2 RV's to FL, 1 to Ocala, 1 to Fort Myers (not picked up)

... spending the night at Albert Lea

No breakfast at the IA motels? Nothing. So BB had a left over banana and I had my last cookie. No breakfast so we got going a few minutes earlier than usual.

Traffic at that time of the morning is as I remember it on I-80. Everyone is jockeying for position, and it is mostly trucks.

1st stop of the day is in Evansdale/Waterloo at the Road Ranger for the restroom and then next door to the McD's for a breakfast sandwich for BB. But first we drove through the Arby's to see if they had breakfast, this one doesn't. Not sure what yet, but a new fast food place is going up on the same side of the road as Flying J. This Flying J hasn't had food since they closed their Country Market (?)

2nd stop is at Forest City to pick up our car and drop paperwork. Three people hooking up tow cars to their RV's and a few more drivers getting ready to go. Also two semi's picking up RV's. When I was looking online I could see what was being moved on semi's ... our good stuff :(

On the way to Mason City, BB stops to fuel in Clear Lake where fuel is now $1.69.

3rd stop is the rental car place in Mason City. Doors are locked, no customers in the building. You have to wait until someone from inside comes out.

4th stop was El Loro for to go food. Too much. We both ordered the lunch special, I only at the enchiladas, BB ate her enchiladas, rice and salad. Then we sat a while and watched the load board.

5th stop was the Hynes Spur Trail in Forest City. Here BB realized she had lost her cap. And it was cold and windy, but we took a mile walk. Likely would have been longer if we had been dressed for it, or the weather had been warmer.

Then we drove to the Kwik Star/Kwik Trip for the restroom and then sat in the local park the rest of the day.

BB was watching the board from 8 AM on. The board started at about 40, by noon it was down to just over 20 before they started adding new runs. Again, we didn't write times and numbers down, but it seems they added the 1st new runs at noon, then at 2 PM, a few at 3 PM and the last batch just after 4 PM.

They did put out some trips that were of interest. But none that we jumped on. No good pairs. Some that we could make work, but the money isn't there when their isn't a round trip or two no-tows. We ran a lot of math today.

Then after 4 PM they put out our two FL runs. We called. But BB was still wanting to do math as I wanted to call. We need to get in the habit of calling and putting them on hold. That is something we can do but haven't done. Except for the ones coming out of our central dispatch when they can't tell me what the 'truck' is and I have to call the shipper myself.

BB and I do some talking while I have dispatch on the phone, so they got to listen to our 'conversation.' :) BB takes the longer run because it is a shorter RV. Hers is 25 foot and my is 31 foot.

We haven't done this route since the first part of January. Weather should be a little nicer where we are going. Other than that it is setting up to be the lowest paying run we have done this year. Unless we add a 2nd leg. And that might end up being BB following me with the rental car because it is cheaper than getting two rental cars.

When we took this run I thought that rental cars were still cheap out of FL. Turns out that the prices show differently on the computer than they do on the phone. I thought I was seeing the TOTAL for the trip home like I do on my computer. No, I was seeing the daily rate on my phone. Nice thing about rental cars is that we can make new reservations and cancel old ones at no charge.

We had looked at two going to Maine, too cold. And looked at two going to Kalispel MT, too cold. Also anything going northwest we would need to get permits NOW to be able to run South Dakota over the weekend. Not something we wanted to try get done on a Friday PM.

Load board

US - 151

IA - 35

MN - 3

WI - 2

... one of the two WI runs is still the MLW run that was put out an hour or so after we left the area. No one else has moved it yet.

The three left out of MN are part of the 20 that were there last night. I think the rest got pulled, taken away from this company and given to another company.

As of right now there is a run in FL going up to SC and a run in NC going to MO. Who knows what will be there when we get there on Tuesday.