1 truck to Libertyville IL
... spending the night at Kenosha WI
Alarm at 6 AM, we are both awake slightly before. No breakfast for now (we'll see how long that lasts)
Leaving the house at 7:30 ...
1st stop is the office. I have the last two days paperwork to do so I start on that. Then start talking to a driver that was going to turn a 2nd 60 bus around, but it has mechanical issues. When I finally go to grab my paperwork I realize it is not there, they have forgotten about me. At some point I get their attention and get the keys so I can do my pre-trip.
It won't start, I try everything I can think of and then call dispatch ... as soon as they answer, I realize my mistake. The person who parked it has left the truck in gear. But it is one of 'electronic assist' shifters and the screen was showing a large 'N.' (And a small 'r' that I missed before now) So no issues.
Even with just two buses, I couldn't pull straight out. It is going to be fun when that third 60 footer comes down tonight.
The boss is showing up for work as I am heading out of the office. We talk for a few minutes ... he says that this time when they ran an ad for a dispatcher, they had 10x as many inquires as usual. And it's only been three days. Same ad.
... he thinks they may have a return trip, we'll see.
2nd stop is the Kwik Trip just down the street. The shipper was supposed to have given us the truck full of fuel. They didn't. Later I see that it was supposed to be full of DEF also but that wasn't on all pages of the paperwork. Plan had been to stop in Hudson for fuel but this time I needed to fill right away.
Today was BB's issue. Yesterday I forgot my power cord for my phone so we stopped home. Today BB forgot her phone so she stopped while I was still working on getting my truck ready. Then she fueled the car in Hudson.
Yesterday when we came past Eau Claire it looked like they were ready to move the traffic lanes. And today they have been moved. So single lane traffic both ways for the next year or two (?)
3rd stop was the rest area near Black River Falls. BB is there. I try calling her but she doesn't pick up. She says that my calls don't ring through.
Biggest excitement there was a truck that was parked with it's back up alarm going off.
I call the drop, dispatch has just called them. They close at 2 PM so we will be there at 8-9 AM.
4th stop is the Culvers in DeForest. They have a few truck parking spots. We each get a single burger and I get some ice cream. I only eat half but BB is now carrying a cooler as it is our car, so I save the rest for later.
5th and final stop is the Comfort Inn in Janesville. This truck has a crate tied on the back so I don't want to park at the edge of the parking lot. I also spend some time to tape cardboard over the pieces sticking out. From what I can see of the parts, I'm guessing there are $1,000's of parts in that box. I've taken lots of pictures of it so I can prove when it was last there.
We go for a walk, we still have daylight. About three hours of daylight.
Once back at the hotel, we drive to eat a couple of doors down. The Brat Place. Bar, store, restaurant. We split three taco's and a brat. Chips and cheese soup. Plus potato salad, red cabbage. Plenty of food.
I found that relish, cheese soup and chips go together.
Right as we are walking in to eat, dispatch calls. No work heading back, not work for the weekend so Monday we will be taking a trash truck to somewhere in IL. They said, I don't remember. The only thing they have to run over the weekend would be the last tanker I picked up, heading to OH. But I didn't want to go that far with our car.
Load board
US - 161
IA -0-
MN - 3
WI - 13
We are about 30 miles from our drop. We looked at our drop for the 1st time in the hotel. We have picked up there before. I picked up a truck and it was loaded with dirt. They had to shovel it off before I would take it. It took them a couple of hours. Don't remember when it was, but I could look it up.
Nothing good on the load board so we will be heading straight home. About six hours at car speeds.