Oklahoma City to Pontoon Beach (E St Louis) with a 40' bus.

Down for breakfast at 6 AM, 1st people down again. Sunday, they have bacon. So I still have both bacon and eggs ... and yogurt. Am not really back to doing one or the other yet.

Parking lot lights must be based on time, not light. They went off right at 6:30 and it is still dark. But all is good and we are ready to roll.

We are on the toll road today, and the company doesn't pay tolls for this run. The total for today is $10. Our EZ-Pass doesn't work in OK so we have to pay cash.

1st stop is Tulsa at the Flying J. When I come down the ramp, there are three lanes. I pick the middle one thinking I will swing wide ... guess this lane is to go straight ahead. But I've got my blinker on the person who pulls up in the correct lane seems to understand what I am up to. We are waiting for cross traffic and one of the semi's takes a left in front of oncoming traffic. Luckily the other person was able to stop.

It's Sunday at the Flying J and the car lot is full of bob-tail tractors. We end up parking along the curb, then in and out in a few minutes.

2nd stop was in Mt Vernon. When we get off the freeway we see that the ramp to get back on the freeway was closed. Detour is to head back south west two miles and make a U-turn. Today is another Subway, this time in a TA. This TA also has Champs Chicken but in the other building. Strange layout. I just looked up Champs and it is served in most of the states except the NE. In MN there are two locations in Mpls that serve it but not under the Champs name.

Sandwich was good, we were in and out in a half hour. I wasn't looking forward to back tracking and BB mentioned she had seen a sign that was facing the truck fuel pumps, I went and looked at it and it listed taking the frontage road to the next exit (instead of back tracking.) So that is what we did.

The closest thing to excitement on the freeway today was seeing a burned out pickup in the on-coming traffic. We met the fire truck leaving and later the tow truck coming. So fresh.

3rd stop was at the Rolla rest area. Except it is no longer a rest area. It is now listed as truck parking, but it has an outhouse so we were good. Fast in and out.

4th stop was for food and fuel. We had talked about going to the Hen House, but I guess they serve 'family style.' Where they bring enough for the family, in a common dish and everyone dishes up there own. We don't need that much food and don't have a way to take it with us. This locations seems to be on it's own. There is a chain of Hen House's near Kansas City and I have seem the name other places. Not sure how related they are.

We end up at Denny's. 1st the server brings us food before we order, I get them stopped before they set it down. Then when we are ready to go we get the wrong ticket. Food was good, we both order off the 55+ menu. The only thing I like is the omelette, so that is what I have been getting. This takes an hour instead of our half hour.

Then we go to fuel. I realize that I have driven into my parking spot at the Flying J and everyone else has backed in ??? CNG pump is in the rear. It still doesn't like my main credit card, but after one try I switch to the one that has worked elsewhere, it works. Fueling takes about 15 minutes. While I'm fueling some driver parked close by comes over and starts talking about his trailer. Some of his 'wind' deflectors is coming off. I told him that could do some damage if / when it does fly off and hit someone.

Motel is three miles away without getting back on the freeway. We are on the east side of St Louis so we will be going against traffic in the AM. Comfort Inn. Only a couple of cars and a few trucks when we get here. We'll see how full the lot is in the AM.

Re-did my HOS (hours of Service) this Am based on miles instead of days. I should have over 5 hours to deliver on Wednesday so not an issue.

The next couple of days will be about 400 miles instead of the 500 we've done for the last four days. No fueling tomorrow.

Just had a huge bug walk up my screen as I type this. Not sure where it came from, didn't move too fast so I'm not worried about there being more. I could have brought it in on my bag ... or it could have been here.