1 Bus, heading to Johnsonburg PA

... spending the night at Edwardsville IL

When we wake up it is raining. When I carry the first luggage out it has started to snow. When we check out the cars are covered in snow. Our good luck has worn out :(

Breakfast was a 'you-pick' grab bag. I had yogurt and a pastry. BB had Fruit.

Rolling at 7 AM which is now before daylight. When I check out the day shift person is behind the desk. He warned me that the roads were slick and he had been late because he was driving 35 mph. He is also the same person who in the past has told us how bad the roads can get in OKC.

In about two miles we are on the toll road. A couple of miles later there is someone sitting crossways in the travel lanes, traffic is getting past them by driving on the inside shoulder.

That was the beginning of a very long day. Not too many multi-car accidents but 25-45 mph on a road that is posted 60 mph minimum. Only a couple of trucks were doing the 60-80 allowed by law. It took us 2-1/2 hours instead of the usual 1-1/2 hours to get to Tulsa. BB stayed distracted so she wouldn't be screaming.

One place where the road is three lanes wide, traffic was only using the far left lane ... someone had pulled out of that far left lane and parked. But that meant they were parking, straddling the white line between lanes 2 and 3. If I had realized ahead of time where they actually were, I would have passed them on the right so they would know they were parked in the center of a very busy freeway.

Other than the slow and go, and hanging on, there was nothing major heading to Tulsa.

1st stop is at the Flying J in Tulsa. I was planning on adding DEF while we were there but the trucks were backed up out onto the street. Trucks parked everywhere, including crossways so one of the fuel pumps wasn't being used. I parked in a no parking zone and let BB run in to use the restroom. Then I saw that one of the pumps was coned off / not working, so I backed in front of that and parked while I ran in.

Leaving Tulsa was worse. A few miles down the road I saw a truck a ways ahead of me hit the shoulder. So I hit the breaks, the semi behind me was able to hit the breaks, but the pickup behind him almost lost it. Almost hit the median, then came back and almost hit the semi before regaining control. And the reason people were stopping was that someone was parked crossways across the left two lanes of traffic. Because of the snow, people were only using one of the 3+ lanes of traffic. The guy was just sitting there on his phone, I couldn't see any damage or where he had hit anything.

BB went back into hiding and didn't want updates. But in the next few miles there were lots of cars in the ditch, crossways in traffic, and one semi that spun out on the entrance cloverleaf so he was blocking traffic.

Once out of Tulsa traffic was back to 25-45 mph. The lanes to Tulsa had not been plowed at all, so traffic tried to follow the tracks ahead of them frequently crossing over white lines. I tried to straighten them the best I could. It helps to be driving something big with good tires. The lanes leaving Tulsa had been plowed, but the new snow quickly lost that advantage.

About halfway to Joplin, the roads cleared enough to run at 55 mph. Strange. Traffic had frequently been almost bumper to bumper on both sides of Tulsa. Halfway to Joplin is the 2nd toll both. After I pulled out of the toll both I did not see one anything behind me for the next twenty minutes. No cars, no trucks. Then in the last 20 miles before Joplin, 3 cars and 3 trucks past me. On coming traffic was about 10-20 cars a minute / mile. Not sure what happened behind us.

2nd stop was at the Petro for Taco Bell in Joplin. Parked in the back lot even though it was still snowing and cold. We ate standing in the bus, holding our food out of the bus and sticking our head out of the bus to take a bite. My hand was almost froze by the time I was done eating. And there was a big salad on the ground from my taco droppings. Because I parked so far away from the building and other things, we ended up taking a 45 minute break.

For about the next hour I continued to drive about 55 mph as it was still snowing but the slush on the road was getting less. Finally it was clear enough to run at 65 mph again, but by now we have lost well over an hour, an hour of daylight driving.

3rd stop is at the rest area near Conway.

4th stop usually is at a rest area, but I do want to add DEF today so we change and stop at the Flying J in Sullivan. Lots of pumps open so I drive in backwards instead of backing. The first island the DEF is not working so I still get to back, out. Then drive into the next island. Once I'm done, I make a U-turn and park. Because we are running so late, we get shelf pizza here instead of waiting until we get to the motel. Again, eat at the bus.

5th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Edwardsville. Sunset was while we were at the Flying J so the next hour plus is night time driving. No snow, not much construction, just dark. Before we get to the motel the low fuel light starts coming on. I have never had that before on a bus so I don't know how much fuel is left. I should be getting 8 mpg, so I should be able to get 640 miles on the 80 gallon tank. We have gone about 525. 10 more to go to our fuel stop in the AM.

BB and I finally both look at our rental car location, motel location, bus wash location. She changes the rental car location twice tonight :) The original location was near downtown Akron. Way out of route and near downtown ... and no easy way to get out of with a bus. Next was one near our planned hotel. But again, way out of route and almost country roads. The final one is an hour nearer the bus drop and just a couple of blocks off a freeway. Our motel may change too, depending on how tomorrow goes. And I found there are two truck washes close to each other so I will try the 2nd if the 1st is backed up.

I could see there were lots of transporters again today, but most of the time my eyes were glued to the road.

For some reason this bus seems to leak more cold air under the front door than most so we had been putting our luggage in front of the door to block the breeze. But today it was leaking more than air, our luggage got soaked. Not our clothes, but our work stuff. Nothing damaged, it all dried out by the end of the day.

2,000 mile runs are better. If this was one, we'd be here and dropping tomorrow and home in one day. Anything over 2,000 miles adds extra days driving the bus and the same extra time added driving the rental car home.