2 RV's to Bozeman MT

... spending the night at Rapid City SD

Alarm at 6 AM, breakfast before 7, rolling before 7:30.

No good bacon patties for breakfast, I thought they would have the good stuff on the weekend when they have closer to a full house. 30 plus cars in the lot instead of the usual half dozen. We had eggs, sausage and grape juice.

We do not get to the RV's by 8 AM so I pull over on the side of the road to call. We got the trips. I thought we were five minutes away, we were closer to 15 minutes away.

For once dispatch has time to talk to us, so we did. Even though we were in a rush.

By the time we got rolling it had taken us 45 minutes to do our inspection. We have done them in 30 minutes if we are only picking up one small RV.

BB has a half a tank of fuel and I have about 1/8 with a range of 41 miles. And it is 47 miles to Blue Earth where we had planned on stopping for fuel. Then we talk and I look at my mpg, 5. It should be 15-20 mpg so I feel safe waiting to fuel.

No other drivers picking up but there were trailers picking up those that are going to be hauled. And the shipper was working, hauling over more RV's to the lot.

Usually there is only one dispatcher working on Saturday. Today there are three people in the office. And by the end of the day they have added another 35 trips to the load board.

1st stop is the Kwik Star for fuel. I add 22.5 gallons so I still had 1.5 gallons to go. Small station, it would have been tight to get both RV's on one side of a fuel island so I moved. By fueling here instead of right away in Forest City we eliminated one stop and it is going to be a long day.

Last night I had called SD to see if I could purchase a permit at the border, I can. This AM I called the Sioux Falls scale to make sure someone was there, they were so we will get our permits there. (I don't want another $400 mistake)

2nd stop was the SD Port of Entry near Brandon, I think the exit ramp starts in MN. New place, now with an inspection shed. I get the green light and BB gets the 'park and come on in.' We both went in.

A few minutes and $30 later we are done. They redid this scalehouse about a year and a half ago. I was wondering if he was going to say five years ago, it has been a while since we have been this way. The scale shares the ramp with the rest area so there are no restrooms in the scale house, we have to walk next door.

... when we pulled in we noticed a pickup getting ready to unhook from their trailer in the scale area. When we came back out the pickup was gone but not the trailer. ??? Something must not have been legal.

3rd stop was 10 miles down the road at Loves for Subway. Burger King is across the street and would be easier to get back out from. There is not a traffic light for the cars, but I suppose we could take the long way and exit where the trucks do. Temps in the 40's so we eat outside.

Miles and miles of nothing. Nothing exciting. Farm crop land, pasture. All brown before it turns white.

4th stop is the Speedway in Chamberlin for fuel. $3.09 here and $3.39 across the freeway. Usually we take the next exit and stop at rest area. This may be my first trip where I spend more than they allow us for fuel. It's all 'my money' but the company splits it into fuel and mileage pay.

It's going to be a long day ...

5th stop is in Kadoka at a Connoco for the restroom. It is the halfway point for the miles we have left. By now we have seen the sunset and it is getting dark. Not too much driving into the sun as it has been cloudy with light sprinkles most of the day.

Day one of driving into the dark hours. Most likely four of the five days this trip will end with us driving into the dark. And lots and lots of road kill in SD, they must not clean them off the highway. I'd rather not do the night driving but it is the only way this trip is getting done. Tomorrow/Sunday will likely be the only day of all daylight driving, if we get going early enough.

6th and final stop is the Sleep Inn in Rapid City. As soon as we check in we walk next door to McDonald's. Sorry, doors are locked. Drive through only. So we walk across the street to Arby's. There both the counter and dining are open. We get it to go.

Load board

US - 301

IA - 135/134

MN - 4

WI - 7

Looking for where we will stop tomorrow ... Fuel in Gillette is $.50 cheaper than here and I have fuel enough to get 30 miles past Gillette if my range holds.

We looked at Sheridan for lunch. The Country Kitchen we used to stop at in a truck stop is closed. It was going to become a 4B's last I had seen. But then the highway moved the exit so it was no longer easy off easy on and both the truckstop and the restaurant are now closed. Doing that does in a lot of businesses.

We did 500+ miles today and will again tomorrow.

I need to watch my log's a lot closer. BB looks at them before she scans them for the office and tonight found errors on three of the last seven. That would be an issue if the officer was the one that found the errors.