1 RV heading to St Cloud MN (delivered)

1 RV heading to Greenfield WI

... spending the night in La Crosse WI

Breakfast was a nuked sandwich and juice so we left the rest of our Mexican food in the fridge.

Pulled out at 7:30 AM, BB has to fuel. I am trying to get to the rest area by 8 AM.

1st stop - 8:01 - Dundas rest area. I call dispatch six times before I get through. I get my trip to WI for later today.

When I picked this RV up it looked like there might be enough fuel to get to the drop. But the range / mpg didn't go up. It did go up 20 miles and then back down to an excess range of 10 miles. Then I see that I have five more miles to go than I though.

2nd stop - so I pull off at the next exit. Holiday gas in Clearwater. I add one gallon of gas to get the last eight miles. The machine does not print a receipt and I don't go inside.

3rd stop - Pilot in St Cloud for final fuel.

4th stop - at the drop across the freeway at the drop

Oh, it is raining. It has been raining all day and looks like it may rain again tomorrow. Here and in WI where we are going.

When I pull in the drop there is a guy unhooking from his tow car, I ask if he has already brought in his paperwork and he has. But when I bring my paperwork, they say that different shippers have different inspectors. It is most of a half hour before someone comes out. My inspector gets there first, once they are at my RV, I go inside to wait.

And talk to the other driver. He's new. He's retired. He is running hard. He bought a tow car right away and now wants to pay for it before he decides if he keeps working. His wife is noticing he is gone a lot. 2-3 weeks at a time (and she notices???)

His RV inspection gets done first. For some reason my inspector can't find the warranty person. It is raining so the camera person doesn't do her thing. They sign off clear. In and out in 45 minutes.

5th stop - We get as far back as Plymouth before lunch time. We stop at the Arby's that is the easiest to get in and out of. By the time we leave the line is backed up out on to the street. It is 12 noon.

No major issues again today. We did hit the last of the morning rush hour but wasn't bad overall.

6th stop - we are back at Forest City to pick up our next RV. Again there are a few other drivers picking up but we don't take time to talk. This time BB is on a 'family call' so it takes me 45 minutes instead of the 30 minutes yesterday.

7th stop - We fuel right in Forest City at the Quik Star / Quik Trip. BB needs fuel and I realize I will likely use at least a full tank of fuel if not more.

Lots of wind besides the rain. I drove most of the next three hours at 62 mph. If I went 65 mph the RV kept down shifting. Good news, even with the strong headwind my range has gone up so that I am now only 13 miles from my drop, I started out at 60 miles short of the drop.

8th and final stop is at the Comfort Inn in La Crosse. Before I get parked, BB has arrived.

As soon as we check in, we call Ciattis for to go food. Later when we are eating, BB reminds me that is where we shared our first meal :)

Load board

US - 479

IA - 163

MN - 8

WI - 12

IN - 48

I had resigned myself to doing the semi tractors in Des Moines next week. But later in the day Forest City put out another no-tow to where I am delivering tomorrow. We will likely take that instead.

Now I see that the RV from IN to Garfield MN is back on the load board, but doing that would take the rest of the week and leave our car in IA. I had been keeping track of the RV's in IN but it was often -0- and we have only moved two in five years. Now they are getting busy again.

Plan now is to do 'local' on Tuesday and Wednesday and then head to CA if there is still work.