1 tree truck to Fort Wayne In (delivered)

... spending the night at Merrillville IN

Breakfast was ... leftovers. Half my leftovers, the rest we dumped. Too much food.

About 7:30 we pull out of the hotel. In just over a half hour later we are at our first stop ... to pick up my phone. It was laying on the counter in the entrance with a sticky note on it that said 'driver.' Just they didn't think anyone was going to take it.

Less than a half hour later we are at today's shipper. When I tell them which truck I am looking for they say that one is going to PA. Hmmm. Lot's of thoughts go through my head, but when the person comes back from checking, they say that all trucks have the PA address because that is the 'sold to.' They need to write the address we have on their copy before I can sign it.

Truck is parked right out front. I had no idea what I would be driving. Ford, Dodge, Pete ... box, boom ... stick. It is a Freightliner with a boom, but the rest of the box is a shop truck, not the usually tree box. And the fuel gauge shows 1/16th until it has been started a few minutes, then it shows 'E.'

BB thinks she must have looked out of place here, she was walking around my truck and someone in a car stopped and asked if they could help her ...

All checked good.

My plan was to stop here in town if the fuel gauge didn't come back up before I got to the station, otherwise drive the eight miles to a Kwik Trip where the fuel is much cheaper. The gauge did come back up, to 1/32nd so I kept going.

We had talked about where the Kwik Trip was, but I had not looked at a map. I thought it was the large one with 100+ parking spots right at the freeway exit ... so when I didn't see it, I pulled over to call BB. This one, the closest one, is another two miles past the freeway. I made it. Turns out the large one is at the next exit which would have been a couple of more miles.

I guessed that I would get 12+ mpg as to not leave fuel in the truck that I don't need to. So 20 gallons at this stop.

Then I make my phone calls. One was to the drop ... " Hello ___ (my name)" So I asked how he knew it was me ... he puts all numbers into his contacts. Not sure if this was from a prior drop or if dispatch has to call him with my info. I guessed we would be there by 3 PM. Not a problem.

And we are off.

Lots of slowdowns in Chicago traffic today. BB stays close behind me most of the way. It is much easier for a big truck to go the speed limit, or close, than it is for a car without getting tailgated. But by the last oasis, BB needed to use the restroom so she exited.

Today the wipers were on some speed most of the time. No down pours but often a mist.

By Plymouth, I am down to 1/4 tank of fuel, which is where I need to leave it so I stop at Pilot and and another 8 gallons. I get a message that BB is at the Loves in the same town, I reply. As long as I am here, I get a juice and a rib sandwich. Sandwich was not bad.

Shortly after I pull back on the highway, I notice that BB is behind me again. By the time I get to Fort Wayne, I am bouncing off the 1/4 line and I still have a few miles to go. I go past another Pilot truckstop but decide to chance it.

At one of the last stoplights before the drop, a guy on a bicycle crosses when the left turn lights are on. Then I watch as he does a u-turn and crosses the highway again when the cross traffic can cross. And it looks like he is about to cross again ... when he puts his kickstand down and walks out into the traffic lanes and picks up a phone. Not sure if it was his, I didn't see him drop it but he got it before anyone ran over it.

Low fuel light never comes on. I take a picture as soon as I am parked. And as I pull in, someone walks over to me and does their inspection. Crew was still there when we got there but then was leaving ... it was after 4 PM there instead of 'around 3 PM' as I had said.

As soon as I had my things out, the guy went and parked it. I was watching ... so as he was walking away from the truck, I noticed, so I yelled ... "you left the lights on." ;)

No work that works for us on the load board. So I call my local dispatch, they don't have anything for next week for me yet. They did say they now have buses again. To Canada. (I'll still pass, for now)

So we are deadheading how. It will be 13 days out. Nothing to get us to the west coast today so we are not going that way in Sep, or likely in Oct.

More chase trips coming up. Not as relaxing but just about as much money.

When we head back, we go the way we had planned on coming until I decided that going past the final Pilot was a good idea. "NO TRUCKS" That would have made for a quick re-route if we hadn't already done that.

Stop lights ... yellow ... go? gun it? chance it? quick stop? Once in a while I do see red while I can still see the light. Today I couldn't see the light because of the truck ahead of me and then I saw yellow. This time I stopped ... and the cop in the left turn lane went after that truck that was ahead of me. By the time the cop was moving, I was watching the cop so I don't know if the light had turned red before the truck cleared the intersection, or if the truck had been speeding, or ...

BB needs a restroom now so we stop in Pierceton at a Speedway. She had wanted to stop at a McCallisters to eat but it would have only been 4:30. I talked her out of that. She had stopped at Loves at noon, when I was a Pilot, but didn't like any of their food so by now she was hungry.

We decided to stop at BJ's. We/she ordered online. The place is too loud for old folks and tonight is Friday night so we get it to go. When we pick up, we ask if the cream for the cookies and cream cookie is in there and they say yes. Next time I will say 'show me.' We haven't gotten our cream for any of our to-go orders I don't think.

We did also get other food, BB got a sandwich ... so so. I got bake ziti. Good but as almost always, too much. We ate desert first. It may be our new thing.

Comfort Inn was less than a mile from BJ's, we checked in and ate before bringing in the rest of our stuff.

Load board

US - 109

IA -0-

MN - 5

WI - 2

We could make it home tomorrow if we get an early start. But we have been pushing it for two weeks so we might just sleep in. We don't need to have the car back until Monday so getting back early will only save us one nights hotel.