1 RV to Ocala FL

... spending the night at Tifton GA

Breakfast - meal three from the Rice House. The left overs are finally gone. I did look at the breakfast at this place on the way out and it was cups of juice, nuke sandwiches, fruit and muffins. Pretty slim.

Lots of talk this AM about what to take for our next trip so we don't get out of our room quite at 7 AM.

When we do walk out ... ICE. We were thinking this was really bad until we realized that it was just our one corner around the door. The rest of the sidewalk and road was dry.

I called dispatch on one of the trips before we left the parking lot. It is a tool truck. We say no for now. I think they only have one seat, or maybe only one good seat. BB doesn't walk to ride on a jump seat for 1,000 miles.

The roads are not icy but I do not use the cruise on the first leg of the trip through Nashville.

1st stop ... isn't there. BB uses a guide book and it said there was a rest area near mm 73. I didn't remember there being one, and neither did she. Because there is not one. It is on I-40, we are on I-24. The book is wrong.

So we stop at Christiana again (we did last trip) this time we stop at the Shell instead of the Loves. I didn't go in but BB says they have re-built the inside. Nice. Now to stop there at lunch time for a good Philly again.

2nd stop was an hour down the road at the Loves near Jasper. Cheapest fuel on the trip. I'll need to add more at some point.

After we are back on the road again, BB looks at the loadboard. 'Tampa to IA.' She is so excited she doesn't think to call right away. She calls and '... never mind, it is gone already.' The loadboard refreshed while she was talking and the trip was gone. Dispatch said something about it maybe being a repair or something. Something they have to activate to process and then remove. (Or they gave it to a favored driver?) Some day we will get one of those runs. We have seen them in the past but not when we are in the same state. It would have been a great trip.

3rd stop - Dalton again, different food. Schlotzsky's. Good food but we should have ordered ahead. Our first 45 minute lunch break in a long time. All inside. Big sign on the door that they are responsible if you get covid from someone at their location.

I can't remember where I had my first Scholotzsky's. There used to be some in my home state but they are all gone now.

Traffic - Atlanta

Sign says that the two left lanes are closed ahead because of an accident so people start merging right. Some people. That opens up the left lanes for those who still want to drive 70 mph while the rest of us are stopped. I think we saw the remains of the accident on the right shoulder but all lanes were open by the time we got there. That was still north of town.

West of town there was supposed to be a slow down in the left lane again. After we were past where it should have been we got behind a semi that was stopped in the right lane. As we went around him we saw that someone coming down the ramp (likely?) had gotten T-boned right by the merge sign ... where the actual lanes are still 20 feet apart. The car was likely trying to 'make a move.' In this case it didn't work out too well for him.

Somewhere in this area we passed a tool truck. But we went past too fast to get a look at how the seats were set up. Our lane was moving and his wasn't. We did see it was a transporter.

When we get to the south end of town we are stopped again. For a while the only time we moved was when someone pulled out of the exit ramp lane.

4th stop was in Jackson at the Flying J for a rest break. As we are walking out we see the same tool truck leaving. A few seconds sooner walking out and we may have gotten a look inside.

5th stop is the Buc-ee's in Fort Valley. Put in nine gallons of fuel, that should get me to my drop with 50 miles to spare. We will see.

See a few other transporters here. Diesel here is cheaper than with our company discount.

6th and final stop is ... Cracker Barrell (BB can't find anything she likes at Logen's Roadhouse :( )

We had ordered online and it said the food would be ready in one hour. It was only a half hour but I thought we should stop first, food was ready and cooling. We think it had already been sitting there a while.

Final stop is across the street at the Comfort Inn. As I am backing in to 'our spot,' BB sees another RV transporter pulling in. :( I move and he takes our place. He has a bus sized RV and is towing his car. We fit in a double car spot. We are OK.

Food was OK, I got the Thursday / turkey special. BB got her fish.

Load board

US - 315

IA - 100/98

Nothing new today for trips. Now we are looking at what to do during out stay in FL. In the north it will be cold, below freezing overnight. In the south it will be raining. (but no snow)

We will need to be heading home by mid-week. There was a truck from NC to CA but we don't have the time (and we don't make any money. But it is a fun trip)

We also looked at the NC to NE trips and we won't make any more money both driving than just me doing a FL trip. Too much deadhead from FL to NC. We have tried that before. It works if we end up in WI, IA or MN.

Local cars are about $50 so that is getting better. IF we keep a one-way for a week we can get a car, we can't if we want to just drive home in 2-3 days and return it.

LOG

7:15 - Leave Comfort Inn - Clarksville TN

9:00 - Christiana TN - Shell - rest break

10:00 - Jasper TN - Loves - fuel

11:15 - Dalton GA - Schlotzsky's

2:45 - Jackson GA - Flying J - rest break

3:45 - Fort Valley GA - Buc-ees - fuel

5:00 - Tifton GA - Comfort Inn and Cracker Barrell