2 RV's to Carson City, NV ... made it to Lincoln, NE for the night.

BB had looked out our window as soon as she got up and saw a truck going really slow and she was thinking ... oh, oh, it's bad. Then she realized that the driver was stopping on the side of the road.

Today breakfast was open at 6 AM like the sign says, we've been here when that is when they start setting up. This place's meat was like a sliced ham sausage. Good. Then I was going to open my yogurt and it opened too easy. Usually it spits at me, this one didn't even pull hard until it was partly opened. I decided to just throw it.

Pulled out about 6:30 ... 10 miles down the road and ...

BANG ! ! !

... our world went dark. Then I realized I could see a couple inches of light at the bottom of my windshield. The hood had come unlatched, flipped back against the windshield and cracked the windshield into thousands of cracks. Blindly got stopped on the side of the road and hoped out, flipped the hood down and realized how may cracks were in the windshield. We thought about what we should do for a few minutes. We weren't sure how strong the glass still was. I pushed on it very little and it didn't seem soft. So I ran tape over the smallest pieces. Not sure it did any good but it made me feel better, like I had done something.

Luckily I had a bungee cord cord in the van that was strong enough to hold the hood down, doesn't everyone carry one of those ???

So slowly we headed out again for another 20 miles. Plan was to drive slowly. Turned out that wasn't an issue, a few miles down the road there were a dozen trucks parked on the side of the road, not sure why, maybe they couldn't make it up the hill last night. But from that point on we were able to follow someone who was going 35 mph with very few passing us.

I tried to think about other things, not all the pieces of glass that could do major damage if the windshield gave way.

Running a little late this AM so the office was open when we got there. We had clickers on the keys so the RV's were easy to find. Took a while to melt the snow off the windows before we could move them. After the front window was clear, BB was going to flick the wiper to get the snow off of it and it came off in her hand. So she had to get the shop to put it back together before we could move it.

Then after we've killed a lot of time, I'm standing next to BB RV when I notice the windows are so tinted that I can't see her placards, the company ID's that are supposed to be able to be seen from 50 feet. We try the only other window and it's not large enough so back in the office to get the experts. Not so much experts as it is there call on a lot of this stuff. We ended up making a shrunk down copy on the copy machine and putting that in the window. More time killed.

And while all this was going on I had asked one of the locals for a place to do my auto glass. I called the place I thought they were talking about and they gave me a number of someone 30 miles away. I talked to them but didn't set anything up. The van would need to be inside at 50 degrees before they could work on it. I didn't have such a place and didn't feel like waiting until spring, but we did talk about it. Then later when we were in the office they asked about the windshield and I mentioned I had called one of the places. They sounded surprised they wouldn't do windows. We finally realized I had called the wrong place. I called the right place and we could drop the van off right away and pick it up weeks from now.

Finally, two hours later than we thought we'd be leaving, we use one of the RV's to shuttle the van to the shop and come back to get the 2nd RV.

1st stop is a half hour down the road at the Kum and Go in Clear Lake. Diesel is cheaper here than the truck stop. This is the place we had said we would stop but fuel was $.03 cheaper at the Casey's across the street. BB needed to run in and use the restroom so I was watching both pumps. While I was watching hers I hear liquid running ... my pump didn't shut off and it was running on the running board and then on the ground. Not sure how much I ran on the ground. BB's stopped the way it should. Neither RV was on E which is always a good sign.

Somewhere before I got to Clear Lake my cruise quite working. These things always seem to be playing some tune. All kinds of warning systems and some can't be shut off. Like the cruise, if the radar sensor gets dirty, the cruise won't work. And what are the chances of the sensor getting dirty ... in the winter, in the country any time of year. So I've been driving with out a cruise most of the day. BB's works some times, some times not.

10 miles down the road from fueling and my check engine light comes on. I pull over and call dispatch. I'm OK to run, but I can't deliver until it is fixed so that likely means dropping in Reno instead of Carson City. And we need to call to make delivery appointments and get permits, all before the weekend. The fun of this job.

2nd stop. We get to the Bonanza buffet in Des Moines just before 1 PM. Good food. Too much food. We take 45 minutes.

Traffic is finally going the posted again. Some playing tag with other truck drivers up and down the hills but other than that nothing else exciting. I hope we've had our fill for the day, week, month. IF we had filed auto claims on all the issues, this would be the fourth one in four weeks. We likely will just pay out of pocket.

3rd stop is the rest area in Adair. Otherwise it is 150 miles to the fuel stop from Des Moines. I park behind an RV in transport. Not ours but I know the plates. Before I get out someone is walking over to me. They are the drive of this one but also work for the company we are driving for. So we talk for a bit, about the work load, about dispatchers. Interesting stuff be we are already running behind. They pull out when we go in.

When we get to Omaha we catch up to the other RV. They must be running closer to 60. My cruise worked for a bout 50 miles before shutting off again. Lots of stuff in the ditches. Cars that look like they will be buried under a drift with the next wind, a semi completely on it's side. Maybe a dozen more today.

4th stop is the QT, in Omaha. Not to be confused with the Kwik Trip. Other than no receipt at the pump, no issues here. But when we went to leave I could see cops coming with their lights on. Just before they got to us, someone in a '70's passenger van pulls over and they pull in behind them. Before I pull onto the street there is a 3rd cop. This isn't going to be a routine traffic stop. But I can't stick around to watch.

BB and I had talked about the scales we'd have to cross. IA is 10,000# and over so we knew we wouldn't have to stop there and it was closed. NE has signs that say exit only if instructed and usually the little RV's don't even trip the sign to say anything ... but today they said 'must exit' ... So someone was watching and could tell we were a transporter, even if we were under weight. I'm thinking this is not a good thing and as I'm waiting in line I'm trying to think of all the things they might be looking for. But they just weight us ... and maybe were looking at our plates and placards ... and gave us the green light.

5th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Lincoln. We had hoped to make it to York or beyond. But it's getting dark and it's snowing and the temps are dropping. Likely to get slick soon.

We check in and then walk to the Tractor Supply next door. These RV's use a new kind of screw head to anchor the plates on. We didn't have any tools this AM so we had just taped our plates on the inside of the window. But when we had someone from the office out looking at our placards they saw what we had done and said that is a no-no. The plate has to be under a plate light. Aw, that makes sense. We have tied them on with tie-wraps before, never knew why we weren't supposed to do that so we kept doing it. Tie wraps, one less thing to carry around. Which brings us back to why we went to the TSC. They had one set of screw drivers and one set of hex type set. We ended up with the screw driver type because they were magnetized and we have dropped these screws in the snow before.

After that we walked to the new Perkins. This is the 1st time we have been here since it has been opened. In the past we had to walk a few blocks to either Arbeys or a Gyro place. Food was good at Perkins. Chicken salad sandwich, soup and we split a pie. Easy order, we both ordered the same thing.

After we got back to the room I had to make sure the new tools worked, they do.

BB did the planning for tomorrow. Pretty easy now that we have done this run a few times. We know what rest area's are closed, what other places are good and quick to stop at. We should make it to Laramie on Friday and then SLC on Saturday and to Reno by Sunday.

We did meet four buses in transit and I was so busy looking for ID each time that I didn't look in my mirror for a plate, didn't see placards on any of them. And didn't focus on the details to see if they were the same brand as we move.

IF we make it to Carson City, it is about 100 less miles paid and about 100 more miles more on the rental car. So timing should be any different to get down to Livermore for a bus.

Oh, BB's check engine light came on after 5 PM so she will have to call dispatch in the AM. Maybe neither RV will get to Carson City.

Long day, it's 8 PM and BB is already asleep. Our lives, this job never seems to lack for excitement.