turn around or back up. So I spend the night there at a steep angle in the mud, next to a 12′ deep ditch. While I’m walking around the rig inspecting, the damn mud is sticking to my shoes. Ended up with 10 pounds of mud I had to scrape off before I could get back in. Next morning I get my bearings and find that I can walk to their place (didn’t know that the night before, I was a little lost). So I walk up there and bitch them out for ignoring me the night before when I heard them drive into their driveway (didn’t know it was them at the time – and they had to have seen my rig, it’s huge!). Since Brett has lots of experience with getting stuck in this mud from outer space, I take his advice, wait two days while the mud dries and finally with his Dodge Ram 4 wheel drive truck, we pull out the rig. Like I said, it was right next to a 12′ drop off so we were all a little worried. And it rained later that night. Whew. But I forgot to take a picture. Damn.
After spending a few days there, I head off south westy taking the most back roads I can. Of course the MS program lead me wrong from about 3 miles away from the farm, but I wasn’t in a hurry and didn’t care. I wandered around like an idiot (IOWA) for several hours before the map and reality started to agree. Then…zoom! Off down the road. Funny that once I got out of Iowa, I was never just wandering again. The maps and reality always agreed. Guess it’s true what they say about Iowa.
There weren’t any cool pictures to take on this portion of the trip. I discovered that Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Texas top hat are not picture worthy. Even though I don’t have film anymore (digital camera), it still wasn’t worth taking any shots. I followed US-54 all the way to I-40. Then west to outside of Albuquerque. I stop in a little town named ‘Grants’ in New Mexico for a day.
When I leave Grants I head south on US-53. This takes me to the privately held Bandera Volcano and Ice Caves. The season was nearly over so I had the place pretty much to myself most of the day. I trekked the trails and got a few pictures but it was cloudy so they didn’t come out as well as hoped.
Here’s the access trail up to the caldera.
The caldera.
A collapsed lava tube.
Entering the ice cave.
And inside…the ice is actually 20′ thick. Little hard to see however.
After spending the morning at the volcano, I headed up the road to the El Morro site. The El Morro has been used probably for 12,000 years, as it is the best source of water for hundreds of miles around. As a result of that fact, there is ancient as well as recent carvings on the sandstone along its base. The little pond is the reason people have been stopping here. It was really interesting to be able to see a message left by people hundreds and thousands of years ago. The modern dated messages started with the Spanish from the 1500’s through to about 1790 and then Americans that traveled through in the 1800’s.
On the trail to El Morro. El Morro is that big mountain thing there. The whole thing. The dark streaks are water trails that drain into that fenced area at the bottom of the monolith. That’s the pond that attracted so many travelers over the centuries. The rose color of the trail is the result of using colored stone, found near here.
The pond. It isn’t a spring, just rainwater that drains down from the monolith. But it stays all year. It’s deep and nearly clear. Would be very refreshing to a desert traveler trying to get to California during the summer years ago. There is evidence that the ancient Indians built a dam here, old logs and rocks, to trap the water. It’s still working after a thousand years.
Little hard (or impossible) to see but this shot is of graffiti on the wall over there.
This is some of the really old graffiti. The darker writing was by the Spanish in 1609. The age of the other petroglyphs under the dark writing is unknown but could be 5,000 years old, more likely 1,200 or so.
After circling the base of the monolith and looking at all the old graffiti, I started up the trail heading towards the top of El Morro. This is a shot looking back on the trail. I liked that giant rock just hanging there, ready to drop over.
At the top of the monolith, is this box canyon. After you skirt around this canyon you climb a little more and find an ancient Indian village.
Anasazi once lived here and built this village on the top of El Morro. Note the style. Rectangular. Right next to this style, and used at the same time, are round structures. Then there are many other structures just beyond that have fallen to ground so they know that there were as many as 800 people living here once.
This is the kiva…
The ancestors of these people still live near here.
Here’s the plack.
