1 bus to Milwaukee WI

... spending the night at Elko NV

Before we grab breakfast we take our first load of luggage down and start the bus, it still has an issue.

Breakfast is an omelette and a link sausage. Apple juice is water and the OJ is sour. (I let the staff know)

When we are back in our room I call the bus tech, I do it the way the paperwork says. Call this number ... who put me through to the guy I usually talk to anyway, but I get voicemail. I call back, the operator puts me through to someone else ... who puts me through to the guy I usually talk to anyway so I leave a message.

It is just about a half hour later and the phone rings ... the bus dispatcher? But he's not calling about my bus, he has another bus that needs to be moved in route to my drop. But I tell him I am waiting on the shipper to call me back and I will call dispatch back when I hear.

A few minutes later I do get a call from the tech. I am to run with it as is. It will be an annoyance but not a safety issue. We are free to go.

I call for my permit now that I know we are not heading back to Livermore.

When I call dispatch back he says he has the trip covered. Someone is sitting in that town right now. They will get it done today, I wouldn't get to it until Thursday or Friday.

1st stop is the rest area at Donners Pass.

I have my permit before we get there and we are about 15 minutes later than the permit is for. Close enough.

Inspection station at the CA-NV border is open, one truck being inspected and a whole lot of other officers more interested in something else.

2nd stop is the Pilot in Fernley for fuel and food. One pump opens as I am pulling in, but my card won't work. All other pumps are full so I need to get this one to work. I go inside and they say a new screen has been ordered (It would be nice if it said that on the pump) An RV has pulled in behind me and they wait until I am hanging up the fuel hose to move to a different pump (?) They do get pulled in before I can pull out.

I thought I was going to park on the Wendy's end of the building but when I got there I found that all those parking spots were reserved.

Lunch was a double stack ... and a Mango Pineapple smookie from DQ. But that was too much and I threw half of it away, not because it was bad but because it was too much to eat in a half hour. Too much brain freeze.

3rd stop was the Pilot near Winnemucca for a restroom break and a lemonade.

When we were heading west a couple of days ago we saw that the road was red in one area and I had assumed that someone just lost part of their load. But today we saw the same thing in the opposite direction. When we saw once exit that was just covered with what ever the non-crushed stuff is. It looks like cranberries but is light enough that sometimes it moves when a truck passes. Then we came to a spot where, whatever it is, is covering the top of the cement barrier and they are also sticking to the sides of the barrier. Nothing listed on the internet. If there hadn't been so much traffic we might have stopped for a closer look.

4th and final stop was the Holiday Inn in Elko. We usually stay at the Comfort Inn but I'm not sure I can get around the tight curves and they do not like us taking up more than one spot but ...

... someone has parked in my spot at the Holiday Inn, the lot is mostly full. But there are five spots together and with BB's help I am trying to back in when someone walks over. I was expecting them to say I would need to park on the street but instead they offered to ahve the car moved. It is one of the employee's. And when the employee came out the said 'thank you,' it gave them an excuse to leave work .. :) Not what I was expecting.

And we were expecting to walk down the street to Wingers for food. but the hotel had soup and salad. Then another but, after we dropped our luggage in our room and went back down ... someone was taking the last half a bowl of soup. But I wanted some so we tipped the container and got another half bowl for BB and I to split. When we checked in we were told '... until it is gone.' But for some reason we stayed in the area instead of going back to our room (like the person behind us who got -0- soup)

When we were done with our soup and salad they brought out more. So we had more soup and another two couples had soup and salad because there was more of both. This did help off set the tonight's hotel. It is over double what our room would have been if we had ran two more hours and made it to Wendover. But that would have been three nights in a row of almost midnight central time.

Load board

US - 527

IA - 271/264

400 miles to day and tomorrow instead of 500. And I am not in a rush so where traffic is light I am running at 55-60 instead of 65 mph. It should save a little bit of fuel.