1 city bus to Chicago IL (breakdown)
... spending the night at North Liberty IA
I woke about a half hour before the alarm went off, BB woke up five minutes before the alarm went off. We both slept much better than the prior night.
We head down for breakfast but they do not have the usual hot food and not much else. We end up taking a couple of pieces of fruit and a couple of cartons of juice. We will get food at our next stop.
Today we decide to take the outer ring around Cleveland. Not much for slow downs even during a rush hour.
1st stop is just after we get on the toll road at Amherst at Panera. Just beware
... if you get the egg, bacon and cheese croissant, the yokes on you :(
(Panera uses 'eggs over easy' on their sandwiches. I wasn't thinking of that)
2nd stop was at the Loves in Edon. The price of gas had gone up but still under $5.
While there, I saw and talked to a transporter. He was in a small box truck towing his personal car. As we were talking I noticed his 'electronic license plate.' I thought it doubled as an 'E-ZPass,' he thought it was a permanent where all updates would be taken care of online. We were both wrong.
"An electronic license plate (also referred to as a digital display license plate) is vehicle-mounted identification device that emits a radio signal for tracking and digital monitoring purposes."
My first thought had been that we could make it to Rax in Joliet. But the timing isn't going to work this time. We decide to stop earlier.
3rd stop was the rest area in Rolling Prairie at Sbaro's. BUT, first we see a transit bus like the one I was driving. No one around so we went in and got our food. We each get a piece of pizza. What we wanted, they did not have today.
When we went back outside we could see someone inside the bus, by the time I threw my pizza in the car and started walking that way the bus was moving. I waved for him to stop and he did. He opened the door and I went inside to talk ... and I told him the issue I had ... and he said 'like me now?' I hadn't realized the reason he had stopped was because the bus had died. He was having the same issue as I did before I got towed.
He filled me in on a lot of the 'how to's.' He's been driving for years and thought he was going to get this thing running again. (I'm not so sure) We said our goodbye's.
4th stop is the rest area in Minooka.
5th stop is at the Speedway in Davenport. Today they are the cheapest, again under $5.
... grrr. I can not open the fuel door with the car running. I was hoping to leave the AC running, it is 98 degrees today. Also this car will not go in gear unless the driver has their seatbelt on.
Based on miles and cost of hotel, we decide to stop in North Liberty and get our food before we get there, BB orders food online.
6th stop, we get there two minutes before our food is supposed to be ready. We 'check in,' and they bring our food to the car almost right away. Oh, we are at the Cheddar's in Coralville.
7th and final stop is at the Sleep Inn in North Liberty for the night. We have about six hours to travel tomorrow.
Load board
US - 418
IA - 157/155
MN - 21
Tomorrow I need to call the NY bus dispatcher again to find out how and what paperwork to fill out. And I need to call my local dispatcher about work for the next two weeks.