2 RV's to Wilmington NC
... spending the night at Cedar Rapids IA
Breakfast - none :) We were still at home.
Plan was to leave home 'about' 9:30, we left at 9:45. The temps are below -0- so it is a long john day.
1st stop today was in Owatonna at Jimmy John's for food and break. The DQ next door is now closed after a YouTube video appeared online a couple of days ago showing ?? an employee throwing someone's food out the door as they wanted to the door. No comments online yet of the reality of the story or how someone just 'happened' to be videoing that employee at that time.
2nd stop was in Forest City at the Kwik Star/Kwik Trip. Gas was cheaper back in Owatonna but with these temps we wanted the car left on full.
Next was the RV shipper. We get our paperwork and get back in our car where it is warm. There are times that I do not look at the 'helpful hints' until after I deliver :) But today I did. CLOSED MONDAY. What? We are already taking four days to do a three day run because we were afraid someone else would get the trip. Now it is going to take five days to do a three day trip. Good thing both of us are driving and our first rental car is $50 a day.
I go back in and check, they should have told us that when we took the truck, their computer should not have let them enter a delivery date of Monday. BB and I talk about it for a few minutes and decide to stay the course.
We don't stand outside long or much but it still takes us an hour to do our inspection. The holes are not lined up right for BB to put her plate on the rear so I don't even try on mine. It is still around -0- with a wind.
We have covers on the front of our RV's and BB's is loose already. So we flag down the yard person who comes with more tape, but it is so cold that it doesn't want to cooperate and we do not want to stand there.
3rd stop is for fuel at the Pilot in Clear Lake. Fuel is ten cents less 30 miles down the road but BB is down in the red by the time we get to Clear Lake, not a lot of free fuel this trip.
No reason to push this trip but it's hard to shut down at 4 PM when there is still daylight left and no good reason to get off the road. We know the hotels in each town, we will decide at our next stop.
4th stop was the Flying J in Waterloo for a rest break. I guess we kind of had decided where we were not going to stop ... we are already past Cedar Falls, one of our thoughts of where to stop and where to eat.
From here BB makes a reservation and we decide where to eat.
5th stop is Cedar Rapids, first for food at PepperJacks Grill. A Philly for me and a bureto for BB. Good but different.
We get it to go, final stop is the Comfort Inn for the night. No food within walking distance so we plan ahead.
Load board
US - 427
IA - 137/136
Lots of terminals are closed because of the weather, which means less drivers are moving but things are still getting put on the loadboard. Not sure if it is correct but they put 40 cement mixers out of WI going to UT today. Usually they put 5-10 a day out. Not sure most shippers have room to store 40 until the order is ready to all ship at once. Pretty sure they were not all built yesterday.
Our plan is to get another 300-400 miles tomorrow. We will be watching the weather, which should have moved on. But we will also be watching the road to make sure they are clear or we will shut down.
Plan is to still get to Wilmington on Sunday and take Monday off as a re-start day.
LOG
9:45 - Leave home
11:00 - Owatonna MN - Jimmy Johns
12:30 - Forest City IA - Kwik Star
12:35 - Forest City IA - shipper
2:00 - Clear Lake IA - Pilot
4:00 - Evansdale (Waterloo) IA - Flying J for rest break
5:00 - Cedar Rapids IA - PepperJacks Grill
5:15 - Cedar Rapids IA - Comfort Inn