1 bus to Milwaukee WI

... spending the night at Ankeny IA

Breakfast, in a bag. Besides the water and the muffin, there was also a sandwich to nuke, yogurt and a cup of fruit. So not so bad after all. But I had my leftover burger from last night. Still good.

We left an hour later today, we are only going 300 miles and we don't want to get to the next hotel before their 3 PM check in.

1st stop was at the Petro in York. It will be the cheapest fuel on the trip. The plan was to fill up, but then seeing how good of mileage I was getting I was thinking of only adding 55 gallons and then more later if I need it. 53 was all I could get it. The pump didn't give me any warning so I ran some on the ground. Luckily the wind was at my back because the wind blew the overflow for quite a few feet the other direction.

When I was putting in my credit card it always asks a lot of questions. Today I had to have my hand braced against the pump to hold my hand in place to hit the correct answers. Just a little windy.

When we pulled out of the Petro a wind turbine blade was just passing. When they got to the freeway ramp, one of the pilot car drivers got out and did something to the rear area. My guess is the rear is locked in place on the straight away but needs to be manually 'driving' for sharper curves. Then they stopped again at the bottom of the ramp and the driver did something again. That was the last we saw of them.

Shortly down the road we start to see snow. Just wisps of light snow across the freeway.

2nd stop was Chesters/Loves in Shelby IA. We had talked about the Flying J in Avoca but the Maid Rite does not seem to be open on any regular basis and the other choice there is Taco Johns. We were not impressed last time. Chester's was good, a good change of fast food.

By the time we were done eating the storm warning was lifted. The two places it was snowing the most was Des Moines and Omaha. Up in the northern part of the state where the warning was didn't show they were getting anything. Weather forecasters, wrong 50% of the time and still get paid.

Somewhere today we saw an anhydrous ammonia tank that was missing a set of rear tires. It was sitting in a field with the 'lost tires' over a tank length behind it.

3rd and final stop was the Sleep Inn in Ankeny. We had talked about going another 40 miles to Story City but for the 2nd night in a row, food is where we decide to stay. In Story City the choices are McD's, that is the closest, but not close enough to walk in this wind. There is a new Kwik Trip that would have room for the bus or a Pizza Ranch but not sure if there is parking. The KFS/Taco Bell is closed as is the family restaurant we have eaten at in the past.

Here in Ankeny there is a Out Back across the street. Depending where we are in the hotel, we are walking further indoors at the hotel than outdoors to get to Out Back.

On FaceBook and before that on message boards there are always some very vocal people who claim that having a tow car in driveaway is the only way to make money. For the last three days I have been counting driveaway units, not just ones that look like driveaway but ones that have proper placards or another way to ID them. Here are the numbers

50 non-tow - 1 toad - on Wednesday

21 non-tow -0- toad on Thursday

26 non-tow and 1 toad on Friday.

So over 95% of driveaway this week were non-tow units. I assume at least some of them have found out how to make money without a toad. Wednesday there were a few 'convoy's' of units, yesterday and today they were all solo units.

Load board

US - 242

IA - 52/49

MN - 9

WI - 10

Tomorrow we plan on picking up our car and then getting to Mauston for the night. We had looked at the option of picking up an RV going the same direction but none have shown up on the load board.

Tonight I was looking at final fuel for the bus on Monday, I had thought there was a TA/Petro next to the wash but there is not. There also isn't a wash. That one closed five months ago. Glad I looked, just because it was there last time ...

Their new location is another seven miles down the road. Not a big deal but good to know. We will likely stay somewhere near there on Sunday night.

NO restrictions on I-80 in WY right now. There had been all day and the forecast is for high winds (at least) through Monday.

Lots of local auction trips that show up and are gone right away. None today that we could tie into this trip, maybe Monday ... or we will just head home for a day. We do not plan on leaving on a road trip before Thanksgiving but do plan on doing local.