1 Bus to Farmington MN
... spending the night in Ankeny IA
Breakfast, this place is 'full service.' They seat you and get your food for you. We don't want to be seated and the place isn't set up for to go orders but they do take care of us.
Scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, yogurt and pop-tarts.
I do my inspection and we head out. Less than 10 miles down the road a check engine light comes on. It is yellow but we are leaving a big town and the next big town is 80 miles away.
It is only 7:30 here, 6;30 at the shipper so instead of calling him, I text him a picture of the warning code. Within a few minutes I get a call back. They need to look into it and call me back. Within a half hour we get the call it is safe to run with the warning light on as long as there are no other issues.
So only a half hour lost.
By this AM, we had looked at all options. As of last night, I had not done my log. I had miss-guessed by 15 minutes. And if I only fuel once today, it will cost me a couple of dollars more but we will gain another 15 minutes (and maybe save having another $100 a night hotel.) And we re-did our trip at 69 mph instead of 65 mph and came up with another half hour. So now I have another hour to get to Des Moines, we might make it.
1st stop - Sidney at the Loves for fuel and DEF. All pumps are full but I pick one truck that is still fueling and pull, back in, behind him. These coach buses also have the DEF on the right side and none of the truck stops do. While I am still backing the truck is done fueling and pulls ahead.
I run two transactions so I have only the DEF on the receipt that I turn in to get paid from. When I go in to get my receipt there is only one for my fuel. I ask, and without looking on the register, they reach into their trash and pull out my DEF receipt. ???
I call the drop, they don't seem to know the bus is coming but say they are open for delivery from 5 AM to 5 PM. Good.
And while stopped, I call the shipper to let them know I have not had any issues with the bus.
BUT two miles down the road a second yellow warning icon comes on the screen. I pull over, it goes off. I pull back into traffic, it comes on ... and again ... and again. And I can not do diagnostics while in gear and the message is gone when I stop.
Then it stays gone for about 20 miles. Now I notice an almost complete lack of power when the warning comes on. This time it only comes on twice. By then I have set the screen to the diagnostics view but the warning never comes back again.
2nd stop - North Platte at the Loves McDonalds for food. We eat at the bus and watch the truckers try to back into parking spots.
I have to cross the scales, somewhere, a few times but never an issue.
3rd stop - Kearney rest area for a rest stop
4th stop - York rest area for a rest stop
5th stop - Underwood rest area for a rest stop.
Now that I am logging the rest stops as 'off duty,' they no longer cut into the hours I can drive in a day.
6th and final stop Ankeny at the Sleep Inn for the night
First 650 mile day in a long, long time.
The parking lot is fuller than usual. Lots of large trucks and other cars parking in random spots so there are not five open spots in a row. We end up parking against the building where the police usually park. But no cops tonight.
We had ordered online but couldn't pay or select a pick up time. So as soon as our bags are in the room we walk across the street to pick up our food at the Outback. I get two cups of soup and BB gets an appetizer.
Load board
US - 505
IA - 253
MN - 12
WI - 11
By running late, we will be able to make delivery tomorrow.