1 box truck to Worthington MN (delivered)

1 trash truck to Aurora IL

2 RV's to Hershey PA (Saturday)

... spending the night at De Forest WI

Somehow we managed to get going a little before 7:30 today. Yesterday on the first leg of my trip I was up to 12 mpg. Then the next let was 11.2. Today it was down to 10.9 the first hour and then 10.4 mpg by the drop.

So I did have to stop and ad more fuel and still came in with only four more miles range than I wanted to leave.

BB was stopping every hour to check the load board, nothing that worked for us and less than a half dozen total trips added today.

The drop in Worthington did a quick check in of the truck. They don't normally sell box trucks but their shop wanted them ... and then they didn't. So now they have a couple of them to sell.

I had a couple of unknown calls while I was driving. Finally after I've dropped and get as far back as Blue Earth ... I go to use my phone and see the calls are from Forest City, but not a number I have programmed in. I call it, it is the office. In the last few hours they got covered what they called me about. BUT ...

... someone else is looking for drivers to go to the Hershey RV show. I usually turn those down because they are looking for drivers a month before the move. Now we are two days before the move and we have nothing to do this three day weekend.

On the load board they have only had one RV, there are two of us. No problem, they say. But they can't tell us what we are driving until tomorrow (?) My guess is we will not make great money but better than no money.

And we don't need to leave until Saturday ... that leaves us time to do a short trip to CGO. We had been debating which trip to take, now we know. We take the shortest one to CGO out of Dodge Center and we should be back in Forest City, or close, by Friday night.

So we call Dodge Center and line up our next trip and tell them we will be there in a little over an hour.

One quick stop in Albert Lea for food at Arbey's drive-thru.

Once we have the paperwork, BB looks up the company so we know what truck style and color we are looking for. Easy :) Today there are only three in the lot that match style and color ... but not the VIN. One Google search had mentioned a second name and that is what was on the truck, except for the mud flaps.

All checks good and we head out. As I turn to pull on the expressway ... BEEEEEEEP ... so I stop on the shoulder. I decide to head back as the alarm will not go off. As i turn at the top of the ramp getting off the expressway ... the alarm finally goes off. I stop and talk to BB, plan was to just head out but before I got turned around it was beeping again.

So back to the shop. I find someone right away and they start looking at it right away. As I am standing there, someone else walks up and says "haven't seen you around here for a while ..." (if you work in the shop and recognize me, I've been in here too often)

Within a few minutes I am back on the road ... and as pull on the expressway it does a few beeps and soon is a constant BEEEEEEEP. But I had asked and was told it was not going to hurt anything so I keep going. The only thing I have within reach as I am driving is some paper towel. And some tape. So I wrap up the paper towel and tape it to my ear :)

When we get to the rest area, I find the ear plugs I have been carrying around for the last dozen years and use those instead. From the rest area, BB makes a reservation ... ??? We are doing 200 miles today and then the last 120 miles tomorrow AM. A good way to split up a drive in a trash truck.

25 miles before our exit for the night, we can see smoke. As we do often. Most times it it too far away from the freeway to see what it was. This time it is on the freeway. A semi, tractor is barely a shell with only the frame and engine still intact. By now the fire is working it's way through the trailer.

We figure we saw the fire 15 minutes before we got to it. The fire trucks and wrecker were not there yet. Traffic was backed up of course. I'm guessing the wrecker was called when the fire first started. Now there is not anything going out of there on a wrecker, it will all be on a flatbed.

When we come back from eating an hour plus later, the freeway ramp is now closed/gated off and traffic is still at a stand still. That is why I did not want to do any longer RV trips before the holiday. You never know what traffic will do and then we are stuck for a three day weekend on what should have been a one day trip.

Today we stay at the Comfort Inn in De Forest, and eat at the De Forest restaurant. I had turkey salad on croissant. Not sure I have ever had that before eating out. I think I have made it a couple of times at home. Pretty good. I did start with desert today. We got French Silk pie. It was OK. Good thing we had it first, we were both stuffed by the time we were done with the food.

Load board

US - 171

IA - 12/11

MN - 4

WI - 7

Tomorrow. Two hours to the drop. Six hours back to Forest City. Timing will tell if we pick up tomorrow or Saturday. Picking up tomorrow will get us near the drop Sunday night. We deliver on Monday, the holiday. More on that later.