2 RV's, heading to Greer, SC ... got as far as Moline, IL tonight.

Original plan had been to wait until after 9 AM to get going. Then we did the math and realized if we were going to make delivery on Thursday, we needed to get going earlier.

Alarm goes off at 6 AM. I hadn't looked out to see that it had snowed overnight. But I did get out about a half hour before we were to leave to get the van running and move the car. More snow than expected.

And I hadn't cleared off the van after it rained so the doors were frozen shut. Well the locks were frozen, that was the first problem. Luckily we still have one clicker to unlock the doors. One door opened. Later we were trying to get the other doors open and I was inside kicking on them and BB was pulling on them but no luck. Then I got outside and pulled on one ... got the door handle right in my hand ... Opps.

So we put the bags in the van through the front doors.

Slow going but not much traffic. I94 was was mostly clear but I35 had lots of icy spots. No issues on the drive, just everything was taking longer.

Just as well we didn't get here any earlier. FedEx driver delivered the 2020 plate stickers while we were in the office. So now we have everything we need for the year.

No issues, but in the ice and cold it took our full hour. Usually doesn't take quite that long on the small ones. But no issues so we are ready to go.

As we pulled out of our parking lot, I could see where something, a set of duels tracks just about didn't make it. The right tire tracks went way down in the ditch, cutting the corner to short. Must have just happened because the tracks were on top the plowed snow.

First stop is for fuel and food in Clear Lake. We always stop at the Pilot, but today Caseys was $.10 a gallon cheaper. But we were already at Pilot so we fueled. We thought Subway was lunch until we saw the line. And Pilot was out of hotdogs. So we looked at the line again and found a cold sandwich. Mine wasn't too bad but BB's was not good, not as in food poisoning but just yuck.

2nd stop was at the Sinclar in Center Point for a break. We often go past Cedar Rapids to the rest area but this split it more even. While we were there we made our reservation for tonight in Moline.

Once we got south of Clear Lake the roads have been clear. Not too much traffic so not much to write home about.

3rd and final stop is at the Quality Inn in Moline, IL. The rate is somewhere about $50. Not a great motel but the price is good and the staff is nice.

I can see our food when we pull into the motel and it looks busy. I had thought of driving down but it looked like parking might be an issue so we walked. "No tables for two" was their first comment, then they found us one and seated us right away. Then ... we looked at the menu. Steaks and Fish. That was it. So we politely said thanks, but no thanks. (I also found the person who seated us and said the same)

It is New Years Eve and the place was packed with huge groups. They wouldn't even let us get just the salad bar. Even if we had wanted something off the menu it would have been four times what we could eat and about that many times what we usually pay.

SO ... our New Years Eve mean was McDonald's. :) It was kind of like a Perkins at 2 AM. A few people sitting there for hours and not much traffic. Not much help either. After we had our food at our table, I went back to the counter and stood for a few minutes. No one came so I sat down ... but someone had seen me and came to our table to ask if they could help us. Not something you get every day at McD's.

The water isn't high yet this year, at least not this far south. But one park had drained their pond and I could see a lot of dark below where the water line had been. As I got closer I could see that it was tires. It looked like maybe 100's of tires had been dumped in the county park pond. Could be why they drained it?

Looks like there should be five of us in Greer on Thursday based on what we have seen posted. And there are still 14 trucks coming back to IL out of NC so I shouldn't have a problem getting one. Hopefully they will take delivery on Saturday. If not, it's still a paid way back. It would have been nice if they had one of those coming back to MN, but I'm not sure they will put anything else out until these are gone. There were a few more that had been on the board that were already grabbed going to the same place. And now what's left are all flagged as hot. Not sure the point of flagging them hot. They don't pay anymore. Maybe some people are just the 'good guys' and will focus on them?

Hope to get 500 miles tomorrow, past Lexington, KY. That will leave about six hours and delivery for Thursday.

From delivery, it is another 3 hours up to the next truck. Not likely we would get to it before dark. So we would have had to have been in Forest City this AM at sunrise to have made everything fall in place to make delivery on the 2nd truck Friday.