1 pickup to Fort Wayne IN (delivered)

1 box truck to Sioux Falls SD

... spending the night at North Liberty IA

No rush this AM so I had time to shave :) and we ate breakfast. Slim pickin's so it was yogurt and juice. Headed out at 8:15 to get to the airport at 9 AM. Only two turns between our driveway and the airport driveway.

1st stop was the airport. And it was a stop. Dropped BB to pick up the car and then I sat in the cell lot until she pulled around to move our things from one car to the other. Don't want another case of them driving away with our stuff in it and my having to haul it all back by myself.

2nd stop - the drop. Four miles from the airport. The guy walked to the window to look at the pickup and then signed for it. Low tire light was on again this AM. I didn't stop to fill them.

From here it was an hour and a half to go 60 miles. All non-freeway, lots of small towns.

3rd stop was in Goshen (not pegged on map) at a Speedway for the rest-rooms.

Goshen - Walmart - never seen that before. If you look at Google Maps you can see a shed to the south east of the store. That is a stable for the Amish horses ...

4th stop is the shipper in Bristol. We are not to talk the the shipper, just grab our truck and go. But first we need to find it. It wasn't where they were last time but now they have trucks parked on the front lawn. That is where it was. And it did have the company name on the hood and the drivers door. And the vin matched.

First thing I noticed was the windshield was cracked. Then it would not start. So I called dispatch. Before dispatch could call back, someone comes out to see what is going on. (That does not normally happen here) And he asked other questions, who I worked for, who I was, what the issue was ... and then he was gone.

Once someone used a battery pack to jump me, I asked if they wanted to have someone move the car behind me or if I should tear up their grass ... he said it was the bosses car so he'd go find out.

Turns out the person who had asked me the questions before was the boss. So he was back out, moved his car and then came to talk some more. Introduced himself by name (not title) to both BB and I and the helped me back out. Then found the trucks for the next two drivers that had showed up while I was having issues. ... I'll have to talk to dispatch about that ???

Dispatch did call back about the window. It was that way when the truck came to the shop and they are OK for me to take it if I am OK. I am.

There are three cracks but none are in the drivers line of sight.

All of this takes time and we have lost any time we gained earlier this AM.

(the rest of 'today's' notes are written the following day)

One good thing about this truck is it has some fuel, lots of times these new trucks are on fumes. BB looks at fuel prices and there is a Loves about half way between here and the airport.

I had not looked to see where the Loves actually was so I was watching. Didn't see any billboards or highway signs but did see their sign. The station is on the left side of the road so I get in the left lane. But it is just past an overpass ... the first one on this road. I don't react quick enough to thinking I may have to get off this road at the overpass. And I didn't want to do that because the first sign I saw said 'To Toll Way' and we needed to go to the airport. Having not looked at the may I didn't know that we were miles from the toll way.

So we missed that fuel stop and our hand off place for our luggage.

5th stop is the Exxon/Mobil that BB had planned on stopping at before she returned the rental car. Fuel is $.20 cheaper here than it was at Loves so I fuel here also. Then we pull off to the side to move luggage.

6th stop is the airport to drop off the rental car. This time I pull off into someone's lot to park and wait. And I finally put on my plate and placards. Then BB calls and we are moving again.

7th stop is just a couple of miles down the road at the Pilot for roller food. BB got a shelf sandwich that she wished she hadn't and I got two roller dogs without buns. This truck is used so we are going to eat in it.

Toll road. At the exit to the IN toll road there was a semi parked in one lane, the one we were in. Not sure what happened but it was open when we got in line but then we were too close to the semi ahead of us to see it was now closed.

CGO traffic was no 'too' bad today.

8th stop was the rest area near Minooka. I call and leave a message with my drop, I never do hear back.

9th stop is for fuel (again) at the Flying J in Davenport. Two transporters are also fueling but we don't talk. I'm guessing at how much fuel to add. I had put in 25 gallons at South Bend and now 10 gallons here. It wasn't full either time and there is no fuel info on the dash.

It is already past sunset but we keep going another hour so we are not up against the clock and against sunset tomorrow night.

10th stop was the Arby's in North Liberty. BB goes in as I do not want to shut the truck off after having to have it jump started this AM. She ends up getting comped a malt for having to wait for her food.

11th stop is a couple of blocks away at the Sleep Inn. BB is concerned about someone wanting to break into a 'FedEx' truck. The back box part isn't locked and I don't have a padlock so there isn't any 'breaking in' to that part. We do park under a light ...

Load board

US - 277

IA - 58/56

MN - 25

WI - 6

IN - 27

All the MN work is gone from the rental dealer so now we need to look at other options. IA only put a couple of RV's out today and no pairs. Some of the IN trips are gone now too. It was too early to call for weekend work today anyway. Tomorrow we can call if we see something. MN has lots of work but that means only me driving and BB chasing. Chasing on a weekend trip puts too many miles on our car and then we can't grab something leaving the area if it shows up.