1 tanker to Urbana IL (delivered)

1 vac truck to Bridgeton MO (Friday)

... spending the night at Bloomington IL

It took the alarm to wake us this AM. So everything seemed to move a little slower.

Breakfast was eggs and the leftover philly minus the bread. For juice they actually had service size cups instead of the small juice cups or some locations even use the syrup cups for juice.

It takes us close to an hour to get to the drop, and we didn't get going quite on time.

We have three addresses for the shipper, I only looked at the one on their BL. I didn't realize that BB had put in one of the others into the GPS until after I called the shipper. No wonder things didn't look the same as I had seen online. Things change, but sometimes we are just in a different location.

" ... that truck shipped in August ..." was what I heard when I told them which truck I was here to pickup. But they asked someone else, no, it is back but it is still in the shop. Doesn't sound good. More checking on their part found it was ready to go. It just wasn't being handled by the shipping department.

But they were good enough to lead me over to the correct location, grab the keys and sign off for me.

:) It has fuel. I was hoping it had enough to get to the station five blocks away. It likely has enough to get to the drop, but I hate to leave them on 'E' when I pick them up almost on full. 3/4 in this case. Or something close. The fuel bar only has one cross line and it doesn't seem to be at the halfway point.

25,000 miles and fuel. This one will get run at the speed limit.

I call the drop, they are missing this truck so they will stay as long as needed. Hopefully that won't be needed. It is about 9 AM and it is about a 6 hour trip. Plus a couple of stops.

BB stops more often, but my first stop is at the TA in De Forest for fuel. I guess how much fuel I have left to get down to 1/4 tank, about 60 miles. Then I have gotten the fuel range up to 6-7 mpg from the 4.4 when I started. So I use 8 mpg so I don't leave extra fuel in the truck.

BB gets to the station before I am leaving. When we are both running the speed limit she doesn't get a chance to get ahead of me.

Next stop for me is Bloomington at the Pilot. Three hours. The drop wanted me to let them know when I was an hour out so they would know how long someone had to stay. And by then I should know how much more fuel to put in.

None. The mileage went up to 8+ mpg and I ended up leaving close to a half a tank of fuel by the time I got it dropped. I put in 25 gallons, could have put in 12 and still been good.

While I was stopped, I decided to wash the windows. There is washer fluid but it doesn't work. I don't like hogging a pump so I pulled past and then carried the bucket up to the truck. When I carried the bucked back, one of the staff was there emptying garbage and thanked me for bringing the bucket back ... huh? ... then they said most drivers wouldn't have :(

The garbage there was full, partly because the driver parked at the next island filled it. He moved the can over to his truck and was just grabbing hand fulls of trash and filling the can.

This location is being redone so only Wendy's and the fuel desk are open. Plus about two rows of goods and a couple of coolers. Restrooms are outside.

I guessed I would be there in an hour and texted that to the drop. As I am pulling back on the freeway, I realize I have not looked at the drop address. So halfway to the drop I stop at a rest area to see where I am going.

Four turns so I should be OK. I text BB and we are at the same rest area.

All my paperwork has mis-spelled the street address. But I can see the out houses from the street I'm on so it has to be right, but I don't know for sure until I see the name on the side of another truck.

The person who signs is walking across the lot so he directs be where to park. Then the driver comes and looks the truck over before the main guy signs. Sounds like this truck has been back twice. Once the driver took it back up as he said he got 8 mpg going up and only used a half a tank of fuel. And the main guy was asking if I worked for the shipper because they had sent one of their own drivers down to get the truck this time.

Then the main guy had a few more questions about our line of work.

BB followed her GPS so she came in a different way.

When I'm done, we look at the load board. I had thought the main office closed at 5 PM but BB convinced me to call. They are open until 5:30. We get a trip from a shipper two hours away and this trip is only four hours to the drop.

The others we were looking at were four hours to the shipper and six hours to the drop. Kind of tight for a Friday.

And there is a truck just a few miles from our next drop. It is now HOT ... and not ready until 10/5. I'll call on that one tomorrow. If it is hot, if it is something I will drive and if they will take a Saturday delivery, we will likely take it.

Tomorrows trip is not paying great but todays sure did.

Earlier I had called local dispatch to see if they having anything coming back from MO ... MS ? Is that kind of like MO ? :) So no, they don't.

The hotels in Bloomington are the last before the shipper so we end up at the Comfort Inn, but first we stop at Bob Evans for food. Breakfast. We get to-go boxes for three strips of bacon and a couple of pieces of banana bread.

Then we go for a short walk before sunset. It is getting dark early now.

Load board

US - 149

IA - 2/0

MN - 5

WI - 4

Tomorrow we should be at the shipper by 8 AM and to the drop by 1 PM. Then we are up against the weekend. We might have to make some calls to see if anyone will take their stuff on Saturday.