2 RV's heading to Bozeman MT (delivered)

... spending the night at Murdo SD

After we went down for breakfast, I called the RV dispatch when they opened to see if we could request trips for Wednesday yet (usually it is 24 hours, this is 48 hrs) We could because it was an older trip. So we are taking two to AR, we had wanted two going to the same location but one of those was taken either late Saturday or sometime on Sunday.

Do that broke a couple of our rules, one is do not commit to a trip more than six hours before we are going to leave ... and the other, starting recently, is reserve a car before we commit to a trip. We looked many times but had not reserved one. There are none, and the closer ones are $200-300 a day. After both of us working on it for a while we found that we could get a rental car to Memphis and then switch to a different brand from Memphis to home. Doing that will cost us a couple of hours and save us hundreds of dollars.

Breakfast - It was a small area and was packed with workers. They were out of yogurt so I had to go find someone, they were out of juice according to someone else. And the person in charge was running as fast as they could to keep up. They had two trays of hot food, eggs, potato tots and bacon in one. Three more kinds of meat in the other. Bacon was good, just the right amount of crisp. When I checked out I saw the person taking care of things and told them how good the bacon was ... just the way I like it. (and it was free)

At 8:30 local, we both head out in my RV to the airport. Luckily we had left our trucks sitting far enough from the buildings that they were in the sun so we did not have to scrape the windshields. 16 degrees this AM.

1st stop is the Holiday gas station. One gallon. My range was showing 31 miles and I have 12 to go to get to the final fuel station. Problem is that a lot of these units will not adjust the range if you don't add enough fuel to get the low fuel light to shut off. But I know for sure that I now have enough to get to the station.

2nd stop was the airport to drop BB to get the rental car.

This time I know where I am going. Last time I took a wrong turn and went through downtown Belgrade which took extra time.

3rd stop is for fuel at an Exxon. As I am ready to fuel I decide I should re-check my paperwork. Most of these small RV's get $20 of dealer fuel. This one gets $40, glad I looked.

I did not look again this AM at my route, I rely on memory. Likely wouldn't have made much difference. The road I took by mistake was not here last time we were. I thought I could get to where I wanted to be by cutting through parking lots ... I ended up behind a strip mall that only had one lane and one entrance. I had to back out into the drive-thru for the local coffee shop ... as people are heading to work.

4th stop is parking my RV at a restaurant that will not open until this afternoon. Before I get my paperwork done, BB arrives. I hop in the rental and we head back to the hotel to pick up BB's RV.

5th stop is back at the hotel.

6th stop is back at the restaurant.

7th stop is two blocks away at the drop. I have been here before but forgot the routine. I wait in line at the wrong desk before being told where to go ...

By that time BB is here. I followed a lot of travel trailers in but they all have MT plates on them. Turns out they are being moved from one dealer location to here so we are first in line. We do have to move once some of the travel trailers have moved.

As soon as she is parked, BB walks the two blocks back to the car.

At the dealer, they start checking BB's RV in first. We find out later it is because they had her paperwork ready and didn't have mine ready. But we are in and out in 45 minutes. We pull out about 4 minutes later than we had planned.

It is sunny this AM but it still takes me a while to get used to 80 mph after driving the last two days at 65 mph or less.

8th stop is a rest area near Graycliff. We had planned on stopping in Billings ... 4B's maybe :) ... but the extra stop would cost time. And we will need to stop in Hardin for fuel as it is cheaper by quite a bit there.

9th stop is for food and fuel at the Loves in Hardin.BB ordered food from Hardies while I fueled.

10th stop is a rest area past Buffalo

11th stop is a Maverik in Rapid City for food and fuel. Fuel is cheap, I did not realize that Maverik had stations this far east. Food is usually good but their grill is already closed so it is shelf or roller food. I got a roller dog and BB got a shelf sandwich. It is food and it was fast. Also got a cookie.

We have done a lot of talking about where to stay the night. We are wanting to push as far as we can.

12th stop is the Best Western in Murdo. It has been 12 hours and it will be dark shortly. Beyond here it was another hour before a name brand hotel.

This is an old one story, park at the door hotel. We have stay here before, not sure how they maintain Best Western status but it is a nice place.

Long day (after long day)

Load board

US - 527

IA - 331/329

8:30 - leave hotel

8:45 - fuel

9:00 - Airport

9:15 - Fuel

9:30 - break

10:15 - drop

12:30 - Graycliff RA

2:00 - Hardin Loves

4:00 - Buffalo

6:30 - RC

8:30 - Murdo