1 bus to Des Moines IA

... spending the night at Wendover UT

Last night

... after I shut off the lights, I decide to look out the window at my bus. Except tonight we aren't overlooking the lot like we were last night. So I turn around and start walking across the room. WHAM ... I walk into the coffee table ... with both legs. OUCH. I didn't fall but I limp off to bed.

I don't understand. I am getting black and blue spots on my arms and I don't know where they came from. Last night I could feel the pain and it was hard to walk all day and no black and blue, no swelling.

Breakfast was yogurt again. When I went back in to check out after starting my bus I see the first person I have seen wearing a mask. Other than us and the help. And they are mandatory here. So what good does it do to make them mandatory?

Rolling by 6:30 local. Not much traffic to start but it quickly builds.

1st stop ... RED low fluid light. It comes on and goes off three times before I find a place to pull off. Emigrant Gap. There is a Shell, a Burger King that has re-opened and a large truck parking lot.

I call the shipper. Instructions are to wait 20 minutes before calling the 2nd number on the list. I then call the 2nd number which is no longer in service. So I call the 3rd number on the list. Finally after an hour of waiting I call dispatch. He says to call the guy who used to do this job. That guy doesn't pick up but calls me back before I am done leaving him a message. He asks a few questions and says I am good to go as long as I am not having any other issues.

A few miles down the road one of the other people call back. I am where I can pull off and I get the call the 2nd time they call. Same, I'm good to go but they want me to add more fluid. The light does not come on again all day and I haven't found the fluid anywhere ... and they said it should be everywhere. It wasn't at the Shell station. BB looked and they had motor oil and coolant, that's it.

Back at the Shell station someone asked what the issue was when we were looking for fluid, they then followed us out and looked at the bus and talked for a while. But nothing anyone was going to help with. I need an OK before I am going to drive a bus with a red warning light on.

We had planned on stopping at Donners Pass but this was our stop instead. Don't think I mentioned this yesterday, while we were at Donners Pass I noticed a pickup with a U-Haul behind it with the back door open. The only thing in the U-Haul was a mattress on the floor with one person sleeping on it. And another person sleeping on the floor next to the mattress. Then I noticed someone climbing out of the back of the pickup, seems there had been two people sleeping in there also. And this was at 4 in the afternoon. There was also a 5th person was was wondering around with his dog. Not sure where he was going to sleep. Before we left, they all got into the cab of the four door pickup and were gone.

Saw one NV cop today. Sitting in the median about a mile in from the CA state line.

2nd stop, Flying J in Fernley for fuel. No waiting. 37 gallons. Not sure if it was bad food or nerves but I had to use the restroom both in Emigrant Gap and here.

3rd stop was at the Pilot in Winnemucca at the Subway. We decided to eat outside. When we come back out with our food there is someone trying to back in to a spot a couple of spaces away from us right next to another truck. They try a few times and then pull further and further away trying to get strait. People are blowing their horn to get past. There is maybe 20 trucks in a lot built for 100-200 and they are trying to do this right near the fuel pumps.

Finally the trainer gets in the truck and backs it up straight at about 20 mph. Then a few minutes later he pulls out, makes a U-turn and comes back and parks cross ways in front of me and the other trucks. He looked right at me sitting in the drivers seat when he went past. He just parked there, I'm short and the lot was mostly empty so I just pulled around him and left. He was still sitting there they last I looked.

4th stop at the Sinclair in Elko. Still no fluid. We take a half hour break and get an M & M ice cream sandwich.

5th stop is at the Pilot for fuel, no fluid.

5th stop is two miles down the road and across the state line at the Quality Inn. We walk out into the parking lot and get Mexican again. Lots more people tonight so we had to wait for our food. Good again tonight.

Today look 30 longer coming east than it did two days ago going west. 3 mph for 10 hours difference. This bus maxes out at 62 mph.

And with all our stops it was a 12 hour day. It is looking less and less like we will deliver on Tuesday.

Load board didn't change.

BB's Dad is still in the hospital, not sure if he is going to make it back to the nursing home or not.