2 Rv's to Junction City OR, delivered

... spending the night at Mitchell SD ...

815 miles today ...

No alarm this AM. Breakfast, 2 yogurts, 2 juice cups. BB didn't like the hard boiled eggs last time here so she stuck with cereal this time.

Rolling before 7 AM. Thought I knew were I was going but opps. Had to take the first U-turn. About two blocks time wasted, but that would be it for the day.

1st stop was for fuel in Belgrade. Town Pump, didn't know this one was co-branded Pilot until I looked at the map yesterday. New station in the last five years, right next to an on/off ramp ... for east bound I-90. About a mile out of route for westbound. Easy off, and then we realized it was rush hour in Bozeman. Quick fuel and when we realized the line to get back on the road wasn't moving, we made a U-turn, went down a gravel road and got on the road at the next stop light. There had been five trucks ahead of us in line for the road, four of them were still sitting there when we went past.

2nd stop was at rest area between Columbus and Park City.

3rd stop was in Sheridan WY. 4B's is gone so we ended up at Jimmy Johns. They were working on a lot of phone in orders so it took a while to get ours, a while at Jimmy Johns is five minutes or so.

4th stop was in Gillette for fuel at the Mavrick. Under $2 a gallon. It wasn't two hours from our last stop but it was the cheapest fuel we were going to find this trip.

Moorcroft - BB looked it up, a few years ago BNSF said they were going to park 150 engines because of a slow down in business. And not too far past Moorcroft we looked north and saw Devil's Tower. Been there, likely will be there again.

5th stop was in Rapid City for the rest room at the Pilot. BB went in, I stretched my legs. Temps are 100-101 here today. Harley Davidson is taking down all their big sheds. All the trailers and small tents are already gone ... for another year. Only saw five bikers in Sturgis. The big RV parks are mostly empty except for the garbage cans. Everything looks all cleaned up already. One of the places had their picnic tables all stacked already.

6th stop - Murdo at the Pilot for Subway. Yup, two cold sandwiches in one day. But that is the only fast food in this town. The place is not jammed with bikers and the line at Subway is not long. But the crew at Subway is not as fast as the crew a few days ago.

We were not sure how far we would keep going. Finally BB was looking at the reviews and the prices and decided Mitchell ... if I wanted to drive that far. Sun was just setting ...

6th and final stop was Mitchell. First we fueled at Shell, under $2 again but not the cheapest in town. But the closest. This Shell shares a lot with the Comfort Inn we are staying at. Quick check in and we are in.

13 hours, 800+ miles. Long day, no long breaks. Most of the day, once we got out of the mountains has been at 80 mph. The first time I fueled this car I had a range of over 500 miles. When I fueled it now the range was under 400. Haven't looked at the mpg because of the way the display is set up, but I am guessing I am getting about 28 mpg now and was up to 33 mpg when I was running at 65 mph.

We should make in home tomorrow. Less than eight hours driving from here. So ... tomorrow AM I will call for a DOT appt. And BB needs to make a pre-surgery appt. And I also may try to get an appointment for getting a new phone.

Today the load board looks even better. The North Las Vegas are still there, plus two for Davis CA and two for Sandy OR. But we will be sitting until I pass my DOT ...

Load board

US - 249

IA - 112

MN - 6

WI - 3