1 trash truck to Muskego WI (failed)

1 tanker to Urbana IL (Thursday)

... spending the night at Wisconsin Rapids WI

We were both up early, almost. The person here in charge of breakfast has way to much energy for this time in the AM. I noticed she was putting butter from the little individual cups on the biscuits and sausage to keep them moist. Plenty of yogurt and fruit. I had two egg patties and sausage.

We get to Dodge Center before 8 AM, there is one driver from the local company just pulling out but we don't see the shuttle driver. Not sure what time they left the office to be gone from here already.

Then there was another driver looking for his truck after I found mine who was also from my local company, but he, like me, finds his own ride.

BB found my truck almost right away. It was not what I was told so I might not have looked at it. It still was not 8 AM when I was done with my inspection and calling the office. Our lock box was down to three sets of keys so they might not need me to come back from this trip.

When I did talk to the office I told them the truck was not what I was told, and then asked about scaling the truck. It is supposed to be scaled when full, but the CNG fuel is past the scale. And there was a warning light on. That light was an easy one, I was still at the shipper so they got it to go off. While I was talking to them, I found out which un-marked buttons were the windows. Later I counted. This truck has 31 un-marked buttons on the dash ... and I don't touch anything unless I already know what it does.

Scale 1st, at Kasson, at the Kwik Trip. Almost 3,000# under.

Then off to get fuel. When we are getting off the four lane to get fuel, there was a truck trying to turn on-to the entrance ramp. But his light turned red so he sat. Blocking the cross traffic until I blew my horn at him. We had no where to go, it was a semi.

Fueled at the Kwik Trip in Rochester. Still no receipts at the pump, still no ink on the copy inside. Other copies are carbon so they show up fine.

Less than 10 miles down the road, when I bounce over the overpass, an alarm and warning light come on. This is from the trash truck part of the controls but it doesn't say why the alarm is going off. 24 other lights are usually going off so I know what the issue is. I don't, so I pull off and call dispatch. Dispatch has me call the shippers help line, not the easiest to understand but after a few questions they tell me to return to the shipper.

I call and give dispatch an update and head back. Dispatch calls back a couple of minutes later but I am already driving so I have to pull over to talk to them. Now the actual shipper wants to talk to me. They want me to trouble shoot the truck on the side of the road.

Opps, I can't see up from down so I open the tailgate instead of close. Well, now we know it's closed and the alarm is still going off. A few more questions and they want me to meet them at the Mack dealer in Rochester.

So we head back, I tell the dealer why we are here and ask where out of the way they want me to park. It is close to another half hour before someone from the shipper arrives. To me it would have been faster for me to have just gone back to the shipper. The guy tries all his known issues and then has to call someone for help a couple of times. Then as he is showing me why it won't work, it must have clicked how he could fix it so he borrows tools from the dealer and finally has it fixed in 10 minutes or so ... once he found the issue.

Because this truck is CNG, it has four censor's instead of two on the rear door. (?)

We are off ... again.

BB is hungry and needs the restroom so she stops at the closest Kwik Trip and I get ahead of her. For about a half hour.

... then the check engine light with a wrench come on on the dash board. I pull over and call dispatch again. After BB gets there and I still haven't heard anything, we pull into the Loves at St Charles to be off the freeway.

And wait.

I guess it takes a while to find out of which dealers can work on CNG's and can fix them inside their shop.

West Salem can.

They have been called before I get to the shop so fewer questions for me. And they don't even go out and look at my truck. They just go online and all the issues are showing up under that VIN. All kinds of info including the current mileage.

After an hour or so they pull it into the shop. And I go next door to get a Subway but I see pizza by the slice. I bought two and then realized that it is mid-afternoon so I don't need to eat that much ... BB took care of that problem.

Finally at 4 PM I got to get an update ... Oh, they should have come and told me ... "if it is what we think ... we don't have the part, but we are still looking at other possible issues." I talk to dispatch and we agree, I am off the truck.

This is a cab-over so I have to get someone to jack the cab back down so I can get in and get my stuff.

And we are off ... or not. We are ready to go and then decide to wait until we know where we are going. Local dispatch does not have any more work for me, other than to WY. That town is still over 500 miles. It hasn't moved since they asked me a week ago.

As we are looking, another RV trip shows up for Indiana but before we can make the math work, it is gone. East coast dispatchers are gone. While we are sitting there, Janesville trucks show up and are gone before we can do the math on them.

Then I call on a WI trip even though it says 'trash truck.' It is not :) It is a tanker. We have a trip and we are on our way.

We were going to get all the way to the shipper tonight but it will be almost dark and most of the trip will be on back roads, lots of possible wildlife. Hotel would have been 1/2 what we ended up paying.

We end up at the Sleep Inn in Wisconsin Rapids. At first BB doesn't really want to eat, then decides on a family restaurant. Really good food, and too much of it. Four Star ? Family Restaurant. We both had chicken soup and I had a turkey philly with fruit. I didn't ask what the fruit was ... PEACHES. Fresh peaches. So BB had fruit. And I could still only eat half my philly.

Back at the hotel, I try to print out tomorrows paperwork. They are out of black ink on the guest printer and security has them locked out to print from what I can give them. We will try again in the AM.

Load board

US - 90

IA - 5/3 (CN)

MN - 2

WI - 5

Shipper opens at 8 AM, about the time we will get there. They want a 24-notice, that is not happening. Then it is 6-8 hours to the drop and they close at 4:30 so we may/may not get this dropped tomorrow. There are two trips within 2-3 hours of the drop right now that would work. Then ?