1 bus heading to Pittsburg PA

... spending the night in Kingman AZ

This place was not serving breakfast until 6:30 AM so we ate from our stash and after we checked out we grabbed stuff to replenish our stash. And I hadn't called last night so this AM I called to get my AZ and NM permits before we left the lot.

And I bottomed out leaving the lot, and I was even trying to go out at a different angle. I should have just gone around the building. Or parked across the street in the Carl Jr's/Hardees. Next time?

Just getting daylight when we left, likely dark when we get in.

Most of the first hour and a half we are going less than the posted. Traffic is heavy and trucks are jockeying for position.

1st stop is in Avenal for a rest area. This place needed some attention in the ladies room. Out of all paper and dirty.

From here we have a little more time on the freeway and then we are on two lane for 30 miles or so. Orchard country. We get to see the farming up close. Grass might be timber dry but anything irrigated is growing on CA time.

Both yesterday and today we see the homeless camps. We saw a couple of camps that had burned out and it looks like they just set up camp deeper in the brush. One place looked like their new door was a blanket that mostly survived the last fire. Other places are just burnt piles of junk.

This bus will go 68, but we are supposed to run at 65 so it is harder than just having it set to 65. I thought that maybe being set to 68 would give it more power. Not so. I was still down to under 45 mph on the hills on CA-58. Fourway flashers on.

2nd stop was the Loves in Tehachapi. They are easier to deal with on getting my paperwork printed. Our choices for food at Loves are McD's or Subway ... or shelf food. Subway it was. Now they do not even have any indoor seating. So we stand outside of our bus and eat again. Not warm out but above freezing :)

Opps ... 120 miles down the road and the rest area is closed. BB looks at a few of the Ma-Pa stations but decides we can make it another hour down the road to the next rest area. A three hour run instead of the usual two.

3rd stop is near Essex at a rest area. I end up parking on the gravel as the place is full. And we also 'stick' the fuel tank again, second time today. We are down to a couple of inches and have 100 miles to go. I have always made it from pickup to Kingman without fueling ... so I SHOULD be able to make it. But my DEF was not full at pickup so I'm questioning if my fuel was full. The debate in my mind goes on, to stop sooner or in Kingman.

At the POE / scale I get the 'truck must exit' message. The person at the window looks over my paperwork for a couple of seconds and we are free to go.

By now I have remembered that there is fuel before Kingman and have decided to stop there. Address is Lake Havasu. It might be costing me another $10 more than Kingman but a tow or roadside service truck would cost more than that. And I have never gone back in the AM for the cheaper fuel, I always go forward to what is cheaper.

4th stop is the Pilot near Franconia. Full house. All island full and waiting. The truck fueling in the bay next to me is done and leaves. The truck behind him has no driver but I can't cut in line the way we are parked. Then the driver comes back and tries to get out of line instead of pulling past the pump? But once he turns he can't go anywhere until another truck moves. So I cut into that line. There is a FedEx truck sitting back but I can't tell if he was waiting in that line or not. And he couldn't get to the pump anyway.

Finally we are full and stick the tank again. Now we know for sure how much should show on the stick. And I put in over 90 gallons. At 6 mpg I would have arrived in Kingman with about 3 gallons. Plus the 25 that may or may not be useable. That is a load off of my mind.

4th and final stop is at the Best Western King's Inn. Not to be confused with the Best Western across the street with a different name. There is truck parking but I park with the cars. Three cars in this part of the lot that would hold 50. Four more cars on the other side of the building in a lot that would hold another 40 cars. Not real busy.

We have stayed here before. Maybe the Choice Hotel was full? Once that motel went from a Quality to a Roadway it went down hill. Not all of them do and maybe this was a one time thing but we have not been back. The other Choice hotel in town went from a Comfort to a Clarion about the same time. But that one doesn't have enough room to park. So tonight we are paying twice what we used to pay in this town.

We had talked about stopping at the truckstop on the way into town to fuel and get food from the Black Bear. But we don't fuel so we end up going to the motel and walking next door ... OK, more than one door, but I'm guessing if we knocked out our bathroom mirror we'd be looking into their kitchen. Oyster's Mexican and Seafood. We call ahead and walk over, we don't even have to set foot on the parking lot. Didn't count the steps.

HOT Mexican food, we haven't had that for a while. Good food. Lots of it.

Load board

US - 232

IA - 97 (12 are not RV's)

MN - 4

WI - 5

The CA and NV orders are gone, still 4 to OR, 8 to WA and 3 to ID. 8 of the non-RV orders out of IA are also going to OR.

Offices are closed the next four days so there should not be any change in the load board. But we will be working. It may be shelf food tomorrow. Truck stops will be open, not much else.