2 RV's to Rancho Cucamonga CA

... spending the night at Gallup NM

Lots of train noise. I'm guessing in this part of the country they have never heard of a 'no train horn' area. Not only are there lots of street crossings for the tracks but we are at the junction of two train tracks so we get them coming from all directions.

And I just haven't slept good the last few nights. I'm guessing I have slept because I am not tired during the day, but I don't ever have that 'just woke up' feeling.

We went down for breakfast and got our 'grab bags.' This time they were sealed shut. They also had yogurt and other stuff set out. I saw the 'milk' but not the cereal. BB saw the cereal but didn't take any because the 'milk' was 'silk.' Grab bag had an apple, muffin and a couple of breakfast type bars.

Couldn't call for permits until 8:30 local. Usually we are on the road by 7:30. Then we didn't get our first permits until 10:15, and I had to go print them and pack up / check out. So we finally got going at 10:30, three hours late.

Before we left the motel this AM there was a straight truck from FL to about 20 miles from my house. Where was that truck when we were in FL?

BB was ready to push it a little faster today. She brings up the rear and sometimes the semi's come up on her a little fast. Speed limit has been 75 mph and we're doing 65 mph. But today that was not an issue. Most of the way on the two lane was road construction and the speed limit was 65 mph. Plus we got behind a truck that was going between 60 and 65. If a truck is in the lead, the other truckers seem to be a little better about backing off and just going with the flow.

NM scale was open. We just held up our permits in our windows and the guy in the office motioned OK. Later BB told me that as she was coming up to the office she decided to lower her window some more ... electric windows, when they start going down they like to go down all the way ... and her paperwork got sucked down with it :) No damage done.

1st stop was the Flying J in Tucumcarri for a rest break. Saw the same RV transporter that we saw yesterday twice so I stopped and talked to her. She is running with two other drivers, one with an RV and one with a truck. The RV's are heading out to Port Hueneme by Oxnard just north of LA. About 100 miles straight west of our drop.

Also saw one of our CA buses in the parking lot. Pink. No other markings and no driver. And right after we got onto the freeway we saw another bus, this one was red with no markings.

Wind, we are still bucking a head wind. My mileage went from 14.8 to 15 mpg when I left Ottawa yesterday AM and has stayed at 15 ever since. It usually goes up as the miles go up. During the day today it dropped back to 14.8 but was at 15 by the end of the day.

2nd stop was the Pilot in Santa Rosa for fuel and food. TJ's didn't have any veggies so BB didn't want the meatloaf. We ended up with pizza and ate inside. Next time I'll likely eat outside by myself. She doesn't like eating in the wind. And we still have wind.

After leaving Santa Rosa, we saw another 5 buses. 2 more pink ones and 3 'Port Authority' red buses. Maybe there will be work for me too?

Somewhere today we saw where a truck had gone in the ditch, it stayed upright but hit a cross ditch in the ditch and busted the trailer frame. Not sure how that happened, faulty frame?

3rd stop was Albuquerque for a rest break. The same two RV's and a truck were at this Flying J also. Didn't walk over and talk to them again here. After we took our break, we decided to fuel, and then decided to make reservations for tonight's motel so it was a little bit longer than usual.

Now for the fun.

Somewhere around Grants it starts to snow, and quits. But I can see the roads are not very good but traffic is still moving at the posted.

Somewhere around a town / area called Continental Divide we see a semi that just past us go almost sideways in the road, try to correct and then we see the other side of his truck. But he manages to keep it on the road and slow down. This was about a quarter mile ahead of us and no one between us. We slow down.

I had noticed for the last ??? that the on coming cars and trucks all had their 4way flashers on. Now we know why. And now we do to.

Right about where the semi went sideways there was a car down in the ditch that we couldn't see until we were almost up to them. Close by there were tracks where someone had made it to the frontage road when they went off the freeway and through the ditch.

Luckily we were already heading up the only hill of any kind between here and Gallup or traffic would have came to a stand still. Lots of traffic exited but there were not motels and we already had a reservation.

For the next 15 miles or so traffic went anywhere from 5 mph to 20 mph. At 1st when I would tap on the breaks I would just get that click, click, click of the EBS. Later I could tell the roads were getting better but the traffic was still slow so we went with the flow.

Finally about 10 miles from Gallup we dropped in elevation and the roads cleared and back to 65 mph. A few cars and trucks past us, less than a dozen and then nothing. Nothing. They had been bumper to bumper behind us and I could not see any headlights for as far as I could see. ???

After dark. Good that BB has her new eyes.

4th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Gallup and the Cracker Barrel next door. BB orders online as soon as we are in our room. When we go to pick up our food, the people ahead of us are going to eat in and everyone in the group needs to have their temp taken to get in.

All the casino's in the state look closed. One town has a sign that it was closed except for food and fuel.

As we are eating BB looks at the weather. 14 degree's tomorrow AM. I decided it might be a good day to wear something other than a short sleeved shirt.

I had planned on calling the bus dispatcher but it was too late by the time we got to the motel.

And now we are most likely not going to make it to our delivery town tomorrow. We'll likely end up an hour or two short. Not an issue, just need to make new plans on how to pick up the rental and drop the RV's without using a taxi.

Load board

US - 132

IA - 19

MN - 2

IA - 1