1 trash truck to Elk Grove IL (delivered)

1 tree truck to Fort Wayne In (Thursday)

... spending the night at Kenosha, WI

Breakfast was ...

This place had been a Microtel and it doesn't look like much has changed but the name. I think the most cars we ever counted was five.

Looking closer shortly before we left the place didn't really look 'clean.' But by then we'd been here for 12 hours so part of it could have been us. We know for sure that the coffee put hadn't been cleaned. BB did that.

Right at 7 AM local I called a east coast dispatcher to line up a 2nd truck. We usually do not line up a second until we are in our first, but today we need to go that direction anyway, even if my truck breaks down. We need to get my phone.

We stop and pick up my paperwork and are at the shipper when my other company is still there. No one I knew. Someone was having issues and was still there when I left at 8:30 AM. They likely had been there since 7:30.

No issues with truck today, really.

When I got in my truck, I happened to reach across the steering wheel and honked the horn, later I was doing my paperwork on the steering wheel and honked again ... both times BB was right in front of my truck. So ...

BB realized that this truck has radar censor's ... get too close to them and an alarm would sound in my truck. So that is what she did ... stood where the alarms would go off.

Before we pull out I call on my phone, they don't pick up so I leave a message and BB's phone number. They never do call back.

We pull out at 8:30 AM. Ouch, this is going to be a rough ride. A real jack-hammer of a ride. I put some more air in the seat and that keeps it from bottoming out. But it also puts my head six inches from the roof. I only hit my head once before remembering that I need to bend my neck every time it looks like there may be a bump coming up.

Between how I was holding my head and no where to rest my arms ... and now that I raised the seat, my feet don't touch the floor ... my body started hurting early on.

But there were not any alarms, that was nice not to hear.

This carrier says to stop in West Salem, Janesville and Des Plaines with this CNG so that is what I do. At West Salem the machine gives me a blank receipt so I need to go inside. From here I call dispatch, my drop and my local dispatcher who had called while I was driving. I had called him last night from Des Moines, now he's 'got my number.' Sorry, I am NA right now again.

I do have to go into the first scale by Sparta, my placards are not where they are supposed to be but they do not flag me in. Small cab so no where to put them in the windows and at pickup this AM it had just been raining so tape would not have stuck.

Just south of Tomah there was a semi rolled in the on coming lane, two tow trucks working on flipping it and traffic backed up. The plus side was it was in road constructions so there were already cones set up.

BB stops in St Charles because USUALLY fuel is cheaper there. Not today. Then she stops in Camp Douglas at the Double Nickels Deli.

My next stop was the Kwik Trip in Janesville for fuel. I expected it to be busy, it wasn't. One truck at each island when I got there. They left and no one else came while I was there.

I hooked up and started the pump. By the time I grabbed a sandwich and drink, it was done pumping and I was just starting to eat. No rib sandwich today so I got chicken. I inhaled ... slow eating for some ... and I was in and out in about 15 minutes. BB was texting me that she was at the Janesville rest area about five miles back.

This AM, the plan had been for her BB to pick up my phone today and meet me at my drop. But because of how often she stopped and how long she stopped, she wasn't going to have time. Instead of being ahead of me, she was still behind me with one hour to go.

But she does stop at the Oasis and ask about my I-pass. It is still good, still works. So the random times it doesn't are just glitches, not a dead I-pass.

3rd stop of the day for me was the Oziga CNG stop. Oziga is a cement company that has a public CNG pump on their property.

From here I am only two miles from the drop. BB looked at the drop last night and said we had been there before. I did not look at it, but had written all the street names down ... to a nearby trash company. That was not where this truck was going. But close.

It wasn't until I was turning into the shop that I realized that yes, we have been here before.

In and out in about 15 minutes.

Then I call tomorrows shipper. It is the same company that we move trucks for locally in MN, but their WI office. This is the shipper that used to have an area at the state fair until this year. Now I know it is likely a new truck. But I didn't ask what it was. Big, small, brand, type. Nothing. All I know is it is going to IN.

But before we pick it up, we need to pick up my phone. Tomorrow's shipper is 12 miles from where my phone is. So not as big of pain as it could have been.

Before 5 PM we are at a restaurant near our hotel. Last time we were here we ate at the Brat Shop. This time we ate at a converted former Perkins. Very slow for 5 PM. Not even a half dozen customers. Food was good. Lasagna for me, shrimp pasta for BB. Half of my became to go and I was still stuffed.

Comfort Inn for the night.

Load bord

US - 122

IA -0-

MN - 8

WI - 4

As of now we are ending up in Fort Wayne on a Friday night. There had been a truck back to WI but that is gone. There are two others but we'd have to get a Saturday delivery OK'ed before I'd take them.

Looking for rental trucks, those drops are open seven days a week. There is one going to MN, but it is in SD. So that would have to be a Sat or Sun pickup. Not likely. And not enough money.

IF we don't get two RV's tomorrow ... and there has been -0- RV's all week. If we don't get work tomorrow ... we'll head home and then likely start each of the next three weeks working for my local company and pick up other trips once we deliver the first unit.