Finally ... work.

We need to work. So based on the weather and traffic we were planning on leaving our house about 8 AM. As I open our garage door I see our nice shiny driveway ... shiny because of ice. But we can't get our suite cases in the car in the garage so we had to do it on the ice. Slower, but no damage done.

I just kept it slow, most of the time 45 mph until we get out of town.

We stop at the first rest area south of town. I wait in the car and am watching the care next to me pull in ... I'm watching to see if they slide because of the ice. No. But they do hit curb so hard that the passenger's head goes halfway to the windshield. And both people acted like nothing had happened, might be the way they always drive.

A ways from the border, the highway says "Jack-knifed semi ahead, all lanes blocked." BB looks for other routes but none look logical. So we decide to follow the map routing, but when we get to where the map showed stopped traffic, there wasn't any traffic. So we stayed on the road, past the exit, the bridge ... and stop. We were stopped/slow and go for about a half hour.

When we finally did start to move and pass the accident, two trucks were getting towed and a third one was facing the wrong direction on the freeway. One car that had been riding my bumper in the slow and go, pulls out to pass as soon as we cleared the accident ... then pulled in behind me even though I was only going about 45. Quite a while later when I had left too much room between me and the next car the guy finally does pass me ... only to pull right in in front of me. Must have decided that being in a rush wasn't really worth it.

We eat, we sit, we hit refresh sometimes a few times a minute and sometimes a few minutes between. Still nothing we want or can make money on. We go past our usual exit and get to Clear Lake and fuel at the Pilot.

Then we sit and wait again. We are looking at motel options when finally they put three VA orders on the board. We don't call right away, we still want something better ... A few minutes later we finally back the call and get them. It took a few minutes to decide as my/our plan was to stay south of the 'snow line.' about NC to southern CA. VA was not included. But is less than a 100 miles from NC ... so we did take them.

Out of practice, they had more questions than we had answers, so it took a few extra minutes.

Half hour later we are at the lot. We get our paperwork, get dressed for the cold, chat a few seconds with a guy going to Portland.

These are smaller RV's and we actually got done in less than an hour ... in the cold. Our lot is still mostly empty, but the company is parking their overflow in more places, just not giving them to us yet.

On the twenty miles back to Clear Lake we likely saw a half dozen or more cops. One cop hits the breaks and looks like he is going to make a U-turn ... but he pulls into a little used 'nature center.' Whew.

It is freezing cold back at the Pilot to fuel our RV's ... as I'm swiping my credit card I remember we just fueled here with car. But no issue ... for me. BB has to had to use another card, her's gets declined. It must be limited to two uses within so many hours.

We had made reservations at the Microtel as soon as we checked our RV's. The motel is about two blocks from Pilot, Culver's is just across the parking lot. We were not going to walk any further than that. When we get to the motel, some gal is filling her RV with DEF, all bundled up. BB wasn't wanting to wait for me, after standing outside fueling the cold has taken it's toll.

We notice when we walk in to our room it is cold, temp is set at 64 and the heat doesn't kick on after we set it at 76. Fan runs but ...

We walk to Culvers. Place is empty and over staffed. We get our food and eat it there.

Back at the hotel the room is still cold. We didn't unpack anything or use anything so we take our stuff back to the front desk to get a different room. No issues, new keys. The room next door.

It has been months since we have gone this way so need to look at maps to decide stops. This is the fun trip where we drive out into the bay at water level ... then drop into a tunnel to pass under the ships. We've been to this location a few years ago.

IF, IF we had been on the west coast, there has been lots of trips to the east coast. 2,500 plus miles. Multiple units to the same location ... but we aren't there.

We will be less than 200 mile from a frequent shipper ... but it's not a daily shipper so won't know until we get there if we will have a paid way out.

Doesn't look like they put anything new on the board after we grabbed ours.