1 Bus to Farmington MN

... spending the night in Rocklin CA

5:30 AM (local) wake up call. The guy I have been helping dig in the dirt for is letting me know it is raining and he won't be needing my help for a few days.

Now that we have addresses we look closer at how to get to the pickup and then to drop the rental car. There is a place close, but there is no place for me to park so hopefully BB is in and out quick and waiting by the time I get there.

Breakfast is in a bag. Short bottle of water, pastry and breakfast bar. BB eats leftovers.

/////////////// The following is being written two days later.

At 9 AM local, we head to near the SFO airport. We have extra time so we 'drive the loop,' following the route that I will be taking with the bus. It's good that we did as there would be detours to go the way we had planned. So we will do the trip the opposite direction.

When we get to the shipper, the doors are locked and the 800 number does not allow for the info I have. So I walk to the back of the building and find someone helpful. We find the bus and then I ask if there are any hints I need to know ...

Every bus is different and this is a coach (Greyhound style) bus, not a city bus. So they did a quick walk through with lots of hints. Not sure what they are used to, but I asked if they wanted to keep the plates off the bus. They didn't know. Other questions, they didn't know.

Then I find out that someone else has to come from a different location to sign off on the paperwork. By the time I get the bus checked out and moved, and a few more questions answered the paperwork is signed and we are clear to go.

BB leaves a few minutes ahead of me so she has time to drop the car and walk across the street as there is no place to park a bus and wait for her.

Turns out there was a rental car place about a half mile from the shipper ... the way the crow flies. Three miles the way the roads run.

BB is waiting when I get there ... now back through San Francisco and on to I-80 for a 1,000+ miles.

Lots of ships in the harbor that are stacked high with shipping containers.

Slow and go traffic but not much stop and go traffic.

130 miles into the trip, the yellow check engine light came on ... and the red STOP ENGINE light came on. I pull to the side of the road do a quick check of the bus and start making phone calls.

Lots of phone calls, and some de-bugging over the phone.

Finally after 3 hours I get the OK to move the bus three miles to a safe place as long as the STOP ENGINE light doesn't come back on.

Finally, we get to use the restroom and order some food. We have parked in a strip mall parking lot. It might be the only strip mall that doesn't have a vacant storefront. We thought we would have plenty of room to park. I do find a place and we are out.

ToGo Sandwiches. It is one of the places we looked at but didn't pick last night. Good food but not as good as the Beach Hut last night.

We sit outside in sun for the next three hours until the sun goes down.

When they said I could go to a safe place, they also said they were bringing me another bus. About an hour after we thought they would get to us, they arrived. We move our stuff to the new bus and when I go back to the old bus, they ask what I did to it ...

It now has even more error message and will not start.

We leave.

We had hoped to get to Reno or beyond, but 'our' hotel in Reno is full for tonight. Then I call the closest motel. They are not full, quite, but parking will be where we find it.

So we call our motel about 10 miles back. They still have a couple of rooms left, but there we know the area and where trucks can park.

When we get to our motel there is lots of room to park.

Final stop, the Comfort Inn in Rocklin.

/////// Original posted below

11 PM, we are safe in a motel. More later

(100 miles after we picked up the bus, it broke down. Six hours later the shipper brings us a different bus)

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Load board

US - 522

IA - 260

MN - 6

WI 14