1 RV to Rockford IL (broke down)

... spending the night at home

BB was up before the alarm so we were able to get rolling at 7 AM, before sunrise. But first we walked down for breakfast, I had eggs, bacon and yogurt.

Frost this AM but no new issues. This AM there was a lot of fog, some of it heavy so driving into the sun was not much of an issue.

Going through Dubuque, I was able to see there the Quality Inn was that we may be staying at one of these times. Also looked for and saw that there was not any signage for the one that used to be in East Dubuque. That one sits six stories up and back from the highway so there is no way to see the building it's self.

Well that is a surprise, BB had looked in detail to see if anything was in the former East Dubuque hotel and couldn't find anything. But she uses Apple. As I am writing this, I look up Hirschbach and see that the East Debuque hotel is now the 'Tesla MedBed Center – World’s First Energy Wellness Hotel.'

As we pasted Hirschbach trucking, I could see about two doze people standing around a truck in the middle of their lot. I'm guessing it was 'new driver training' day.

1st was was in Galena at the Casey's to call dispatch. BB fueled. Normally we are not to take any unit to the drop with any warning/dash lights on. But because we know that on all other units, the light will go out in 24 hours, I am told to call and ask.

Nope. Any warning lights, no delivery. And it turns out that the dealer 20 miles away does not work on truck chassis. So I can either take it to Madison or Davenport. My choice is Madison as I will be another hour and a half closer to home by the time I drop.

When I call dispatch back, they tell me to 'park it next to the others,' when I get to the dealer. There are already two sitting there waiting to be worked on.

It looks like BB was closer to right on guessing how much fuel I needed. I was watching very close the whole morning. As long as I was going 65 mph I was not gaining any range. Finally when I slowed to 55 mph because of two lane traffic I did gain another 10+ miles of range. So I was good :) The low fuel light was on and it was flashing at me but I made it to the truckstop under my own power with <> 5-15 range left. Not where I like it with a diesel. Also we never know where 'E' is compared to when the unit stops running.

I don't want to leave it on fumes when I drop at the shop, so I put in enough fuel to get to the shop, plus enough that the low fuel light will not be on. I also do not take the shortest route to the shop. The shortest route is 60 miles of random cow path roads. It is 85 miles via the freeway. When I have something other than a car, I am not willing to follow Google's car mapping. The roads aren't always wide enough to have center lines and if a car fits under a bridge, that is the suggest route.

2nd stop is the shop in Madison. And I do park it next to another one. This place does not just have someone who will walk out and clear the code. It is nice at the dealers who will do it that way.

On the way here, I had to got through a scale so BB got ahead of me and pulled off at an exit and while she waited, she looked at her phone. 90 new messages in the last half hour. :) No problem. Some family is planning a vacation in October and they started without her.

No work that works on the load board and BB doesn't want me to call my other company to see if they have anything so we head home. We are now four hours from home and will be home before dark. BB does watch the load board until we get home, nothing.

3rd stop is the Log Cabin Deli in Mauston. BB was eating her leftovers when I was dropping my RV at the shop in Madison so she wasn't going to be hungry. We did the math and Mauston was only an hour down the road and we should be there by 1 PM. It's the only unique place I could think of on this route.

I ended up with my usual chicken salad sandwich and BB also got a sandwich, she ate half of it now and half for supper.

4th stop was for fuel at the Loves in Menomonie. While fueling, I got to watch some guy do his prayers on the sidewalk in front of the building. It is well below freezing and he is out there with no jacket, no shoes, kneeling on the cold concrete. He was there when I got there, there when we left.

Sometime in the last hour of the day, after that east coast dispatcher is usually gone ... they put out a bunch of trucks. One was 50 miles from where we dropped, coming back to within 50 miles of our house.

Timing. This trip solo paid about half of what our goal is and we never would have taken it as a stand alone trip. But we thought we had a trip, when that fell through, we thought we would get a trip, so we stuck with it. Paid better than sitting home.

So we are way down this month on the income ... next month.

Load board

US - 166

IA - 28

WI - 4

MN - 5

PTR - 5