1 city bus to Chicago IL (breakdown)

... spending the night at Ashtabula OH

We both woke about about 8 AM, dispatch had messaged me about a half hour before to ask if my bus had been picked up. I didn't want to 'beep' them with a message in the middle of the night so I had let them know I would be updating them in the AM.

We were not keeping track of time and then it was 9 AM. We quickly went down for breakfast. The area was dark but all of the food was still out so we helped ourselves.

The hotel we are staying at is in the middle of a residential area, kind of unique but a nice place. I was surprised that there were other people pulling into the hotel when we were last night after midnight.

Today we head out and we have a few miles to go to the airport and it is all on city streets. BB's directions take us into the airport a different way than the street signs but I was not looking at those signs soon enough. We got as far as a 'do not enter' sign and I made a u-turn as did the person behind me. Then BB and I had a discussion on which lane that sign was for. It was one sign in the median, no sign on either shoulder.

I dropped BB off at the airport and then went to look for a cell phone lot. I did not find one but I did see a stop sign just past the do not enter sign so I stayed to the right of the sign. That little street led to the rental car return, a parking area and a loading dock. But it became a one way street and I did not want any of those places so I had to go the wrong way down the one way to get back out of there. There should have been a dead end street sign.

BB lets me know we have a car and I head out.

Shortly after I get on the freeway I meet two of our CA buses. I had forgotten that one was on it's way. I knew from FB that one would be coming to Albany this AM. Not sure where the other one was going but both BB and I saw them. I was not ready for them so I did not get pictures.

Other than that there was almost -0- transporters.

2nd stop will be in Syracuse, first at the Sunoco for fuel and then across the street to the rental car place. BB stopped once at a rest area so she is still behind me. As I am getting things ready at the car place I get a text message from BB saying she is here ??? So I send a message with just (?) Then she calls, she is in the right parking lot but at the wrong building :)

We are, should be, in a rush but we want something other than another BK so BB finds a deli a mile away. A mile into down town. One way streets and only street parking and we drove past and then away. Second she finds a Charlie's in a mall. I'm thinking strip mall. As usual the computer routes us on all the back streets.

3rd stop is still in Syracuse, Destiny USA Mall. It is about half the size of the Mall of America. No quick in and out. We finally find the food court and the Charlies. Out of about 20 fast food places in the court, only the former Popeyes is empty. But there are other area's that are empty but new stores are still coming.

We didn't time it but that cost us about an hour over getting a Whopper from next door to the rental car place.

We now have our 'heading home car.' We are still going to make a little money on this trip over just flying/driving out to see family for the weekend.

4th stop is the rest area/oasis near Le Roy. About every other rest area is closed and the ones that are open have most of the places closed. And there are signs saying they the new oasis will have one or more of eight major brands. Same places we try to avoid. I wish they would have a major brand and then a local or region brand. Mix it up for those that want to try something different.

We hit Buffalo about rush hour. Slows us a little.

5th stop is Ripley at the Loves for fuel. When we were here last week we had commented that the place was so new it did not have grass. Today it does and they are watering it with a huge water truck.

6th and final stop is a Sleep Inn in Ashtabula . All the signs are very faded, parking lines in the lot are worn, screens are loose on the windows. Not long for as a Sleep Inn, unless it is too far off the main route for anyone at corporate to care. Inside it is still nice, but it is one of the old ones. The only thing we have noticed tonight is that there is no hot water in the sink. It is shut off vs never getting warm. We haven't tried the shower yet.

Still fighting with my cell phone. It had finally charged last night in the car, but today it would not charge in either car. We finally found a setting that said the phone was set to 'data transfer only' when it was plugged into the car and it would not allow us to change it. Never seen that before.

Load board

US - 425

IA - 168/166

We plan on getting going our usual time and we should get in 600+ miles tomorrow. That will get us into IA and get us home mid-afternoon on Friday. Too late to do any local work. But we will call on Friday to line up work.