Today's load board out of IA
8:00 - 16
8:30 - 9
9:00 - 8
9:30 - 7
10:00 - 7
10:30 - 7
11:00 - 19
11:30 - 12
12:00 - 12
12:30 - 9
12:38 - WE HAVE WORK
2 RV's heading west. 1 to Carson City NV, 1 to Davis CA
... spending the night at Ankeny IA
No alarm today. We were up some time around 7 AM, down for breakfast before 8 AM.
Then we both started hitting re-fresh on the company website.
We talked about bringing our van back to the shop because of the breaks, we talked about going for a walk. But we wanted to wanted to work and some loads only last on the load board for a few seconds.
Today the first batch of orders was loaded before noon. Some good runs but nothing great heading into the weekend. We didn't want to do a short run and have four days to do it for Monday delivery.
The motel would only give us a late check out until 11:30. ?? So we drove to get food. When we checked out there were signs saying that there would be no more breakfasts for four weeks. So roughly until December 19th, based on the MN Governor's speech last night.
We ended up the same place we did last night. Erbert and Gerbert. I got the same sandwich last night without the BBQ sauce. BB got a sandwich instead of a salad. We sat in their lot and ate in the van.
At 12:30 I decided to call the west coast dispatcher to see if his shipper was even open next week or we should head somewhere else. He sounded glad to hear from me. Also he was wondering where I was as he had a truck near KC he needed moved. I told him I would be heading that way IF I could find work.
About five minutes later two CA orders show up on the board. BB wants to wait until we see what else is being loaded. I want to call NOW. Dispatch loaded a couple more and we agreed to call. We got the trips.
We are heading to CA :)
I try to call the west coast dispatcher back but the line is busy so we head down to IA.
One other RV getting ready to go. Not sure what was going on with that. There were three people looking at it and it didn't sound like they had driven out of this location before. Then they found damage and may (or may not) have switched trips. At that point I wasn't watching them anymore.
Our pre-trip takes the usual hour. No issues with our RV's. I have Willie Radio :) I also have over a half a tank of fuel. I did get billed for six gallons of it but there was closer to 16 gallons in the tank. I started with a range of over 300 miles instead of less than 10.
A few mile from our pickup location, there is a barn that has been leaning for years. It was leaning so far that the run off from the roof was hitting the side of the barn, so the owner had placed boards to shield the barn from the run off. Today it was down, a big pile of rubble.
Almost all of the first 20 miles I am smelling something. 1st it is exhaust, then it smells like burnt cookies, then burnt other things. I almost stop to see if something in my RV is burning. I don't. But when we get to the fuel stop I do open the hood and walk around inside and out smelling. Nothing.
1st stop is the Kum and Go in Clear Lake. $.30 cheaper than the Pilot across the street.
Less than an hour down the road and I start smelling smoke again. But this time I also see it. A farmer is burning their ditch banks and the smoke is hanging like early morning fog in the air.
Two easy hours down the road to our hotel. Road construction is closer to done in Ankeny. They have moved the southbound lanes back to their own side since we came through two days ago.
Sunny today and 70 but that makes the last hour challenging driving somewhat into the sun.
2nd stop was the Comfort Inn in Ankeny. Once we were checked in we ordered online from the Outback next door. 30 minutes later we walked over to get it. 1st person couldn't find the order, 2nd person couldn't find the order, finally the manger got involved and asked if it could be under JAMES instead of JIM. ??? Good help ???
I was still stuffed from lunch so I just had two cups of soup ... and BB had also ordered carrot cake. It's new to their menu so we had to check it out. It's good. BB had chicken.
Load board
US - 170
IA - 40
MN - 6
WI - 2
Finally the IA load board ended the day a little higher. We stopped looking when we got our runs so we don't know what else was put out and taken right away. At the end of the day there was still 4 CA, 4 WA, 5 FL and 2 AZ. Our CA runs are a better fit than anything left on the board but we would have taken any of the remaining ones over the weekend if what we did take was gone before we got it.
Tomorrow we need to call our drops for a 24 hour notice and call to get our NV permits.
We've done this route enough that we know the stop, the cheap fuel. All as long as nothing unexpected happens.