1 bus to La Crosse WI (delivered)

... spending the night at home

Breakfast - Hot food - But in stead of dishing up our own food, they had filled containers with eggs, sausage and potatoes. So I took one of those and a yogurt. It was a lot of food so I took two glasses of juice.

Pulled out at 7:30 AM. Frost on the roof of the bus, temp was near 32. I haven't put in any anti-gel but no issues.

1st stop is at the Pilot in Clear Lake for fuel and DEF. Hadn't planned on putting in DEF here but there were enough fuel islands open that I could drive in backwards.

2nd stop was in Forest City to pick up our van. The sun was out, the lot had been well plowed and only a few inches of snow in front of our van. Plenty of place to park the bus.

Someone was parked in front of our van doing their paperwork so I walked over and asked them to move. He knew me (and my stories,) I didn't remember him. He's been doing back to back trips to the NW. Flies back for $100 and does his next trip. Works for him. Not for us.

3rd stop was the Petro in Albert Lea for a wash. No line. Paid and pulled in. Waiting in the bus. Pulled out and then we transferred all of our stuff to the van. Opps. When we slapped the back of the van shut it looked like the plate was loose. So I tried to wiggle it. Behind where one of the screws is supposed to hold it on is a rust hole the size of a silver dollar. So only one screw holding the rear plate on.

BB and I part ways. She will be stopping a couple of time and I only once.

I stop and stick my tank before I leave the wash lot. I should be fine. I had planned on stopping at another truck stop so I could add fuel just in case I needed to. But I felt pretty good about how much fuel I had.

4th stop is the rest area near Lewiston for the restroom and to stick my fuel tank. I am at about 6-1/2" and need to leave the bus with 5", and I have 30 miles to go. I am good.

The roads had been dry until I started heading down into the valley near La Crosse. Then a truck passed my right where the road was the wettest. Not a big deal, as once I got off the freeway the snow/water from the median was running across the road to the other shoulder. No more clean bus. But still likely the cleanest one they will see today.

About six turns in the last mile so I am glad I looked at a map AND wrote the street names down.

5th stop was the drop. I was supposed to call from the lot but someone was walking to me when I parked. It was my contact, he had me pull around back and into the shop. And I parked right behind bus 1501, another new bus. Mine is 1503. Not sure where 1502 is. The person I was dealing with didn't have any chit-chat. We covered what needed to be done, he walked around the bus and then signed and went to make copies while I torn the wrap off the windows.

I walked outside and called BB. She had parked on the other end of the employee lot. No buses could be seen from the outside so she had no idea where I was.

6th stop was the rest area four miles from the drop. BB used the restroom while I called the dentist. I was put on hold for 15 minutes and then we left without anyone coming back to the line.

7th stop was Culvers in Winona. It was now 2 PM, glad I had a big breakfast. While we waited for food I called the dentist again and got put on hold. This time they got back to me just after I got my food. Because it is an 'emergency,' I got in at 9:20 tomorrow. :)

They were going to check for today, but I told them I was not in town. They also couldn't find which med I take right away, but they got it called in by the time we got to the store.

Bald eagles. Lots of them. Near Reeds Landing. A dozen? Two dozen? We weren't counting.

Before we got home we stopped and picked up my meds and some food. When your gone three weeks at a time it's hard to remember what is in the house. :)

Plan for tomorrow is that after I go to the dentist is that I head to get my drivers license and just wait in line for the rest of the day. I got a letter from my local company that they will not give me any work starting a week before it expires. One of the letters that I got from the local company showed they have a new, 3rd dispatcher. That is about the 5th, 3rd dispatcher since covid started and the prior dispatcher quit.

Load board

US - 403

IA - 168

MN - 1

WI - 9

When I first started keeping track of the IA daily numbers I was also keeping track of the IN numbers. But too often IN was at -0- and I have only been there once in five years so did that for less than a year. Today there is 40 trips out of IN, mostly RV's. NC is at 25 trips.

No hard plans yet. We will be home a day or two. We may do a local before we head to the SE. We are looking at NC, no one took any of the NC trips today and they added two more. We should be OK.

Doing our numbers for this last trip. We did really good. Really, really good. Considering it took us two extra days to get from IA to CA. That we sat for a day in CA with no work. That we broke even on the OR to CA trip that took five days. And that we went 200+ miles out of route to avoid the weather. 3x our minimum. Our best trip was 4x our minimum and that came right back to the cities.

Weather. I-80 is still closed to high profile vehicles in WY. As far as I know that stretch has been closed for one reason or another ever since Friday morning when we left Livermore.

That is why we are planning on heading south east.