1 Tree truck to Menomonee Falls WI

... spending the night at Forsyth GA

Breakfast - Burger King

We walk down to breakfast. The first thing I notice is the sign that says breakfast must be eaten in the breakfast area. What breakfast? I saw two kinds of pastries and a pancake machine.

So we leave out a little before 7:30 local so we have time to stop at BK.

The shipper is about five miles off the freeway. About a mile off the freeway there was a stop light. The truck ahead of me did a 'no-stop' right turn on red. I stop on the red, no one else is moving so I take a right turn. The next thing I notice is the car who got the green was right on my bumper. But we are looking for our turn so I don't pay much attention to him until he passes me as soon as there is no oncoming traffic ... in a no passing zone. And he passes me with one tire in my lane, just inches from my car and pulls in front of me just inches from my bumper. Then he hits the breaks, luckily there was a street right there and I did a quick right turn. And luckily there wasn't another crazy driver coming at me on that street. But part of a block down I did meet a truck and it is basically a one lane street.

We had missed our turn, the computer wasn't keeping up on giving us directions. We found our shipper and our truck.

1st stop - Sumterville. It was a fenced field full of trucks but mine was parked right where they had said it would be.

Bad news. There is not enough room in the cab for us and our stuff. We would have to bungy cord some of our stuff to the outside. IF it was an automatic it might have worked, but it is a stick. We also look in the locked boxes on the sides of the truck. Full. The only place we didn't look is the bucket :)

The front windshield did have a nice sized ding in it but not in my line of sight. I called that into dispatch and got the OK to run with it.

... and the fuel tank is full ... I might make some fuel money on this ...

The huge tires for off-roading are on the back of the truck strapped down. There is also an extra guard on the front of the truck that has to be lowered to open the hood. The extra guard I suppose is for going through the brush when they are off-roading.

Other than making a phone call and deciding if/how we would fit in the cab it didn't take long at the pickup. Even before we knew this truck was an option we had talked about the plus and minus of BB following me all the way back home. Usually when we do that it is because our rental car is $10, not $100, a day.

We head out, as soon as we get to the freeway two check engine lights come on, both yellow so I keep going. Ugh. This thing is gutless. It is an off-road truck and is geared so that it is tacking out 2,100 rpms at 55 mph. And it takes miles to get up to speed.

2nd stop - Pilot in Wildwood. It is the first truckstop I come to 10 miles down the road. As I am pulling off the freeway I am slowing so that my rpms drop below 2,1000. When I do, one of the check engine lights goes off and does not come back on the rest of the day.

I call dispatch, they call the shipper, the shipper calls me. After explaining what is happening and what isn't happening I get the OK to run with the one check engine light on. That took 45 minutes out of my day. The rest of the day, the rest of this trip, I will be loosing at least 15 minutes an hour by driving 55 mph vs 70 mph. That is if there are not any hills. I'm dropping to 50 mph just on the 'hills' in FL.

Four long hours ...

3rd stop is in Tifton GA at the Pilot for fuel and Subway for lunch. Small place, kind of. Traffic is backed up out onto the highway because someone can't pick which fuel lane to park behind. There is room in all lanes, just pick one. I thought the line was moving so I pulled across oncoming traffic only to have the trucks ahead of me stop. I had to pull along side of the last truck off the street until he finally moved.

Opps, this fuel pump shut off before my tank was full. This time it was because I moved the hose and the hose hit the handle. I would have liked to have known what mileage I am getting but I did not want to restart the pump for the last five gallons.

There is a line at Subway but our other choice is Stake and Shake. We didn't walk over to see how long that would take.

BB is not following me today, if she does decide to run with me she will likely lead. She does not like semi's coming up on her at 75+ mph when she is doing 55 mph. I am big enough that most people don't get that close to me.

So far today I had to weight at the first scale, but that was all. The 2nd scale was closed and the 3rd scale I got the bypass.

4th and final stop was at the Comfort Suites in Forsyth. I saw the dual sign for the two motels but I had not looked at the map to see that they were in two different buildings. But once I got into the parking lot I could see BB in the car and I just followed where she went until I got to the very back of the parking lot of the 2nd building that I hadn't seen originally.

After we check in we call next door to Shoney's and got food to go. Other than that food there was something in one of the gas stations and a BBQ place that was or wasn't open depending on which site we looked at.

When we picked up our food at about 6 PM local there were people at about a half dozen tables in Shoney's. Not sure how many were having their buffet. I asked the person who waited on us about it and they said it is usually slow this time of year. But it is or isn't busy depending on the day.

Load board

US - 302

IA - 68/64

We have our day mapped out for tomorrow. BB will not be running with me and this is not one of our usual routes so I have written down all of the exit numbers and fuel stops. I would LIKE to run 500 miles tomorrow but that is not likely.

Our plan had been to get the rental car back on Friday, but right now it looks like we will be dropping in MLW on Friday. I had also hoped to get some dental work done on Friday, that likely will now be Monday.

AND two friends of a person staying at our house tested positive for Covid the last two days. Their only connection to each other is the person staying at our house ... who so far ... is not testing positive. We will likely stay away ...

LOG (local)

7:30 - Leave hotel/stop at BK

8:00 - Arrive at Sumterville FL at shipper

8:45 - Leave shipper

9:15 - Arrive at Wildwood FL at Pilot

10:00 - Leave Pilot

2:00 - Arrive at Tifton GA at Pilot / Subway

2:45 - Leave Pilot

5:00 - Arrive at Forsyth GA at Comfort Inn

6:00 - PU food at Shoney's