1 City Bus to Coralville IA

... spending the nights at home

Happy Birthday to ME.

Yesterday we saw service stations with gas and diesel both below $2.00. (On the following Tuesday, I saw an article that said it may drop below $1 before it starts going back up)

Also yesterday I saw a new sign on the Claas dealer in Seward, but it can't be read from the freeway. Print is so small I'm not sure it can be read from the ground. I was going to email them but I would need to fill out a four page form. They'll figure it out.

Today, Monday. Breakfast. Out of the room by 7:30. The Holiday Inn next door finally has a couple of cars in the lot. Last night it still didn't late. Best Western is the usual mostly empty.

Back roads to the wash. 1st RR tracks this trip.

1st stop - we get to the Blue Beacon Wash in Altoona and ... pull right in. No stop. If that has ever happened before I don't remember it. Quick rinse and I'm back on the road.

Next door is a Flying J that used to be a Bosselmans and used to have a Grandma's Maxine's. Then it changed to Max's diner and now it is closed. I looked online and there are only two left open.

Thought this was a non-stop flight to the rental car, but we end up stopping at a rest area, not knowing how long the rest of the trip will take and where there will be bathrooms open.

2nd stop - Rest area in Tiffin for just a couple of minutes. Logged it as a stop but not 15 minutes.

3rd stop - Rental car pickup. It is right next door to an old Menards Lumber so lots of place to turn around. Good thing because the turns aren't all at the correct angle for a 40 foot bus. BB got off and I started cleaning up the bus. Ready to move our stuff here instead of waiting until we were at the drop.

On the last leg I usually need to have notes. But I just right down the basic's so I'm kind of driving blind until I see the next thing I wrote down. Found the drop.

4th stop - When I walk in, they say they were not expecting me until tomorrow. They have been tracking me and I am still in Kearny, NE. :)

... that is where / when I got this Comm Fault warning. So that was telling me that I had lost communication with the office.

The person who needed to sign was not there but the mechanic came out and went over stuff. Even looked in the DEF tank but didn't say anything. Also didn't ask about the fuel. I'm guessing I left 40 gallons in it that I wouldn't have needed to. Big $$. Did learn a couple of things while he was looking things over. I tried not to distract him too much.

While BB was sitting there she noticed that the car was to be returned to Marshalltown instead of Mason City. When she called, they said they could change it ... but that BB had reserved the car to Marshalltown. No ... BB had looked at the original reservation and it said Mason City. No apology but they did correct it.

Because they didn't think I was coming the person who needed to sign had to come from city hall. It took a few minutes but gave the mechanic time to look it over.

45 minutes and we are on the road. BB wanted to stop for food right away but didn't have anything in mind. Any other time I would have stopped at the food court in the Coral Ridge Mall. Just looked at their food list, and yes, I think could have found something to eat.

5th stop - Arbey's in North Liberty. We know where it is, been here before. Easy on, easy off.

See a few RV's today but for most of the day the loadboard is empty.

6th stop - The Flying J in Elk Run Heights. Need to find out why my fuel rewards cards don't work. BB's do. Could have saved another $.18 cents. Figured we would use six gallons so to be save I put in six and a half. (ended up that 4-1/2 would have been enough)

7th stop is the RV lot to pick up our van. Office is locked. They will hand the paperwork out the door if you have a trip, otherwise it is on lock down. Very few RV's in the lot, but some. Lots of the no-tow RV's parked in various areas. The other RV parking area is getting smaller.

8th stop - rental car. This lot is full also. What it looks like is that they are moving their cars from the airports to the local offices as fewer people are flying. Maybe not, just a thought.

8th stop - part 2. Target. The Walmart lot looked like Black Friday. Target wasn't so busy but lots of empty shelves. Before we left home we had been shopping with the intent to stock up. I used to be really good about following the Ready.gov guide lines. Weeks worth of supplies and rotated. But had kind of given that up and wanted to start again. Half way though shopping last time BB decided 'we could do the rest when we got back.' Opps.

We should be set OK at home. We don't run on 'E,' but not well stocked on food either. We do have some canned goods that are good for another year or so. We didn't hoard, but we did stock up where we could.

9th stop - It was after 6 PM so we stopped in Lakeville to eat at Culvers. Had wanted to stop at Honey Baked and pick up a ham but they had closed at six. I think it was about 5 PM that our states governor came on the radio and said that all bars and restaurants would have to shut down starting tomorrow. Someone had let us know he was going to be on the radio so we turned it on and listened.

10th stop - Stopped and got our meds. Place was too busy to do any more shopping.

So we are off until ??? this passes. (Just got word as I'm typing this that our ailing Mothers caregiver has been exposed to someone with the virus. No idea how this will play out. Hadn't planned on heading up because of me, now it's because of her)

My son-in-law is one of those closed down, he runs a fitness center. Haven't talked to him yet.

After listening to the governor I'm back to not driving. Listening to others on the radio it sounded more like just be careful.

So I likely won't be doing write-ups for a few days, maybe weeks.