1 straight truck heading to IN (Sunday)
1 straight truck heading to WI (Monday)
... spending the night at home
Breakfast - cold eggs and long sausages. And good yogurt.
We got up on time but left the hotel later than usual. I did call a dispatcher in IN about a trip, the trip is a 'cube truck.' A small box truck. It is listed as an 'other' on our load board.
We leave out about 8:30 (instead of 7:30) Nothing has shown up on the load board for MN so we are likely heading straight home.
1st stop is in Floyd at the BP for fuel (gift cards) First I call my local dispatcher and line up the IN trip. I hold off on committing to a 2nd one until after this one is delivered. Then I call the dispatcher who has the 'other' truck and line that up to pick up on Monday. It is about 10 miles from my drop. Dispatcher seemed very glad I would take it. (It looks like it is about 30 miles from the airport)
... BB ends up fueling the car as I have been making phone calls. When she is done fueling she pushes the button for a receipt. She turns away and then back and the receipt is blowing across the parking lot. She chases it until it lands in a mud puddle. Then she goes in and gets a duplicate.
Once we have worked lined up, BB lines up another rental car. It is cheaper to return this car and rent one from a different agency for the next week. We looked at doing a one way to drop in IA but because of the price we will return to MN and switch cars before heading out.
Later today there will be another trip from IN heading our home direction but I will not commit to anything else until I am in a 2nd truck.
Lots of wind today, mileage is closer to 20 mpg than 40 mpg. Rain and snow today depending on where you are. We see a few RV's, then cement mixers, trash trucks and cement pumpers. Transporters are busy.
2nd stop is the clinic. All is good, need to stop back in eight weeks.
Then off to Smash Burger. My Sin City Burger is no longer on their computer, but one person knows how to ring it up. Standard burger, with onion strings and an egg. We eat in the car, the burger is too sloppy to eat and drive.
3rd stop is the grocery store.
4th stop is home.
After doing some paperwork I head to the local dispatch office. The first thing I do is check my paperwork for my next trip. While I am in the entryway looking at my paperwork, the senior dispatcher finds me. She will have two buses for me next week ...
I tell her that I am heading to IN, maybe twice. But buses trump trucks so I may be doing a bus if they are ready. The bus I tried to pick up last week still is not ready.
... and for the first time in 14 years, quarter end on the buses will be the 1st Sunday of the fourth month instead of the last Sunday of the third month. I thought all bus drivers would be looking for work next week, no, they will still be delivering buses.
As the dispatcher and I are talking she looks at the other drivers paperwork and realizes that there are no keys in his packet. Not a good thing to find on a Sunday morning.
When I get out to look at my truck I find that mine is blocked in, how was I supposed to get out? So I talked to dispatch again, I end up moving the truck in the way and starting both trucks that will leave on Sunday. There are 10 total trucks parked there today, two will leave Sunday. I'm guessing this is a 'sweet-heart deal' where the trucks only move if there are drivers to move them.
Glad I stopped in. :)
Load board
US - 551
IA - 352/349
Plan is drop the 1st rental and pick up the 2nd rental tomorrow. Then early Sunday we will head out to IN with the truck, we should be within an hour of the drop for the night.
LOG (like)
8:30 - Waterloo IA - Comfort Inn - leave hotel
10:00 - Floyd IA - BP - fuel
12:30 - Burnsville MN - Smash Burger - eat
2:00 - St Paul MN - home
3:30 - Lake Elmo MN - drop paperwork