Pontoon Beach, IL to Flint, OH ... heading to Williamsport, PA

Read bad news this AM. Petro-TA where we like to eat the buffets is converting it's restaurants to IHOP's. No more buffets at truckstops. First it was Flying J, then in the midwest it was Kwik Trip and now the last one. No other major chain has sitdown food anymore.

25 cars in the lot at the motel this AM, last night there had only been three. Decided not to eat both yogurt and eggs this AM ... so I had Cheerios instead. Also ... big black bug running across the floor where we sat. I squashed him, any more and I'd say this place has an issue. Ah ... the reason I always try to take up extra parking spaces. This motel was less than half full and someone needed to park right behind me. I think if someone ever does that in front of me, I will just pull up to their car door and go back to my room.

Easy route today ... I get on I-270, that heads straight into I-70 and I'm on that until 20 miles from the motel. Did see snow as soon as we were out of town and here and there all the way into Indiana.

1st stop was in Effingham at the Petro for the rest room. Driveway sign said auto's only but I made it in lots and lots of room.

2nd stop was for lunch at the Country Pride / TA in Clayton. This location doesn't have a hot food buffet, only the salad bar so we both ordered off the menu. Not sure we've ever done that before. I got the beef stroganoff, it was pretty good. BB had chicken. I did ask our server about IHOP, they said this location will be converted within about two years.

3rd stop was the welcome center in Eaton, OH. I'm trying to save my hours so we took a half hour break and walked. (It's just the way the law is written)

Once we got going again we did not have any heat. In the past I was having issues, some things worked sometimes and not others. Now nothing was working. Still above 50 degrees, and we both were bundled up.

Scales today, IL was closed. IN was open but I got the 1st green arrow so I didn't cross the scale. OH was closed. Should only be one PA scale left for tomorrow.

4th and final stop was at the Comfort Inn in Flint. The Comfort uses Columbus as it's address but it is north of the beltway and other places in the area use Flint. After I was stopped and before I could get out of the vehicle, someone from the front desk was telling me I could not park there. They wanted me to park a block away at an overflow lot, they were going to be full tonight. (We'll see) As the guy walked away it registered that the shipping containers next to the building were no wider than I, so I asked if I could park against the building. "Sure" ... so I did. I did have to watch out for the bushes so they didn't scratch the bus.

We walked next door to the Texas Roadhouse to eat. We both ended up eating off the appetizer menu. And it was still more than enough food. BB had the shrimp and I had the ribs. Good.

Another 400 mile day tomorrow. So should be able to do it all in the daylight. Loads out of Iowa are down to 11. Looking at the last couple of years they should be dumping loads out soon, into the high double digits.

I see lots of things that are interesting, to me, every day. But most are fleeting and forgotten by the time I start writing things down.

We will have been out two and a half weeks by the time we get home, I will be out of hours ... and I am way overdue to be back to the clinic. So home we will go as soon as we drop this bus on Wednesday.