1 Pickup to Shakopee MN

... spending the night at Bismarck ND

This place has make to order eggs in the AM, but you need to check in at the front desk first. We ordered ours, with sausage or hash browns. As we were waiting another couple walked up to place their order, the cook asked them for their card from the front desk. They didn't have one, so they walked out of the room but not to the front desk. A few minutes later they walked back in and were looking at the other breakfast items. My guess is they were not staying there. They didn't look like a 'down and out' couple.

We pull out of the hotel at 7:30, I have texted the shipper but no response.

1st 'stop' in on the ramp for Ballantine to make a phone call to the shipper. I have to leave a message but they call back as I am pulling back onto the freeway. My truck is 33 miles north of town. OK, glad I got a hold of someone. But that will add an hour to the trip, I was expecting IN Miles City.

2nd stop is a rest area about hathaway there, in Hathaway MT.

3rd stop is the shipper. It is only a few miles from Angela but that is now only a side road into somewhere over the hills. As soon as I pull into the yard someone is walking out. My truck is down the hill, there are only two currently parked there.

The first thing I see is the windshield, cracked a dozen ways. Then when I get in I see my side window is also cracked. And when I check the fluid's I see that this truck has been jumped, there are scratches on the battery post. It does turn over and start, but almost didn't.

All else is good, when I am leaving the paperwork with the office I ask and they tell me that this location will be closed by March. So we may be getting other trips out of here.

The next thing I notice going down the road ... NO HEAT. This is going to be a long trip, it should have been flat bedded.

When I picked the pickup up it said it was getting 9 mpg. And I had a range of 95 miles. Beach was 115 from Miles City and the truck was 30 miles from there. But in those first 30 miles I gained 45 miles range. I assume I will gain more so I do not fuel.

4th stop is in Miles City for fuel at the Exxon/Pilot for our rental car. I am going to risk it and wait and fuel it Beach where fuel is $.30 a gallon less.

From there we park and walk over to 4B's. They are open, we get our soup to go. It takes less than five minutes in and out. When I asked for 'extra crackers' this person took me seriously. Sometimes I get one or two more two packs. I must have gotten a dozen more. And it turned out to be more than I needed. I couldn't put them in the to go cup to start because the cup was full to the top.

Great soup, worth the stop.

I am at 10,000# so I am legally not running as a DOT vehicle today. I do not see any signs saying that the ND scale is open but there is a truck on the scale and a office talking to him when we went by. That scale is closed 90% of the time so I am not sure what they do when it is open.

5th stop is at the Flying J in Beach. A truckstop open limited hours. I'm guessing no help? I only put in 25 gallons in hopes that my mileage will go up. I gained another 60 miles range after leaving Miles City driving 80 mph.

6th and final stop was the Comfort Inn in Bismarck. I pull into what used to be the Comfort Inn. No, that is now a Quality Inn. What is now the Quality Inn is the one that used to have the bakery bismarcks for breakfast. I guess we will see if they stay with the building or follow the name when we get breakfast tomorrow.

We look online at a lot of places to eat and then we see Schlotzsky's ! That ends that search. We order online and each get a sandwich plus I get soup. (We stop on the way for fuel for the rental car at Shell) When we get to Schlotzsky's, I go in, or try to. Their lobby is locked. So we still need to wait in line at the drive thru behind everyone else that ordered at the speaker.

Back at the room BB is opening up her sandwich and ... flip. They had cut it in half and one of those half's flipped, opened and landed meat down on the carpet. And she was the one that was looking at steakhouses because she was hungry. She ended up eating the other half of her sandwich and half of mine. I had half of mine, a cup of soup ... and a piece of lemon meringue pie that I got a 4B's this AM.

No heat. It was cold and I was shivering once in a while but I have gloves and a heavy cap. Tomorrow I will put on my long johns and hope that is warm enough. My biggest worry is having no defroster. No problem today but we picked it up at noon. Tomorrow we will be leaving before daylight.

Load Board

US - 258

IA - 92/91

MN - 1

WI - 3

Tomorrow, rest area, lunch and then I will stop once we are closer to the drop to put in enough fuel to get to the drop without having the low fuel light come on. It will be close to eight hours so hopefully I can keep warmer than today.

The only thing that would change our plans now is if something shows up from MN going to IA that we can drop before we bring our car back. As it is, we have enough time to get the car back Wednesday by 1 PM. So that is the plan.