1 van heading to Corbin KY (delivered)

... spending the night at Lexington KY

No alarm this AM, but BB was still up at 6:30. I was up shortly after.

Breakfast was hot food, but we needed to wear plastic gloves. Gloves but no masks. We had omelettes and sausage. People could eat in the breakfast area but we went back to our room.

It look us longer than the usual hour and a half to get out of the hotel.

Very 1st stop this AM was a block from the hotel. To get some oil for the rental car. It is past due for an oil change and is just touching the bottom of the dip stick. We are not real picky travelers, we would rather pick up the car when we get there than wait for them to clean it. But they weren't bothering to clean this one. The first thing we noticed was the sand in the trunk. Someone must have had this car to the beach.

Nothing new was on the load board so we decided to take the shortest way home even though it has a toll. Lots of freeways we could take to get back home that are all within an hours time.

Fairly early in the AM there were two possible trips we could grab.

One was a short trip from near Indy up to Chicago. The drop was close to I-80 so it wouldn’t add a lot of miles. But it was all back roads, no freeway.

The 2nd one was right on our route heading down the freeway to Kansas City. IF everything went like clockwork, and we ran two long days, we could do it without any extra time on the car. Too close, too many things could go wrong so we passed on that one too.

Our load board was down for a while and when we looked at it after we past Indy we saw a trip from South Bend to IL. Again, a lot of extra miles for very little money. And when we saw it listed we would now have to back track.

By 3 PM it is too late to do anything else without adding days to the rental. We will be heading home.

1st stop today was at the rest area near Henryville just north of Louisville.

2nd stop was McCallisters Deli in Brownsburg. We aren’t in a rush and they had outdoor seating so that is where we ate. I hadn’t looked at the whole menu and kept changing my mind. And I could have, maybe should have, changed my mind again. I had a while chicken salad croissant sandwich, plus potato salad. And a ‘pure cane’ lemonaid.

I should have just had a cup of soup.

3rd stop a rest area near Oakwood IL

4th stop was a rest area near Gilson IL

5th stop was a Culvers in Moline. This time BB did get the scoop of the day. But it wasn’t much better than what she had yesterday, but it was what she ordered.

The last two days I have noticed that the Culvers malts no longer have a pile of berries at the bottom when I am done. There is nothing left. They must have cut the fruit per serving in ½ or more.

We had planned on running a little later tonight, that is why we stopped for food before we got to a motel. But once back on the freeway we see the clouds and BB checks the weather. Nasty. So we stop at the next hotel and get inside before the rain and possible hail, hit. It looks like waves of storms will keep coming through until after midnight.

One plus for this trip, this rental car, is the mileage. We are getting 50 mpg plus. So half as much fuel on a 1,000 mile trip home. This last fuel fill, my range started at 640. The miles driven plus the range has gotten up over 750 miles at times. On a 14 gallon tank. Which is what the gauge is showing 53+ miles per gallon, at 70 mph.

Last night we sent in the paperwork for both the bus and the van to billing. We got paid for the van this AM but haven't seen the pay for the bus yet.

Load board

US - 292

IA - 105 / 103

MN - 2

WI - 1

NC - 4

NC never did add any more trips out of the location I was at so I'm glad I took what I did. They did add more tractors going to Indy like the one I did so that would have been a good option. Good pay too.

There is an RV trip to ND which makes the local companies truck more attractive. But it is still a tractor.

As of now, we should get home mid afternoon tomorrow. Then we plan on working local on Thursday and Friday and again Monday and Tuesday. It is not often that they have that much local but we will be available. We may also be available again the next Thursday and Friday.

We have talked about only doing local for both companies for the next two months. The price of cars and hotels are up and we both have appointments we need to set up. We’ll see how that goes.