No need to set the alarm, can't call in for work until 8 AM and then they need time to get the paperwork ready.

Person at the front desk I think was new. They were busy mopping the floors, vacuuming, etc while people were still trying to eat breakfast. When I checked out, it sounded I was the first person checking out, and it was after 8 AM.

Nothing was added to the board so we called in at 8 AM. Lots of dialing and getting busy signals, them not being able to hear us before we finally got through. We grabbed two of the Greer, a big class A for me and the short 22 ft for BB.

Then we called NC dispatch, but by now the board was down to 1 SD non-CDL truck. I asked if we could get work for Monday yet (IA won't give us Monday work until Saturday AM,) we could. BUT I found out that the non-CDL trucks were really CDL trucks, and we would need to stop at a 2nd place in NC to pick up a wood chipper, then go through IA to drop off that chipper, then go up to SD to drop the truck, pick up a 2nd truck and drop that back in IA. I said I would call maybe call back. We didn't.

There are also still trucks in NC going to NE, one straight line, that I could deliver on Thursday, with stops the other one would be Friday, maybe Saturday before we dropped. Nothing left that both of us could drive so the sooner we get back to IA and both of us driving the better.

Got our paperwork, found our trucks ... then we had to dig a hole to park our car. Didn't realize how much heavier this shovel is than our other one at home. We both worked at it, but it was hard work. And we weren't taking our time, that's how people over do it.

Even with the snow shoveling we were in and out in an hour. Until last week, we hadn't gone through Garner for months. Gas is cheaper there so that is where we stopped. It was up since last week, but still $.10 cheaper than anywhere else. Credit card max is $125 so I let it stop there. Should have filled it with a 2nd card, that is the cheapest we've seen anywhere.

Two hours down the road we stop at Evansdale at RoadRanger at Junies. Food was good, all they have for a buffet during the week is a salad bar. I got it without any side, trying to cut down. Only had yogurt for breakfast but that is about all there was ... actually they did have biscuits and gravy plus cold cereal.

Lots of snow drifts as far down as Cedar Rapids, after that we started to see bare ground.

One of our RV's caught up to us in Cedar Rapids, stayed behind us for a few miles and then passed and was gone.

Did see something in Cedar Rapids I don't think I had ever seen before. Geese ... on top of something. Usually they are on the ground, here they were dozens, maybe hundreds of them sitting on top of the rail cars near the Quaker Oat plant.

Water must have been higher weeks/months ago before this last snows. Lots of trees near the rivers have ice frozen to them a few feet up. Where the trees are close you could crawl under the ice roofs. Other places it looks like concrete slaps have been dumped, but it's just large pieces of ice that collapsed as the water level dropped.

Next stop was the Iowa 80 truck stop. If fuel was cheap we would have fueled there, it wasn't so we just used the rest room. No, it wasn't cheap, but it was cheaper than we will have to pay now because we didn't fuel.

No scales open today, I'm 22,000# so I will have to cross the scales.

Another hour and half and we are in Morton, at the Quality Inn ... us and NO ONE else. Came back after eating two hours later and then there was ONE other car in the lot.

There is a Stake and Shake in the next parking lot so we walked there, there was a line so we walked another couple of blocks to the Cracker Barrel. 20 minute wait there but here we waited. Good food.

Both of these places had lines waiting, and we walked through what used to be a Country Kitchen and what used to be a Ruby Tuesdays. Seems something else should have been able to make it here. There are still six hotels within a couple of blocks of these two food places.

This last week is a good example of what can happen in this line of work. I needed to get my DOT updated, and didn't have time to fit in a trip before, so we lost Saturday and Sunday. Monday was the DOT. Then Tuesday I wanted to make sure everything would clear both companies, because I was dealing with stuff I hadn't had to deal with before.

Then it was weather, actually had been weather ... we could have gotten out on Saturday but not since. Then no time to deliver before the weekend so we waited for better runs. Then didn't want to leave and miss the safety meeting, Then waiting for better runs. Ended up being off 7 days for what started out as a one day appointment.

We did 350 today and will do about 500 tomorrow. That will leave about 200 for Sunday.

Airport where we will pick up our car is less than two miles from our drop. Motels are about 5 miles from the drop. We may end up picking up our car Sunday ??? We'll see.

Plan is to stay out when we get back to IA and not go home until mid March.