2 chassis to Plymouth MN (final miles)

1 tanker truck to Grove City OH (staged)

1 bus to MD (re-parked)

1 truck to Libertyville IL (Thursday)

... spending the night at home

No alarm, we plan on watching the load board and then calling local dispatch later in the AM.

We did go down for breakfast. When I opened the door to walk out of our room ... one of those little yappy dogs ran in. It was on a leash so it didn't get far but it made a lot of noise. And BB hates dogs, especially those. And getting caught off guard first thing in the AM ... she wouldn't leave the room until the dogs had left the building. Worst than someone being scared of spiders or snakes, more like getting confronted by a mugger for a few seconds before the run away.

When I did call my usual dispatcher, the one for trash trucks, I got someone else and was told the dispatcher I wanted no longer worked there. After 20 years I know better than to ask questions on the phone or anywhere in the building where someone else might here them. IF we can talk outside, sometimes I may get some insight. This is the dispatcher I had a long talk with last week. I know they won't miss the place, but depending on what happened they may not be happy about not working.

I am told they have two trucks in the lot that need to go to a local company. So we head three hours back to move a couple of trucks 35 miles. I don't ask, my guess it is the same two trucks that I picked up a couple of days ago.

1st stop is the Loves in Oakdale, we need gas. And we found out that the Love's $.10 off offer is not valid in NJ and WI.

2nd stop is home. I forgot my phone charge yesterday and plugging my phone into any other USB type port does not work. It SAYS it is charging but my battery power keeps going down, even when plugged in.

Now we eat our leftovers from last night for our breakfast. BB is trying to do the random fasting routine.

3rd stop is the office/lot. I don't always remember to check my VIN but today I did and it was wrong. Wrong digits, missing digit. So I had to get that corrected before I left.

When this is going on, my phone decides it doesn't want to work. On messages and email it will not display the 'send' icon. I was trying to send dispatch pictures of the VIN's but I had to walk in to the office instead. And at one point I had an all white screen for a while. (Now tonight, I am trying to run the battery down at it has been playing YouTube video's for almost an hour on 1%. It just won't die)

4th stop was the Holiday in Plymouth for fuel. We are to deliver with 1/4 tank of fuel and this was right at 1/4 on a digital meter. So, to make sure it didn't drop before delivery, I added another bar to the meter. But by the time I was a few feet from the pump it was back to 1/4. But I knew it wouldn't drop another bar just driving across the street.

5th stop was the shipper, or today, the drop. The guy I used to talk to had his door open so I stopped and asked he knew who 'was retiring and had a CDL.' Neither he nor the other person in the office knew who I was talking about ... then he mentioned that he had talked to my dispatcher about a friend of his ...

From there we got talking quite a while about all kinds of things. When we got to the topic of trucks, this truck, he said the person who now does it is not in so he went to look for my keys.

No ... not this time. I am BRINGING you a truck. He is confused, so we end up back in the main office anyways. No one knows anything so we head out to the truck. In the door, there is a sticker that says who the truck is for.

It all makes sense now. Sort of. Except the truck is the wrong color for that customer ... and the fuel tank is in the wrong place for this shipper. They can't put their existing tanks on for that customer without moving the fuel tank.

They still sign for the truck and ... laugh. I tell them I will be back.

6th stop is back at the office. We pick up the 2nd truck, no issues with this one.

7th stop is the Holiday in Plymouth. Same as last time.

... and BB says that dispatch has called her. (She doesn't even work there, but somehow they still have her number from when she did ... seven years ago?) They want me to pick up a truck at where I am dropping and I wasn't picking up my phone ... I was driving.

8th stop is the shipper/drop. Now I know who I am supposed to see. But both the shipper and the dispatcher for this truck are knew and things haven't been done correctly. Yet.

The shipper sends out the correct person to inspect the truck and by the time I find the correct truck. All I have is a key, someone else is bringing out my paperwork.

9th stop is back at the office/lot. Earlier, one of the dispatchers had asked if I would move a bus. A 60 footer. Someone drove it into a parking spot and in needs to be backed in. I was able to do it without moving any of the other vehicles. It took me a couple of minutes to get the feel for it but once I got the rhythm I was able to get it done.

No key for the exterior doors and the high beams are stuck on, but other than that ...

At some point today I agreed to do a truck to IL tomorrow. They close at 2 PM so we would have to leave at 6 AM to make delivery in one day. Or we could have left tonight and gotten a couple of hours down the road. Instead we are leaving tomorrow later and deliver first thing on Friday AM.

I had thought we might pick up something short after we drop but we have another storm coming in and BB doesn't want to get caught in it.

Load board

US - 177

IA - 4

MN - 8

WI - 14

Tomorrow we will get going sometime in the AM and get south of Milwaukee to stay for the night.