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AM

UGGGH

Weather had forecast that I-80 would be closed (except for car) for 12-14 hours. We thought it was to start at 5 AM, but nothing yet. That will delay my drop but not BB's ... if that's the only delay.

PM

We are shut down in Laramie, WY. Forecast says we will stay shut down until 5 PM tomorrow ... and the sun sets at 4:30 so we need to be off the road by then.

2 RV's, one to UT, one to CA ... made it to Laramie, WY tonight.

Breakfast, the usual, eggs, sausage and yogurt. Apple juice smelled fermented, the orange juice tasted like water.

Thick frost on the windows this AM, couldn't figure out why my headlights wouldn't work. They were working, I just couldn't see them with all the frost. Got going before daylight. I guess we didn't look at the sunrise time when we decided when to get going. BB hasn't said anything about it so it must have been OK. We were on the road for about 15 minutes before first light.

1st stop was the rest area near Cozad. We had enough fuel to get to our 2nd stop plus a range of 30 miles extra. I had thought of skipping the rest area and just going on to Cozad for fuel. That is what we did last time. We decided to go for it.

When our range got down to 50 miles we got a warning. When the range got down to 25 it stops counting. So I slowed down a little and the gauge was below E when we got to the station. The way it was dropping I think we had a range of about 10 miles when we stopped, so about a half gallon of gas.

Lots of birds today. 100's in various ponds and fields. Must be the right mix of food and open water. They look to be mostly geese. Not sure how much room they need to land and take off between birds. Some were coming into a pond but it was right as I was passing the pond and I had a truck next to me. Priorities.

Did see at least one truck laying on it's side in the ditch. Doesn't have to have had anything to do with the weather.

No scales open yet this trip. And we would be exempt from most of them. We are under 10,000# but some still say to cross the scales. Looks like they are going to build either a new scale or rest area just west of Ogallala on the east bound lanes.

2nd stop ... 10 miles is a long ways when your fuel gauge is below E, but we made it. We had said WalMart so that is where we went, fuel was the same price at the Casey's. Not sure why that doesn't get updated. Next time I will likely just stop at Casey's. Less stop lights to get to it and back to the freeway. Not sure what the difference is on the two RV's, I can squeeze in almost a gallon and not be running any on the ground. On BB's when it stops, if you re-start to see if it is full it is running on the ground?

Plan had been to eat here in Ogallala but it is not even 10 AM local ... so we'll eat at our next stop in Sidney.

Mileage is better today, yesterday when it would downshift the mileage was down to 4 mpg. Today it drops to 8 mpg, less wind ... so far.

I see and think of dozens of things every day that could be added to this write-up ... if I could only remember them.

3rd stop is at Arbey's in Sidney. I couldn't see if the taco place a t Love's was open yet or not. That is our stopping place if we don't need to eat. French Dip for me, turkey club for BB. We were done in a half hour but killed an extra 15 minutes just because.

We did see one short bus in transport, I could tell it was already decaled so I didn't think it was new. Missed the placard with the name but the plate was one of ours.

4th stop the POE in Wyoming. Two minutes and $20 and we are ready to go. We had seen it on the overhead sign and now again on the screen on the POE. I-80 CLOSED to high profile units, wind gusts 65+. We are supposed to shut down at 30 mph gusts. That is at Laramie and supposed to last until 5 PM tomorrow.

A few gusts before Laramie were moving the RV's around. On a couple of hills we had to slow way down, the RV kept wanting to tach out at almost 7,000. So there must have been a huge headwind. Usually I run under 2,000 and the 1st downshift puts it at 3,000, 2nd downshift at 4,000.

5th and final stop is Laramie. First we fuel at the Love's, if the pump would give us our discount it would have been $.03 less at the Pilot. But fuel here is $2.69 instead of $2.19. Truckstops are already filling up with RV's.

Then across the freeway to the Comfort Inn. Not even 4 PM and we are off the road (It would have been tight to make it to Rawlins in daylight.) Too early to eat so we are in for a while. We got an upgrade, second night in a row. This one has a jacuzzi. Can't remember the last time we used one of those.

Looks like I will have plenty of time to be on the computer ;)

About 5 PM local we drove the mile to the Iron Skillet / Petro for the buffet. Not a lot of good stuff, BB was wondering if Monday's are the left overs from the weekend. Might be why the price is less on Mondays? But, as always, we didn't go away hungry.

Got back and the cookies were gone, this motel serves one batch of cookies every day. When we checked in they said they would be ready at 4 PM. I was going to grab one on the way to eat but we went out a different door and I forgot. Yep, all the cookies were gone and there was one truck in the lot. Or do they just set out a plate with crumbs and say 'sorry.'

Lot board is up again, they added quite a few yesterday. 44 was the ending number. A couple of RV's to FL would have been our longest run.