Motel Parking Can Be The Real Chitz Sometimes.

It's so nice they have a truck parking lot at the Motel 6 in Lawton, Oklahoma...

....but....

1. the stupid thing is dirt and mud, full of big potholes, puddles after the rain, no asphalt, concrete or even gravel

2. no lighting in that lot, hard to see backing at night

So, I got mud all over the bottom of my shoes, mud on the cab steps and the floor mat on the driver's side of my truck is all dirty! Some mud got tracked into the motel room even as vigorously as I wiped my feet on the rough asphalt near the motel and the door mat in front of my room. Mud caked up the shoe sole waffles in my otherwiswe nice Nike Air Monarchs.

I will have to take a broom and sweep the cab of my rented 26' moving truck before turning the damn thing in. I don't want those jerks to hit me with a cleaning fee coz the motel was to cheap to even pave its truck parking lot. There were a number of tractor-trailers parked here at this Motel 6 last night including a rig that said "Panther" on the side. It had a big, sprinting black cat logo.

I had trouble with this Penske equipment already. Yesterday, the car carrier lights were not working coz the pigtail wires were broken. It took three hours for a Penske-subcontracted roadside guy to come out and fix the thing so I got stuck in Lawton and day behind on my move. Lawton Oklahoma is a ****ant town near Fort Sill army post and the nearest damned Penske corporate store is in Tulsa. I had to pick up the truck and trailer from Storage R Us in Lawton. That operation was a total mess! These clowns don't service Penske equipment. They can't even fix a broken pigtail. A Penske store would not have sent a customer out with such broken equipment. I've never had mechanical issues with all the other Penske stuff that I took delivery directly from a Penske store over the 17 years I've been renting Penske trucks and car carriers.

I learned a long time ago to try to rent/pick up/return trucks only directly from the company that owns and services them and not some 3rd party mom-n-pop whose core business is self-storage or lawn mower rentals. Lawton, Oklahoma is a ****ant military town that I will glady depart this morning for good.

I'm headed now to my new home in Pleasant Hill, Iowa just east of Des Moines. Des Moines is a major city and has a bonafide Penke STORE and service department to turn my stuff in, at least.

I move in Friday morning at 10 AM into my central Iowa suburban home. My plan this morning is to get from SW Oklahoma with my car in tow and make at least Emporia, Kansas by this evening. I read online there are a number of truck-friendly lodging places there.

Please pray for my safe 700 mile one-way Penske moving van journey as Iowa is looking at possible snow showers and below freezing weather.

I hate the damned sky-high tolls in Oklahoma and Kansas on Interstates, not even private roads, so I will be shunpiking with my Garmin GPS in the 2023-model International 26' moving truck. Diesel fuel is still much cheaper than tolls and shunpiking only adds about 60 miles and 2 extra hours drive time to the whole trip. I have a cupholder mount for my Garmin Nuvi 1350 LTM that does OK in a pinch. My coolers are stocked with frozen foods as I hate the hamburger joints along the way. Even Motel 6's have micowaves in rooms these days. I'm not a choke-n-puke kind of guy. It's too bad there are no Culver's in Oklahoma and eastern Kansas that I'm aware of. I don't know if Missouri has them along the route I will be taking, I-35, once I bypass the Kansas turnpike zone and headed through Kansas City northbound. The Culver's restaurants in central Iowa don't seem to accomodate large truck parking anyway.

This Penske van I have is a diesel and the guy claims it should average 15 MPG. I did get 13 average in the Penske diesel 22' van I rented back in Boise, Idaho to California going over the Sierras even. It's all flat and open from Oklahoma to Iowa.

It's been awhile since we heard from you Todd. Very entertaining but stupid commentary from you.

He may not be a trucker...

But he sure can gripe and complain like one!

That's whatcha get for using Penske and not U-Haul lol. Who has a bigger footprint in the moving industry, and far more road side repair people.

Will we be seeing a TT meet-n-greet photo of Todd and Rob T. soon?!? 😁

This Penske 26' van stinks to boot.

- 2023 model made in Mexico -roughest-riding truck I've ever driven -a/c blows cold air for 20 seconds followed by warm air for 20 seconds and the cycle repeats itself...a/c should be blowing at a constant temperature once set like every other a/c-equipped vehilce I've ever driven -damn cupholder in driver door is big and pokes me in my left calf -nice Cummins engine but no blower....truck is anemic uphill -I can't figure out how to set the clock in the radio head unit -I can't shut off that stupid lane-departure warning thing...it honks three times like a goose whenever I ride along the white line at the shoulder -this thing is a pig on diesel fuel: averages a paltry 10.2 MPG just highway driving in flat states like Oklahoma and Kansas -split cab seat with uneven surfaces instead of a solid flat smooth flush bench seat so lying down to nap over this split seat is not very comfy

I liked the older Penske International brand trucks I've driven in the past much better. Do any drivers here hate their late-model Internationals?

That's whatcha get for using Penske and not U-Haul lol. Who has a bigger footprint in the moving industry, and far more road side repair people.

I started renting Penske moving vans and car trailers back in 2006. They had nice modern equipment as compared with UHaul and they gave me a 15% militsry dicount being that I;m an Army Vet.

UHaul used to have gasoline-only trucks so I thought the Penske diesels to cost less on fuel in the long haul. The Penske International 22' truck I rented from Boise, Idaho to California did average 13 MPG on that 750 mile trip over the Sierras towing my heavier Oldsmobile even. I did the math. So, the International trucks now are even getting crappier MPG on diesel and diesel, the chit on the bottom of the barrel, is higher priced than gasoline.

UHaul gas trucks, I was once told, used to guzzle gasoline at only about 7 MPG on the highway so the Penske diesel in 2006 at 13 MPG back then seemed like a more attractive alternative. But these days, I don't know anymore.

the stupid thing is dirt and mud, full of big potholes, puddles after the rain, no asphalt, concrete or even gravel

Most drivers would just be thankful for a place to park. I have no problem fitting my tractor trailer into many hotel parking lots.

Will we be seeing a TT meet-n-greet photo of Todd and Rob T. soon?!? 😁

It depends which personality he chooses to be. Will it be Ambrose, Patrick, Todd or one of the many others he's used?

-I can't shut off that stupid lane-departure warning thing...it honks three times like a goose whenever I ride along the white line at the shoulder -

I can help with that. Stay in your lane....problem solved.

Do any drivers here hate their late-model Internationals?

I'm in a 2023 international and it's terrible on hills. Slightly better than our 22s but most of it is how the company chooses to spec them.

I'm headed now to my new home in Pleasant Hill, Iowa just east of Des Moines.

In all seriousness, be careful on your way up. Tonight it's supposed to rain in Southern Iowa with the temp right around 32. They're expecting freezing rain for a couple hours before it switches to snow and clears out mid morning. Des Moines is the cut off point along 35 for the storm. Oh yeah, since it's clearly important to you, the nearest Culver's are in Ankeny or Altoona.

I'm in a 2023 international and it's terrible on hills. Slightly better than our 22s but most of it is how the company chooses to spec them.

I'm in one of our new 24s ours are the same, I'm not a fan. Would rather drive any of our Freightliners or Kenworths.

The international is so small in side my hips run the door constantly, the seat is terrible and it rides like a rented mule.

It has so many unnecessary warning beeps and chimes. The collision avoidance slams on the brakes way too early and unnecessarily.

Plus, it sits lower than our other trucks, so I have to constantly crank the trailers down.

I've never like the internationals either. Fortunately, we only have 2 or 3. My current tractor is a 2018 Peterbilt with a little over 850k miles. I'm happy with it.