1 trash truck to Batavia IL (delivered)
... spending the night at Mason City IA
Up on time but not in a rush to get rolling. Down for breakfast, real bacon but 'water' eggs.
... Opps. It was after 8 AM when I looked at the clock again. I was going to call dispatch at 8 AM and had even messaged them about calling before 8 AM ... My truck is
GONE ! ! !
That was why we took a trip to CGO, there had been a truck down here on the load board for a week, and now that we are here to get it, someone else beats us to it.
Oh, well. On to something else.
We get to the drop and the person in the office is on a conference call but signs all the paperwork. Then I get to go find someone to inspect it. I do. He has lots to say about how the people buying the trucks are looking at all the ways to save money on the purchase ... but how much more any repairs cost because of those savings.
It actually took this guy longer to make copies than to inspect the truck. The copier had a computer screen but no manual.
Once done, we send in my paperwork then look for more work. Local dispatch that sent me down here does not have any. Then I call on two more. One only pays about half what we would move it for. The other one I called the actual shipper on because it paid better. It was a day cab. Too rough of ride for me. Two rear axles but still to rough to ride for 500+ miles.
No work, so we decide to keep moving. Head to IA, it is the end of their money year so they should be dumping daily.
1st stop is the Loves in Rochelle for cheap fuel. I end up using the last of three different gift cards we had. This place took them without issue. Some places have been erroring out when we try to use them.
Too early for food when we pass a little deli in Rock Falls. But a half hour later BB is so hungry that she has to get her snacks out.
Then we finally decide to eat our first meal at a buffet. 1st time in three plus years. I-80 Truck Stop. We just found out that the three casino's closest to us no longer have buffet's. They seem to be a thing of the past since Covid.
The buffet was not huge but enough and good food. I had a couple of helpings of their pot roast, very good.
Still no work.
A few hours later I am getting tired tired and want to stop for something. BB starts looking and we see a Freddie's. BB is still stuffed but I get a cherry malt. I am very thirsty so it does not last long.
Just north of Janesville we see a semi stopped and cars going past the shoulder. As we got closer we see a car impaled under the rear of the semi. To get that far under, there had to be a <> 50 mph difference in how fast the two were going.
4 PM ... NOW there are two trucks I want in Janesville WI ... again. Now.
IA has been putting RV's out off and on all day but nothing that works for us. The closest was two RV's going to OH. We could make it. IF we pushed hard for three days and canceled going to the State Fair. Which we will likely do. Thursday is our first pick for the State Fair and it is supposed to be hot and humid. That doesn't work well for us any more so we will likely work that day.
By 5 PM dispatch still has not put out any trips that work so we get a hotel in Mason City, less than an hour from the shipper.
Neither of us was hungry, but we knew we better eat again before we went to sleep or we would wake up hungry in the middle of the night. There is a Culvers right across the street so we walked there. Both got chili, way too much food. Now I'll be waking up in the middle of the night for a different reason.
Plan for tomorrow is to watch the load board. Dodge Center did have 10 trucks, all going to FL. Nothing local or we would have taken the sure thing.
Left the house in too big of hurry yesterday AM, forgot my clip board. Not a legal issue, no paperwork I needed just hard to write sometimes without something hard to write on.
Load board
US - 97
IA - 11
MN - 1
WI 2