2 Rv's to NC, one to Mocksville, one to Concord

... spending the night at Moline IL ...

The map. If you are looking at the map, you might notice that at least to start with, I am only adding our stops, not to show the route we followed.

And I started the new month because we will not be home until next month and we will be off for most of a month during the next two. So that kind of splits up the maps more evenly.

8 AM we both start dialing. With this location, once their phone picks up, we have to dial the extension. Because of space, I have the extensions in my phone listed as 221, 2, 3. I called in twice and went to voicemail, BB call is ringing through. As I start to dial in the 3rd time ... I realize that I have only been dialing the 2, not the 222. Opps. :)

BB's call is picked up, we get the runs. We are headed to NC with our first choice. And with our rental discount through that carrier the car is $20 less a day than shows online. Even if I get work coming back, BB will likely follow me as it is cheaper that getting a 2nd rental.

Pack, get ready, eat breakfast, stop at the bank, etc in less than an hour.

We had thought we had found cheap fuel for our van on the way down by looking at GasBuddy. But that info was a couple of days old and the price had gone up by $.20 a gallon. So we got back on the freeway and stopped at the Love's truck stop instead.

1st stop, Loves, Albert Lea, for restroom and van fuel. Signs everywhere that masks must be worn. 1st person I noticed coming out of the store had a mask on. The next three did not. 5th person was BB, she had hers on ... and we were gone.

2nd stop was the A&W on Forest City. BB was going to be too hungry if we waited until after we did our inspections on the RV's. There drive thru has room for a half a car between the car at the window and the car at the speaker. But our food was ready by the time we paid. The sign says their Root Beer is 'Made on site,' but when I asked, they said it was the carbonated. I passed. I thought the stuff from the 'barrel' was not carbonated.

3rd stop, A&W did have two picnic tables, but they were in the sun so we went to the park. This little park in town gets a lot of use. At least from the people who stop in the shade and park. I'm not sure we have ever gone through town in the daytime, in the summer time when there hasn't been someone there.

4th stop is the office, the lot. We go in to pick up our paperwork. The gal has seen us for years but gives us the blank look so we say our name and then spell it. She can't find it, or the 2nd place she looks. Then someone else in the office 're says' our name and says the paperwork is there. It was. They don't say our name the way we do ... and she heard, but didn't listen to ... the spelling. We might just spell it from now on.

BB can't find her RV. It ends up being in the east lot instead of the west lot where the paperwork said it was. So I am done before her this time. IF all had gone well, we have done the small RV inspections in a half hour. But this took an hour like most do.

The office is finishing training someone new, but I didn't talk to them until we were ready to leave. New, new to RV's. They have been driving trucks for this company for about four months. First RV. Not off to a good start. The guy gave his ID to a motel when he checked in on his prior trip. Didn't realize he hadn't gotten it back until 400 miles later. Couldn't fly here without it. Couldn't rent a car to get here without it. So he road the bus for a couple of days to get here. And then he is taking one of the runs that have been sitting on the load board for a week because no one else wants them because it is hard to get out of. And his RV is the one RV we can't make money on the fuel with.

5th stop is for fuel in Clear Lake, it was cheaper than Forest City ... but we found out when we went past later, not cheaper than Floyd. We could have saved another six cents. Three cents for BB, she gets a discount. Sometimes I use her card, my card doesn't work. May be because I will not download there app. My card(s) used to work.

6th stop is at the Sinclair in Center Point. Good thing I wasn't on auto pilot. The Sinclair is gone and it is now another Casey's. Lots of Casey's on this road and not much signage for a one exit cross street.

Just south of Center Point is where the damage starts. Lots of tree damage, corn damage. Saw one farm where the west and south wind brakes had a lot of damage, but the 100+ (guessing) year old barn stood, as did the wood shed you could see into through the missing boards.

Cedar Rapids, south of the river. There is a place where the houses are the little, 1930-1940 style. Tree tops are all gone. Looks like a new housing area where there are no trees taller than the houses. Sort of like St Peter MN looked like after the storm went through there a few years ago.

Some places there are trees still laying out onto the pavement, just not out into the travel lane. Finally quite a ways south and east of Cedar Falls, I see what looks like a building that was taken down. A pole barn that looks like recent damage. Also see another temp shed people put up that was twisted.

Too bad there aren't more cattle in IA, all this corn would make good silage. I think it was too damaged to get ripe with any value. And not sure how well it would work to try to combine it with a corn head. But with a grain or silage head it might work. Lots of extra costs. Lots of mess next year if it does get ripe but is left in the field.

Iowa City. The Village Inn looks closed, but a lot of sit down places look empty now. So not sure if it is closed or not.

I made one semi drive unhappy today. Coming past Iowa City, I see a truck on the shoulder so I move to the left. There are three lanes there and I see the semi coming, but he is a quarter to a half mile back. I had moved over sooner than I needed, but the lane was open and if I don't get over sooner, someone sits beside me so I can't get over. So the semi catches up, follows a bit and I don't move. Then he decides to pass me on the right even tho there is no one coming for miles in the left lane. He is right beside me when we go past the truck ... then he decides he want's to get over so he rides my white line and motions something to me. Not sure if he thought I was going to move over or he was trying to tell me something else. IF he had been going the speed limit, he never would have caught up to me. If he had passed on the left instead of the right, no problem. Or he could have just waited another truck length or two I and we would have been past the truck. Nope, big hurry and doing it his way.

7th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Moline. One of the last places we stay that is under $50. As soon as we check in, we walk to McD's for food. BB is too hungry to wait for sit down food to go at Montana Jacks.

I'm running electronic logs for this trip. Test mode so I am still doing the paper ones too.

Nothing good on the load board coming out of NC for now. One heading to FL :)

Plan is to stop near Dayton tomorrow night and then be in my drop town on Sunday night. About 500 miles a day. It's been a while but we have done this route many times. Our drops are less than 40 miles apart but the companies routing takes us two different routes. And BB's software is trying to take us a route different than those two, hope hers doesn't know something we don't.

Load board

US - 260

IA - 106

MN - 10

WI -0-

100 RV's is about what will fit in our main lot. That is full. Our 'hat' lot is also almost full, that holds about another 100. I don't think any of those are on the board right now. Plus there are rental units sitting near the mfg buildings for the last couple of months ready to go ... and their are now RV's sitting in the employee parking lot again.

11 new runs on the load board tonight that were not on the board last night. But they could have put 40 new ones out there and people took 29 new ones and left the old ones. No way of knowing. I know the new terminal manager is trying to limit the number of loads on the board at any one time to keep the old stuff moving. Doesn't work for us. If it doesn't pay the first day it is out there, it isn't going to pay any better a few days later. But some people need the work bad enough that they will move to keep moving.