1 tree truck to Olathe KS

... spending the night at Olathe KS

Up before 6 AM looking out the window. It is already snowing so the forecast was correct. No chance of getting delivered before the storm hits.

Breakfast - Western omelettes and bacon, plus good juice and yogert.

At 8 AM we call in for the two CA trips we have been watching. I get put on hold and by the time I am talking to dispatch the trips we want are gone. Dispatch tries to talk us into something else but we aren't sure we can make it back today so we do not want to commit to anything. Also we like to do all our math before taking a trip, not do it on the fly because someone offered the trip.

We watch the weather both on TV and out the window.

Early on I call the front desk and ask for a late check out. The storm looks like it should wind down by 2 PM. But the latest checkout they can give us is 12 noon. So I say 'OK, if you need to kick us out, we will just sit in your parking lot until the roads are clear.'

About 10 minutes later the front desk calls us back. We can stay as long as we need, they will put the room 'out of service' so that it does not need to be cleaned today. :)

About noon I watch a car trying to come up the exit ramp from the freeway. It can go backwards but as soon as it goes forward it spins and slides sideways. This went on for a while and then all I could see is the top foot of the car, and now it is out of sight. I assume it was sliding sideways down the freeway side of the ramp.

That was it. We are staying another night. BB made a new reservation and I called the drop. The drop is fine with getting the truck tomorrow ... and tells me about their truck that did not make it in one piece and took weeks to get parts to get fixed.

The forecast has been showing the snow will move out about 3 PM and that has not changed all day. But reports are saying that KC normally gets 18 inches of snow per year. They have gotten over 6 inches in the last 12 hours so this is not something they are prepared for.

Once the snow moved out the sun came out, but now we had changed all of our plans.

100+ semi's and cars were involved in a pileup in IL from the same storm. And now I see that our midwestern terminals are closed until further notice.

We spend a lot of time looking for the right trip. Now we are back to rental cars being NA or two/three times what we can pay and still make money.

Finally at about 6:30 we decide it is time to eat, we have looked at a lot of places but we will be walking so we want something close. We go for Johnny's Italian at the hotel next door. We try ordering online and we have to go through a third party ordering system which we will not do. So I call. Finally on the 3rd call someone finally answer's and puts me on hold. After 7 minutes on hold we decide to walk over.

We get there and they tell us they are closing at 7 PM, it is now 6:57. When we tell them we would like to order to go they agree to take our order. It takes about a half hour for us to get our food. Two other tables must have just been ordering when we got there based on when they got their food. A few others came in, tried to come in but not a big crowd.

Food was good. We ordered lasagna, it came with salad which BB wanted. I ordered a side of soup. Plus we ordered a desert.

Load board

US - 565

IA - 287

Plans for tomorrow are now to pick up the rental car about 10 AM, drop by 11 AM. On a good day, it is about six hours back to Forest City, which will be about 5 PM. We could be to Albert Lea by 6 PM. Then on Saturday it would take us another five hours to drop the car and get back to Forest City. So it will be sometime after noon on Saturday when we head out to ... somewhere.