1 trash truck to Dixon IL (delivered)

... spending the night at Rockford IL

Out of the house by 7 AM. No side stops today.

1st stop is at the shipper. Find the paperwork, find the truck, no issues. BB sees and hears a driver for our long haul carrier, he is having issues. Must not have been too bad as she saw him again at a rest area.

Saw two other drivers together. Not sure what was going on with them, I did ask them once where they were going and they said 'no where right now.' When I first saw them, the office person (that we aren't supposed to talk to) was out of her office showing them how to fill out the paper work and telling them that they needed to send it in 24-36 hours after delivery. (We need to send it in from delivery)

The next time I saw them, they were telling the office person that they couldn't drive a dual drive, it needed to have a bench seat. Not sure who they work for, but that is up to us to pick which trucks we take, all the shipper does is assign them to the carrier.

... then we left.

2nd stop was the Kwik Trip for fuel and scale. Underweight this time so we are free to go.

3rd stop for me is the Kwik Trip in Mauston. BB had gone ahead and gotten food from the Log Cabin Deli. FINALLY we are here on a Thursday and I have lasagna. Very good, twice as much as I can eat. It's in the low 40's so I put in in the trunk.

I try to call the shipper with the number on the paperwork. It is a call center, I have a choice of 'residential pickup' or 'business pickup.' I pick one and talk to someone, they claim they can not give me the direct number and will leave a message for my drop to call me. I say no thanks, that will become telephone tag.

Later I am talking to dispatch and they have been leaving messages for three days and no one has called them back, glad I didn't leave a message ...

It's been raining most of the day. At first it was just a mist. But it was enough that I couldn't see out of my windows easily or see my mirrors.

Ziegler ... is the Midwest CAT dealer and when CAT got into the ag business, they did also. I just noticed today that Ziegler Ag now has a new logo on their highway signs and tonight I am seeing that same logo on their website. I also see they are also a Claas dealer. The rest of their equipment is under the AGCO brand.

4th kinda stop is at the DeForest exit ramp because my check engine light has come on. Dispatch will call the manufacture and they can trouble shoot it while I drive.

5th kinda stop is at the Janesville rest area. Just long enough to see if I have any messages and to let BB know where I am. She is there also but for some reason my messages aren't coming through ... when they do, she calls me and I have to pull over to answer the phone.

6th kinda stop is roadside near Rochelle when dispatch calls me back. They let me know I am OK to deliver and that the shipper has finally called them back.

When I pass Rochelle, I still have 3/8 of a tank of fuel. I haven't looked close at a map but I think I have about 5-10 miles to go so I'll be good on fuel. It is actually over 30 miles to the drop and I am down below where I am supposed to be at for delivery. But no fuel stops the last 30 miles. We did see one truckstop, but it likely closed when the freeway was built 60 years ago. Building still stands. This is on US 30 which was likely the main road before the freeway.

I had assumed we would be delivering tomorrow so I hadn't looked at the exact drop. By now BB is behind me and blows her horn when I miss a turn, I decide to back up instead of find a place to turn around.

Then I turn where I shouldn't, so then BB takes the lead. She follows her GPS and takes us to a closed gate so I still need to turn around again. Finally ...

7th stop is the shipper. They do a good inspection but don't comment or note the fuel level ... whew. It is 5 PM when we leave the shipper, this location is open past 6 PM, unlike the one Monday who was only open until 4 PM. We would have been here the night.

8th stop is a Road Ranger in Dixon for the rest room and food for BB. I eat my leftover lasagna, BB gets snacky stuff.

9th and final stop is the Sleep Inn in Rockford. It is 6:30 when we get there so an 11 hour day.

And it is still light so we go for a short walk, first time in months. On the way back, I have a craving for something sweet so we stop at the high class place next to the hotel and the best they have is some carrot cake. One piece.

Load board

US - 208

IA - 1/0

MN - 16

WI - 4

Local dispatch didn't mention any work for tomorrow ... I was trying to ask on the phone but they had already hung up. At that point I wanted to get delivered ASAP so I didn't call them back.

Now we are looking at the loadboard for the long haul carrier and they have a short one near Rockford and another short one near home. IF, if things go well, we might be able to get both of them tomorrow.

We'll see, BB was pretty sleepy today and shut down about 8 PM tonight.