1 bus to Minneapolis MN
... spending the night at Rocklin CA
Awake at 5 AM local. Down for breakfast at 6:30. We had thought of only getting food to go again but ended up with food we should sit to eat.
Pulled out at 7 AM local. Sun is turning the sky red.
Not much for excitement today. Mostly the same road as a few days ago.
1st stop is in Tulare at Loves.
2nd stop at Medera at Pilot to fuel. This is the cheapest fuel we could find in this part of the country. This is why we came up CA-99 instead of I-5 like we usually do. Gas at Pilot was $.80 less than across the street at a Chevron. We do see that a lot with Chevron, and people still are buying fuel there. Not sure why.
3rd stop was at Manteca at an In-n-Out for lunch.
4th stop was the shipper in Livermore. There was a bus heading to my location with someone in it ... I stopped and talked to them right away. They are taking the southern route and only going to a close hotel this afternoon. They had lucked out a few years ago and called this dispatcher right after Christmas a few years ago and most of his drivers were still on vacation. They've been driving for him ever since.
Both of my prior buses to Denver were still sitting in the lot. 2013 was the first bus I was supposed to take, but dispatch called me late in the evening to change it to 2005. Bus 2013 was now sitting in the center of the lot, unable to be driven. And 2005 was still there, since Saturday.
Things have changed in the 'done' lot. Now there are only 3 MN buses, four Denver buses and two others ... plus a whole bunch without any decals. All of the RI, KC, etc buses have been moved to the 'not going anywhere' lot.
I didn't ask ...
My bus was sitting where it could be driven out without moving any of the other buses, one of the few. All looks good and we are ready to go.
BB heads to the rental car place and I drop off my paperwork.
Dispatch calls while I am driving, so when BB isn't waiting at the drop, I pull in so I can talk on the phone. I still haven't gotten paid for my fuel for the OR bus and they were calling about that.
BB checks the traffic. It is still faster to head west from here then head east. There was an accident on the east bound freeway when we were heading to Livermore and it is still faster to head west and take a different freeway by about 20 minutes.
If we had been leaving Livermore at 12:30, we would have been able to get to Reno yet tonight. But we were running about an hour later ... maybe due to all the stops ??
As soon as we are rolling, BB makes our reservation in Rocklin.
6th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Rocklin. The place is almost empty. Once we are checked in, BB orders food online from the Sourdough and Co, sandwich shop. We walk over and pick them up. BB had looked at the German place but they no longer had the reuben on their menu, which was about the only thing I order there. So the Sourdough it was.
Load board
US - 248
IA - 9/6
I-80 was still closed in spots mid-day but seemed to be open by evening. One transporter we heard about was sitting for three days.
Paperwork says the drop is only open until 2 PM. We are not going to push that hard to get there on Monday. That is part of the reason we shut down so early today, that and it would be an hour after dark when we got to Reno.
Usually our NC dispatcher puts out 5-10 trips a day. Today she added 50, that many won't move as fast ... and most people are heading home for the holidays.