1 trash truck heading to Heartland WI
1 trash truck heading to Carol Stream IL (Monday-maybe)
... spending the night at Johnson Creek WI
No alarm but up at the usual time.
We pull out at 8:30.
No stops before we get to the shipper this AM, it is a quiet Sunday morning drive.
1st stop is the shipper. Where the transporters usually park that leave their cars here, that area only has one car today, instead of dozens.
No one else around so BB drives the car into the storage area and we look for my truck. Easy pickings today. We know the color, we know that it is CNG. We can see from the end of the row that there are only two. I pick the wrong one first. :)
No issues with inspection. The ground looks/feels like it was really muddy real recently but today it is fine.
When I turn my paperwork in, I look at the other paperwork. It looks like about a dozen trucks have been pulled out since Friday PM. At least one for the company I am driving for today. Four other sets of keys in our lock box. And I did notice that the truck next to mine in line is going to Carol Stream. Not sure if it was my second one or not.
My instructions say that I am supposed to fuel before I scale the truck. But the place I am supposed to scale the truck is 30 miles before the first CNG fuel. And these are not canned instructions. Both the CNG info and the scale info are highlighted in yellow.
2nd - Kwik Trip for the scale. I am 4,000# underweight so I am good. And my fuel is on the very rear so a full tank of fuel on this truck will make the weight on the front tires less, not more. (I think)
Just down the street from the Kwik Trip is a Baymont Hotel. There is one trash truck parked nose to the building right next to the front door. Back end was sticking way into the parking lot, no way anyone could have parked across the lot and anyone get between them.
3rd stop is another 30 miles down the road at another Kwik Trip for fuel. We also eat here. Shelf food. Rib sandwich.
250 miles in this thing is far enough. Most of the time it is an OK ride, it is just when we hit a bridge joint or rough road that it is an issue. Did not hit my head on the ceiling today so that is good. This truck is built different than most. It is a dual drive for no reason that I know of. And to open the right side door you need to first move the mirrors out of the way ... and then re-adjust them when you close the door, they do not 'snap' back into place.
I decided not to carry anything I did not need today and I climbed over the center console in the cab so I did not have to open the door and adjust my mirrors. Not fun but it worked.
4th shop - Kwik Trip for fuel in Windsor just west of Madison. Not sure why the have the fuel stops so close together for us. We could have gotten all the way on the fuel that was in the truck and just stopped once. At the final one. We have to deliver all CNG trucks full of fuel.
5th stop - Kwik Trip in Lake Mills. Six gallons. BB does not stop here, she has headed straight to the hotel. She is at the hotel before I leave this fuel stop. She tells me not to go the way we talked about. There are 'no truck' signs.
So I look at the street names and take the other route.
As I am parking I notice that I am leaving huge black tire tracks in the parking lot. There is enough weight on this empty truck that it is leaving skid marks when I do a short turn.
6th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Johnson Creek, just 10 miles from the prior fuel stop.
We look online at the Pine Cone Restaurant and then I call. 10 minutes it will be ready. As we are waiting in line the line is next to the bakery display. We end up with a lemon bar and a cookie. Both are bigger around than I can reach by touching my thumbs and longest fingers. (not complaining)
Food was good. I got a chicken salad on white bread and BB had a tuna sandwich. And we each got coleslaw. It was the size of a cup of soup. We could have, should have split one. I did finish mine, BB did not.
It is Sunday so no load board info.
(actually they did at more)
IA - 380/377
LOG
8:30 - Leave home
10:00 - Dodge Center MN - shipper
11:00 - Kasson MN - Kwik Trip - Scale
11:30 - Rochester MN - Kwik Trip - fuel/food
1:30 - West Salem WI - Kwik Trip - fuel
3:15 - Windsor WI - Kwik Trip - fuel
4:30 - Lake Mills WI - Kwik Trip - fuel
5:00 - Johnson Creek WI - Comfort Inn
5:30 - Johnson Creek WI - Pine Cone Restaurant
Plan for tomorrow is drop by 9 AM and head back. By noon we will have to have an answer from dispatch about heading back to St Paul or heading back to Dodge Center.