1 city bus to Chicago IL

... spending the night at Plattsburgh

No breakfast today. We are going to be eating 'brunch' with family at 10 AM.

We pull out of the hotel around 9 AM. This will all be roads we have been on before, just 50 mph max.

1st stop is the Creek House Diner. Our family is a 'known' here and they have the tables all set up for our large group when we get there. Small place, only one person working the dining area in the AM but she keeps up. There are 11 of us plus the other customers. Good food, BB and I split a breakfast and then split a piece of chocolate pie.

When we are going to leave, the other MN people and us want to stop at a town called 'Barnard,' but can't agree which direction it is :) Finally we agree to head south, and realize if we had been having that conversation at the rear of our cars we could have seen the sign that said 'Barnard 6 (miles.)

It's just an old store, one of us buys a T-shirt and some snacks and we sit on the porch for a while and talk, looking out over the lake across the street.

3rd stop is Woodstock. One of the biggest tourist towns in VT. On the way there BB has enough cell service to see that there is 1 bus going to CGO so when we stop I call dispatch and get the trip. Now we have a reason to get going.

We did still spend some time, and some money in The Vermont Flannel Co store. Lots of interesting things including a 'vong.' a thong made out of flannel. (we did not get one of those)

From there we headed to the shipper. Almost three hours to go on almost all back rounds. I had guessed we were two hours away and we would have been if we had been at our hotel.

Somewhere on these back roads we passed an Amish wagon with a couple of pre-school children in the back. It might be the first time I have actually past one, or at least the first time for a wagon vs a buggie.

4th stop was in Middleburg at an Irving for fuel and a rest room. Gas Buddy said fuel was $4.89 and everything else we saw was $4.99 so that is why we stopped there. But they were $4.99 also. Which was much better than if we had waited until we got to NY.

After another almost hour of back roads in VT and NY we are finally on the freeway and are less than a half hour from the shipper. I was asked to call back closer to 5 PM so a few minutes to five I am at an exit and call.

My phone has no service so I call using BB's and find out they they have both left a message and a text with some of the info. Some of that info was that I am to call another driver for more info.

We do have the OK to run extra miles to stay on the freeway instead of running the back roads. That is my plan but it will add an extra 100+ miles that I will not be getting paid for.

After that call we drive the last few minutes to town before calling the other driver. One of our questions was how much the company will pay for hotels when we are in town. He is staying at the Days Inn but others stay at the Comfort Inn or Holiday Inn. We check in to the Comfort Inn and wait for the driver to call us back. He is running to Walmart and then we will meet at the shipper so he can show me the basic's. His routine is the pick the bus up in the evening and then leave town early in the AM. He is heading to NYC which is a half day trip.

(more later)

Load board

US - 336

IA - 154/152