1 bus Lake Elmo MN (staging) final delivery NYC

... spending the night at Crookston MN

Up before the (late) alarm and down for breakfast. Pretty much like the breakfasts at the Quality/Sleep Inn's. Eggs, sausage, yogurt, juice. Not sure when we may have stayed at an AmericInn last. The only thing missing is the elevator.

Shortly after 8 AM my dispatcher calls and says my bus is ready. They drove it 70+ miles and no issues (so no fix.) I was thinking it would be later in the AM so I was not ready. But within the hour we were at the shipper.

I didn't get in right away and when an employee coming to work let me in, I asked at the desk if they had heard me buzzing in. Nope ... and then they looked, the sound was shut off ??? This time when I got there my contact was sitting in the lunch room instead of standing at the receptionist desk.

We walk out to the bus and I start it ... it has a warning light on so my contact goes to send someone out. They look at codes for a while and then <> tell me to 'drive it off,' drive it until the light goes off. It is one of those that should re-set when I hit a certain speed or miles.

It has now been about an hour delay this AM. I call dispatch and BB and let them know I am good to go. My plan is to drive around town until the light goes off. It goes off as soon as I have gone a half a block ...

This time I am ready. We can not use our phones for any reason while driving and this bus has live camera's at all times. So I have my camera on and start videoing before I start slowing down in Beltrami. No issues.

When we get near Ada I have my camera ready to start filming before I slow down ... but loose the speedometer before I start slowing. So I pull over as soon as I have slowed to a stop. I call dispatch and without any input from the shipper they tell me to keep going. About 10 miles later the speedometer starts working again.

About 20 miles after the speedometer started again, it stopped working again. I pull over and call dispatch again. This time they call the shipper before giving me the OK to keep running ... as long as no warning lights come on. No need to call dispatch again if the speedometer quits again.

When we get to the freeway in Barnesville, BB heads to the gas station and Subway. I head to St Cloud.

No issues for the next two hours.

When I get to the other shipping location, I want in to security. The guy was saying 'He's standing right here' :) Someone had seen me drive in. I sign in and go to the shop.

Only one person in the office area, he had no idea why I was there. I gave him a name of what I overheard on the two-way radio. It was close enough that he figured out who it was. I was in and out in about 15 minutes.

I did have to go around another bus that looked like mine, the guy I gave the stuff to said he thought the items might go to that bus. Maybe I will have work on Monday going to get this bus.

BB and I had been texting whenever we stop. We usually stop at the Kwik Trip but today I decide to stop at the TA at the next exit. No one fueling but me. So I pull in backwards so that I can see the meter as I fuel. Before I got there I had been doing the math. Usually we drive the 250 miles before we fuel. This time I/we had put another 200 miles on this bus yesterday.

66 gallons of fuel.

Another half hour of slow and go and I am at the storage lot. All there is today is one semi, that is rare. The semi, we do not move many of those. And there are only three drivers cars in the lot instead of dozens.

I am surprised they have me working when their regulars are likely sitting home. It could be me sitting home.

Around St Cloud the crops are worse than most areas. Large area's where the crops have already turned brown or corn is less than knee high ... kind of like my corn at home.

We are done at 5 PM. Better than leaving Crookston at 5 PM.

Too late to get work for this weekend. Rental dispatch has two trucks in Miles City coming back here but we do not have the time. That would be a good match up with the RV's heading out Kalispell. Those would still work, if they are still there.

Load board

US - 122

IA - 25

MN - 7