1 Bus to Austin, TX, delivered

... spending the night in Fort Worth, TX.

Did not leave out at 5 AM, got up at 5 AM.

Breakfast was good, eggs had cheese and peppers in them. Couldn't get the juice machine to work, staff had to do it for me.

Only issue with the hotel was the water in the tub was running and wouldn't shut off. Even with the door closed and the fans running I could hear it. I did let the front desk know about it when we checked out.

We had mentioned making this a non-stop flight. 180 miles in one stretch.

1st stop - Did do a quick stop at the Kerrville rest area, didn't even log any time for it. In and out in under five minutes.

Really not much for slow downs other than in the road construction area's. That is one of the reason's we didn't get going any earlier.

Can't find it now, but there is an old truckstop that we have stopped at before that 'used to be.' Huge place, fast food inside, huge motel next door. Now all that shows on the freeway sign is the fast foods and I think those are kept open by the worker trails parked down the street. Trailer homes with doors every six feet.

2nd stop - Was going to be the Petro because they had the cheapest fuel. But the 1st sign said follow the detour ... and the 2nd sign was after you were on the detour ... we were not. There was no sign saying where the detour exited. So we missed it. The Flying J was only $.04 more so we stopped there instead of back-tracking. And the Flying J was empty so I could back in to get DEF. Place was almost full a few minutes later when we left.

3rd stop was a block down the road, I thought I could see the lines at the Blue Beacon when I went to the Flying J and there wasn't any. Any I could see ... as soon as I started turning in I could see both lines were almost up to the highway. I debated going to the other Blue Beacon across the street but we had no idea how long that line was. How long could it take here??? Well the 1st truck in our line took 25 minutes. If every truck took that long we would still be in town on Monday because we were going to miss our delivery. We had given our selves three hours to be at the wash. We were there 2.25. While we were there, BB walked back to the Flying J and got a sandwich off the shelf.

At one point a truck came in the out driveway and around the corners, realized their mistake and tried to back out. Finally someone who worked at the wash must have gave them the OK to drive backwards through the washout bay. This location has one bay just for washing out the inside of trailers. So the truck was able to use that lane to leave.

Two and a quarter hours, and my wash took six minutes.

I called the drop and left a message saying I would be there in two hours. And we headed out.

Lots of traffic backed up in the oncoming lanes. Lots of cop cars trying to get somewhere to the front of the line. So many that when I heard another siren I didn't think anything of it ... until I looked in the mirror and saw a firetruck in my lane behind me. Five lanes wide and he was behind me so I got out of his way. And just back into my lane before the lane I had been in exited.

Got to the airport about 2 PM and dropped BB off to get the rental car. Glad I had looked at the street views last night. I don't like going into the airports with anything big unless I have seen the street view. At my home airport you can not get in with anything that big. I have seen them stop all traffic so that a bus could back blocks out of where they were not supposed to be.

There was no direct route to the drop so I had written some info down. I was able to find what I was looking for, but I had not looked at street view and the route the computer suggested should not have been . When I came off the freeway ramp, I was supposed to take the 1st right. But the solid white lines said I was not to do that, and traffic was coming so I couldn't unless I stopped in the travel lane to take a right turn from the 3rd left lane.

So I missed my turn, and my only directions were from that turn. A mile plus down the road was another right. I took it guessing I would run into a street on my list sooner or later. I did, but didn't know for sure which way to go. I guessed and got it correct. Then at my next turn I couldn't see the street sign until I was almost under it because of overhanging branches. Luckily someone behind me must have known that all the buses turn there so they had left me lots of room.

My next turn was into the parking lot. Again, luckily I had looked at street view last night so I knew not to go to the address on my paperwork, that was the front desk. I wanted the bus entrance. I pulled in and parked and called the number on my paperwork. No answer, as I am looking for a second number to call someone starts knocking on the windows of my bus. They were here to help, they called a couple of people and found out where on the property to take the bus.

By the time I got there, someone was standing there directing me where to park. Within five minutes they had signed and I was cleared to go. I asked if BB could drive in, not without a pass from the front desk. So the guy who signed off drove the bus and me to the front gate, I unloaded all our stuff ... I hoped that BB had all her stuff in one spot, turns out she did. By the time I had everything unloaded and was ready to text BB, she was pulling in.

SHE had followed the GPS and had a real adventure, U-turns, no turns, driving until the computer could catch up to where she was ... in lots of road construction, At this point she was ready to put TX on my no-go list with NYC. :)

We got out of town.

On the way out, BB noticed someone coming on from another freeway with the back of their U-haul open. Within a mile stuff started falling out and we had to swerve around it. Someone behind them was trying to get them to pull over, took a while but finally they did and we passed.

4th stop - as soon as the traffic thinned we pulled off at a Schlotzskys. Right next door to an In-and-Out but I held my ground. It was now after three and I hadn't eaten or used a rest room since we left this AM before 7. I got the original and BB got the turkey. Interesting bathrooms. Sign said to lock the door behind you ... three toilets, but only toilet paper next to the one on the wall. No dividers between them ... yet.

For a while it seemed like there was a Scholotzskys at every 2nd or 3rd exit. In MN we are down to one in the whole state. Miss them.

Saw lots of accidents again today, most all in the on coming traffic. Miles of back ups.

Saw a few Buc-ees gas stations, the ones with 60 pumps, 84 toilets. Also saw some OYO motels this trip, hadn't seen them before. The 1st one I saw I thought it was an odd name, then a 2nd one, by the time I saw the 3rd one I had to look it up. One new name doesn't pop up a few times in a couple of days without there being more to the story. OYO is the biggest hotel chain ... in India.

5th and final stop was the Sleep Inn and Chic-fil-A in Fort Worth. We had planned on going further but the motels were cheaper here. $60 or so for a Sleep Inn.

All the TX trucks were gone. And lots of new ones out of IA during the day. Some that we wanted more than what was left at the end of the day. But we plan on calling in tomorrow AM to head back to CA. 78 left on the board at the end of the day, more than any of the other last four years that I have kept track.

Most likely we will get something going to the same area, we only need two of the seven going to that area.

Plan to get to northern MO or southern IA tomorrow night and then home about noon on Sunday, do a couple of things and then head back to IA yet Sunday night.