2 RVs to CA

... spending the night at Sidney NE

Awake during the night, sound asleep when the alarm went off. Woke up a couple more times while BB showered. Then I had to really wake up, sit up, and get ready for the day.

Breakfast was the same as last time, a couple kinds of fruit, pastries and yogurt. I have yogurt. BB gets toast and finishes off her chicken from last night.

The trucks have cleared out by the time we are ready to go so I am able to drive around the motel instead of backing out onto the street.

Today is a day of drivers ... all kinds ... lots of them.

First driver of the day is someone coming down the next ramp after I got on at the same speed as I am. I am slightly ahead of them but they make no move to either slow or speed up so I finally get over one lane. As soon as I move over, they kick it down from 55 to 75. If they had done that a few seconds earlier I wouldn't have had to switch lanes twice.

Somewhere past Des Moines we have to pass an over sized load. From what I understand these drivers are to take up only one lane unless someone is blocking the other lane for them. This driver was just driving down the center of his lane, tires on the trailer were over the lines on both sides. Anyone wanting to pass had to get way out on the shoulder and it most places there was shoulder but people were careful about passing.

1st stop is Adair rest area. When I come out someone is talking to BB. They have asked if we can give them a jump. No, we can't. But the next person they ask will.

Same trip, different week. Mostly the same stops.

2nd stop is at the Quick Trip in Gretna for fuel for BB. I won't need to fuel every time she does so I don't. This trip I am not trying as hard to save time at every stop. We aren't up against a vacation this trip like we were last trip.

NOTE: Tonight after we stop for the night I looked at the news. Two stories I have been following are the 2 year old that was found in FL and then the 46 year old mother and 19 year old daughter that 'disappeared' and how they cops have been able to trace them using camerall the way from packing their car in FL to Memphis where they lost them. Well they found them yesterday AM. At 6:40 in the morning, the 46 year old mother collapsed at this gas station in Gretna ... she was ambulanced to the hospital and there she died.

3rd stop is at York at the Arbeys for lunch. We are able to order inside. Staff is all wearing masks and most of the customers in line are also. When we walked in, there were about 10 cars at the drive thru. I made note of a pickup that would have been about number 5 or 6 in line, it was number 2 in line when we walked out with our food. Both lines were moving quickly and they were fully staffed.

4th stop is Cozad at the rest area. Lot is full so I park with the big rigs and BB parks with the cars. We take a half hour break here and make some calls including calling our drops and my calling the CA dispatcher just to let him know I am on my way.

Lots of trucks have to go straight through today as there is no where to park. When it is time to leave there is a rental truck parked behind the cars where you are not supposed to park and there is no room to park. He moved his truck a few times to let people past, showed them how to get past and then someone would park so no one could get past again.

And in the truck lane where I was there was a truck that just pulled in ahead of when I was leaving that couldn't get all the way in a spot, but his co-driver hopped out so I knew he wasn't going anywhere. He did move for me and pulled out to the entrance back to the freeway ramp. But in NE they have posts so that there is NO PARKING on the ramps. But he got over tight to one side and I had less than six inches to get past him on the other.

Lots of road construction today. 55 mph makes for good gas mileage. And the usual people that don't want to merge ...

I saw a lot of people who were driving with their tires on my white line, but BB said it didn't look like it to her.

In North Platte there used to be a Kubota dealer ... web page says there still is. It used to be on the north frontage road with a small building and some equipment, mostly tractors, out front. Went past today and there is a Chrysler dealership there. Building(s) are four times the size, cars everywhere. No Kabota sign, just a few pieces of equipment parked in the grass on the opposite side of the street.

5th stop was Ogallala for fuel at WalMart. One outside pump is open so I can get into that one but can't get far enough in to fuel until the person ahead of me leaves. Once they leave BB realized that there is no diesel at this island so she has to go to the outside pump at the other end.

First interesting thing was someone trying to figure out how to charge their electric car, they parked in front of each station before parking at the next, and the next.

Then when it was time to go, some person pulled into the other side of my island and parked at the first pump and one person went inside the store. They weren't getting fuel. Another person parked behind them waiting until they realized they were blocking me ... and ended up getting in a line that someone else was already in ... except the person who was already there was back a ways to not block traffic.

I still can't go anywhere because the person who is back a ways ... is blocking me from getting past them. I finally decide to back up, even though I can see two cars behind me. I just honk and start backing. And we are moving ... what a zoo.

Oh, the WalMart pumps cut off at $100 so I had to restart my pump to get a fill. I came in with a range of 60 miles and BB was just a little less. I had had a excess range of 120 miles most of the day but we must have finally caught a headwind somewhere.

Plan was to stay here at the Quality Inn, but BB looked at the prices and the Comfort Inn in Sidney is only $10 more. And a world of difference. Well worth the extra one hour drive.

6th and final stop is at the Comfort Inn in Sidney. As soon as we are checked in we call and order food at the Mexican place. I make sure it is the Sidney location, not Denver like last time. :)

Food was good but it was cold, not sure how warm it ever had been as the cheese in my enchiladas wasn't melted.

Transporters - saw a few of them today. Not really a transporter, but we saw one of our (?) Phoenix 60 foot buses being flat bedded back east? Not sure if I am going to ask about that one or not. Then both BB and I saw a short bus, like my last one, heading east in Omaha but neither saw a name on it.

We also had one of our RV's pass us, going about 75. And they wonder why they can't make any money of the fuel. We also saw a few utility lift trucks, flat beds, stacks of trucks. Three of them are sitting in different corners of this freeway intersection tonight.

We have our <> plan for tomorrow. The price of gas goes up going west. How often do I want to stop to save another $4?

Not sure where we will stay yet. Original plan was for Rock Springs, now we can make it to Evanston or past.

Load boards

US - 156

IA - 49

MN - 7

WI - 2

2 of the IA are coming to Davis, so we could have waited ... we didn't have time to look at the board today so no idea how many other loads came and went or where they were going.