1 bus going to St Louis, IL.

... spending the night in Albuquerque, NM.

Good breakfast, real eggs.

I parked behind one of our buses that was heading to Miami-Dade, they were still there when we left. I did know anyone kept a slower pace than we did. I'm guessing this was the same one we saw at the motel in Santa Nella.

Good news, bad news. Good news is my DEF gauge is working and showing full. Bad news is my fuel gauge is working and showing empty.

1st stop of the AM is a mile down the street at the Flying J. I did the math and I would have saved about a dollar to back track to a TA truckstop. First I realized I would get more than a dollar more in points form Flying J than TA, then I realized it would take about a gallon of fuel to get back to the TA at about $3 a gallon. Don't back track.

One fuel island open so that was good, card reader wouldn't work so I had to go inside to get the pump started. Have to run the nozzle real slow or the fuel backs up and runs out. And have to stop the fuel as soon as the whistle stops. After the nozzle kicks off the next fuel will run on the ground. It is full.

Saw a couple of RV's and a dump truck in transit at the Flying J. Saw a lot more in transit of all kinds today.

BB slept a full 8 hrs but must not have slept well, she even tried sleeping in the bus. And a couple of days ago her phone started going dead fast and the buses have no where to plug in so she's getting bored.

We aren't in a rush so I'm trying to keep the speed about 60 mph. That is what we are supposed to run on the other brand of bus and I often do the same on these buses.

2nd stop is Love's in Williams for a break. I call the inspection place and no appointment needed, I'll try to be there about 8 AM Monday.

Saw three elk laying in the ditch within a couple of miles between Williams and Flagstaff. Thought maybe there would be more after seeing that many but no.

3rd stop was in Holbrook at the Maverick gas station. DEF gauge had started dropping shortly after we left Kingman this AM. In Williams I had picked up a jug of DEF just in case. Don't want to be stranded on the side of the road. Gauge was down to 1/4 when I pulled in backwards to the pumps. Squeezed in 2 gallons and the DEF was running on the ground. The gauge doesn't work so now I need to guess.

The other part of the 3rd stop was at McD's. We had talked about other places but went to the main place we stop.

An hour after Holbrook we are at the NM POE / port of entry. This time the guy in the booth was trying to get his sun shade to come down and just waved me through.

4th stop was in Jamestown at the Flying J. Most islands had two trucks waiting behind the guy filling. But one island was open, my luck day. After I get the pump turned on, I'm starting to fuel and the guy in the next island asked if I had gotten the pump to run. He hadn't. I thought I had but went back to the price side of the pump and it was all zero's. So I grabbed a garbage can and blocked the pump and moved to another lane.

Looked like someone moved the garbage can almost right away, not sure if anyone got any fuel.

About 10 miles from our motel an engine light came on. I've seen it before and it wasn't red so I kept going to the motel.

5th and final stop was the Quality Inn in ABQ. As soon as I was stopped I called dispatch. With this company they know nooothing. Call the mfg. I left a message with the mfg and they called back before I got to the front desk. Just check the fluids and keep going.

When we are at this motel, at least one of our meals is at a Mexican restaurant about two blocks away.

Looks like our plan to get home is to pick up a car on Sunday so we have it when we are ready to leave Monday. We got a car going to Mason City, IA so we can drive both cars home in one trip. Cost is a little more but then we can be done when we get home. We could get home in one day, but then we would have to run down to IA twice to pick up cars or have someone drive us down after they pick us up at the airport. This was the easy way.

There is a run in IL going back to MN, but doing that run would have added an extra day to the rental and extra night in a motel and we would have been doing it for almost nothing. And I need to get home so I can get my DOT medical card taken care of. Can't drive over the road again until I do.

The trip today was pretty un-eventful, didn't see any accidents, no one cut me off or tried to run me off the road. Did see a lot of cops and they were busy. Sunny all day but a little chilly.

Load board ended with -0- CA, 2 OR and a few WA. Hopefully better in two weeks when we are ready to head out again.

Not sure of why things are done the way they are at this company. But if you are delayed due to breakdown, etc and they are paying the motel, they will pay 'what it costs' if you are in the same town (or close) but they won't pay if you stay at a motel that is half the cost if it isn't close to where you should be.

And they won't pay extra miles or time for a wash when you have to go 50 extra miles to find one. But for other things they pay extra, lots extra for things that only take a few minutes. But if I say anything they would most likely cut the extra pay before they would start paying for something new.