2 RV's to Grand Junction CO

... spending the night at Waukee IA

Our room is warm :)

We are ready well before breakfast so we head down when they open. Lights are not all on yet. We grab egg patties and sausage links. We were up early enough and quick enough (to start) that we could have left earlier. But ... We leave at 6:30.

It is warmer this AM that it was last night. It was to get down to near -0- overnight and may have. But it was almost 20 degrees by the time we left, it did drop to near 10 degrees before warming again. By the time we got to the lot in the afternoon it was 32+ and melting.

Didn't get a picture, but we saw about 20 turkey's sleeping in the trees. Later in the day we saw some pheasants eating something (salt?) on the shoulder of the road. There were five live ones, and within a few miles there were another three dead ones.

1st stop is the rest area in Nashua.

2nd stop is the shippers lot to pick up our car and drop off paperwork. No one is picking up RV's when we are there at 9 AM. We move everything in a few minutes and are rolling again.

I have been following BB at 65 mph and she drives the rental at 70 mph and stops for food. Usually I have time to stop at the cemetery or sit in the cell lot and wait for her. Today I had stopped in the cell lot long enough to open the back door and BB called. She was done.

3rd stop was MSP to return the rental car.

4th stop was Honey Baked in Burnsville. It takes a little longer than shelf food but usually we are the only customer so it takes about as long as a bathroom visit. Today was no exception.

5th stop was the Kwik Star/Trip, or Kwikkie as I may start calling it, for fuel. Don't want to leave the car on empty when it is this cold.

6th stop is on the other end of town back at the shipper. There may be thirty RV's which doesn't add up because there were no trips left, all paperwork should have been given out. But there was only about 10 packs of paperwork in the file cabinet.

No issues, small RV's, we are done in 45 minutes.

There is one driver ready to leave when we get there and one more that leaves before us. The second one was heading to Greer ... and he had a half a tank of fuel. That was about as much as we talked.

Not sure what is going on with the car dealer on the south end of town. Up on their main lot there is room for maybe 20-30 cars. And other than Covid, that is about what they had there. A few months ago they added about 100 pickups parked in a lower grassy area. Today when we went past, that number has grown from 100 to closer to 300 with room snow plowed out for more. These are mostly pickups so not for RV's. Some are logoed with company names but not a lot of them.

6th stop is the Pilot in Clear Lake. Gas has gone down $.03 since we drove past this AM. BB checked and fuel is cheaper here than anywhere ahead. BB had a half a tank of free fuel. I had a quarter but that dropped and the low fuel light came on two miles down the road. 20 miles down the road and the light was flashing at me.

We hadn't been sure we would even have time to pick up today, so we checked hotel prices in town and every town from here to Des Moines. Turns out we could get past Des Moines but there aren't any 'good' hotels between there and Omaha two hours further.

7th stop is the Sleep Inn in Waukee. Rooms are as cheap here as anywhere and they have good food next door. Sometimes.

We walk next door to Smoky Joe's inside the Hi-Vee gas station for food. Sometimes they have good food. Other times they are out. :( They were supposed to have chicken wild rice soup today but they were out. Also out of their cheeseburger soup.

So we ended up with chicken pot pie soup. That would have been enough but BB also got a salad and I got a sandwich. Now we have breakfast too.

When we got to the hotel someone walked out of the hotel right away. I expected they were going to tell us we couldn't park where/how we did. No, just a customer asking questions about the RV's.

Other than the birds, a pretty un-eventful day. Clear sky's, mild winter temps, no crazy drivers.

One of the drivers I keep in contact with is in WY tonight. Roads are closed near Laramie because of accidents. They got stuck in the back up and realized they were going to run out of driving hours so they made a U-turn on the freeway and headed back to Laramie.

So far, the forecast for CO is good the next few days.

Load board

US - 109

IA - 0

CO - 3

We need to get to North Platte tomorrow if we want to get to Grand Junction Monday night. As of now, we have time to get to Sterling, which is two plus hours past North Platte. And we do not have to stay in Grand Junction Monday night. We just need to deliver sometime on Tuesday.