1 Bus to Farmington MN

... spending the night in Wendover UT

Breakfast here is still limited. Choices are hard boiled eggs, yogurt, breads, fruits and some packaged pastries. I get the yogurt and some juice.

Sometime last night, BB had remembered that I needed a permit for NV. At that point it was after hours for where we get them and I still didn't have a VIN to get one. Once that I had woken up this AM, I couldn't fall back to sleep again because I kept thinking about the permit. The place our company has a contract with is only open M-F and today is Saturday. I know who my other company uses in a crunch so I call them.

They are able to get me the permit, I just need to pay and get reimbursed. Wish I had known that before. I have tried to get permits myself direct from the states and that doesn't work. But this did, I am legal to roll.

8 AM local we are ready to head out. A semi was also able to find a spot in the car area after I got there. And no one is parked in the truck parking ... and the over flow parking is now roped off, I didn't ask them about that.

Warning lights.

When I inspected the bus this AM, I noticed I couldn't see any coolant in the sight tube, but the tube was very discolored. Then when I went to start the bus I got a number of warning lights. BB now knows where to look them up on the computer and quickly had the answer. Low coolant.

After the bus ran a few minutes, most of the lights went off so I moved the bus to a different part of the parking lot so it was closer to walk to the gas station. I bought two gallon jugs of water and added 1-1/2. Not sure why. It was fine yesterday and stayed right to where I filled it all day.

WOW. The 1st bus I had was down to 35 mph on the smaller hills by Sacramento. This bus only got down to 45 mph on Donners Pass. There was something wrong with the other bus long before it shut down on me.

But there is something 'wrong' with the tranny's on these. They don't want to down shift until they are down to 1,000 rpms. Early this AM I started doing something I have never done before on an automatic transmission. I started shifting it myself. I would downshift closer to 1,300 rpms and after that the bus never got down to below 55 mph on the hills.

We had driven back to our motel last night, so this AM we went past the parking lot where we had exchanged buses. Ours was still there, but facing the other direction. So my guess is they got it to start, but not to run. Glad they brought us a 2nd bus or we would be here for the weekend or ...

1st stop is in Fernley for a restroom break. When we park, we see a semi tractor that had gotten hit where it was parked. Pretty major damage right in a parking lot.

From here I called dispatch with VIN for the bus I am now driving. As long as we were talking I asked about fuel, leave it at 1/4 at delivery. And he didn't know about the wash, he will call me back on Monday. He said this bus pays better than the city buses, we will see on pay day.

2nd stop is in Winnemucca at the Loves for Carl Jr's. Their menu is not the same as Hardee's, at least not this location. I ended up with chicken fingers.

There was only one RV parked in the RV area so we joined them. As we were walking in, the driver, our driver, was walking out. He is headed to the same place in Reno as we dropped at.

Besides this RV we saw two others on a flatbed and two from another company being driven. And also to delivery vans. Not much moving today.

3rd stop was in Elko at the Sinclair for a restroom break.

4th stop is an extra stop. Usually we stop ever 100 miles or so. Wells is 50 from Elko and 50 from Wendover. But it was the cheapest fuel until Nebraska. So I got 90 gallons. This bus has a 145 gallon tank and I don't have a good idea of what mileage I am getting.

We ended up doing 500 miles today, our normal. The next motel is on the other side of the salt flats, 100 miles / two hours away. Tomorrow the towns are closer together so we will likely push to 550 miles, and no mountains so we should make better time.

The driver at Loves said I-80 was closed because of a major crash today. Another reason we want to push tomorrow if the weather is good. Get past the winds of WY.

The winds have been good to us today, all tailwinds. And I am heavy enough that I am not getting blown around, but I think I am getting a nice push.

5th and final stop is the Quality Inn in Wendover. We walk to the food truck in the parking lot. Always good food. I think the same people have been here for about a year now.

Load board

US - 496

IA - 245

MN - 6

WI - 12