Went to bed early last night, by 8:30. It was an 11 hour day but we didn't even make 500 miles, thanks to the back roads.

We are up way before we have to be. The car rental place is not open until 8 AM.

When I was dropping BB off at the airport, a cop pulled up beside me and rolled his window down. He never said a word, I just told him that I was dropping my wife off to get a rental car. As soon as BB was out, I pulled out, the cop stayed until he could see BB and then drove off.

I stopped for fuel across the street from the airport. I guessed as to how much I would need and only left a gallon or two by the time I got to my final fuel stop. Not much traffic this AM on I-65. It was about 70 miles up to my drop in Alabaster. I hadn't seen on the computer that there was a fuel station right at the exit, but there was so I fueled there.

By now I am within a mile or two of my drop. I don't like these address' that use road numbers, they are often wrong. The one thing the drop had told me that they had a orange mailbox. I saw that a block away. Good news, for some reason someone was at the drop. There didn't need to be, but it always helps. I can park the truck inside the fence, get a signature and leave the keys in the truck.

Right next to where I park, I notice the paperwork in the pickup. It was just dropped off this AM, driven by one of our drivers and came out of Shelby. We hadn't seen it, so NC had put more items out this last week, they just didn't stay long enough for us to see them.

Montgomery had given us a full sized SUV ... thanks, but no thanks. They should knock off the cost of some of fuel when they do that. Guess this person was less than helpful so that didn't happen. The SUV had all the new safety features, alarms for pedestrians, leaving enough room between cars, lane control, etc.

We get near the drop and there is a train stopped blocking the street. The computer had put us on one of the only streets that doesn't have an underpass. Just a small adjustment. We got to our pickup, but I hadn't talked to anyone in the shop so the truck wasn't ready. I had asked if there was anyone I needed to talk to when I called yesterday and was told no, anyone could help. All they needed to do was clean it up, that took about a half hour.

Turns out what was listed as a tractor is a little cab-over Izuzi. Now I need to find out how they decided on my pay when they didn't know what they were giving me ...

My pickup location was a block off the one end of an airport avenue, the airport was on the other end of town at the other end. Pretty hard to get lost. BB had to stop and fuel but someone had left me a half a tank of fuel so I'm good for a while. I stop at a wide spot in the road near the airport until BB called that the drop was done. A few blocks later we are on I-20 for the next 500 miles.

We stop within the hour at Pell City and a City Market Grill and Buffet. Lots of room to park and lots of good fresh food, potato casserole was great. Better than any chain buffets we've eaten at. And for $8.

Fuel at the Walmart was $2.79, we didn't stop but we should have. That was the cheapest fuel we will see. Ended up paying $2.89 at a RaceTrac in Villi Rica. I ended up filling the tank, it only took 23 gallons when it was almost on empty.

So far, traffic had been good, but once on the east side of downtown it was mostly stopped. Stopped, slow and go for the last 30 miles. But we are on no timetable so we just go with the flow.

The motel tonight is a Sleep Inn in Conyers. Food is the McD's across the street. Neither of us our very hungry, if we had been, there was a Longhorn Steakhouse next to McD's.

I did try to call the drop today but the phone rang about 15 miles then came off the hook and hung up, like a voice mail that wasn't working.

Did get an answer back on my prior truck, they had paid me as if it was gas. They will correct on Monday to the diesel pay.