1 tank truck to Troy MI (delivered)
... spending the night at Maumee OH
(trying to make my ramblings easier to follow)
We stayed last night at the Comfort Inn in Schaumburg IL.
Breakfast here is sparse but enough. Once we had dished up our plates we were walking to the elevator ... "Stop. You can not take food to your room." ???
That is a first for the last tree years. We just looked at the person and sat down and ate our food quickly. When we have our food in our room we are multi-tasking as we eat.
We had been on a roll to get going a little early this AM, before that.
... then as we are walking out of the hotel room, BB turns on the bathroom light so she can see to dump the last of her coffee. She did, and then I saw ...
... her iPad was laying on a towel on the bathroom floor. Glad I waited for her and was looking that direction.
As is our usual routine, I check out my truck and start it before we check out. All is good. As I check out, they ask how the stay was. I mentioned not being able to eat in the room.
Ants.
Seemed they had an issue with ants. And if any are found in the room, they can not rent that room until ?? Anyway, they finally did a test of no food in the rooms and the ants were gone. OK, I understand.
This mornings trip was likely half again as long as it would have been last night. Lots of traffic.
I had noticed a 'thing' mounted on my dash yesterday but didn't really look at it too much until today when we were sitting. It shows how close the car/truck in front of you is and how fast they are going.
Now I know for sure. Yes, people do drive 20-30 miles over the posted in road construction in Chicago. The fastest I saw anyone going was 94 in a 60 mph zone.
Another thing I found about the truck and the cruise, safety system is that in normal traffic, it wants to keep you 300 feet behind the truck ahead of you. There were times there were three trucks in that 300 feet in the text lane over. It is open space and people want you to fill it.
The furthest from a truck that it slowed me down was a truck coming on from a ramp. The truck was going 45 mph and it started slowing me at 500 feet. Also I could not increase my cruise speed until the car ahead of me was 300+ feet ahead of me. I could use the gas pedal, but not re-set the cruise speed.
And if the cruse was not on, the thing would beep at me if I was too close to the car ahead of me. Which I had to do, or if I got in the left lane 300 feet before I was going to pass traffic would be passing me on the right ... and likely blowing their horns.
Traffic was bad, incoming traffic was worse.
1st stop was the TA in Porter to put in another 25 gallons of fuel. I thought that would be way to much, it was not. It got us there plus. Unlike yesterday, there is no-one at the fuel pumps, so when I am done I just leave it parked while I go in to get my receipt.
About 10 AM, IA puts out two more RV's going to 1,000 Oaks ... and we are not there or available.
About that time I remember that I had not done my daily check in call. Opps.
Someone does call from the main office but they don't leave a message so I don't call them back.
2nd stop was the Schlotzsky's in Battle Mountain. We parked at the Walmart and walked across the parking lot. Right were I parked someone had been working on the curb and just left everything there including their tool belt. Nice hammers, etc.
We ate ordered and were rolling on our 30 minutes.
We stop again another hour down the road at a rest area in Chelsea. It is the only rest area between here and the rental car and the rental places don't always have restrooms available.
Another hour plus and we are at the rental car place. We had a place not far from here picked out to move our stuff from the truck to the car but now we see there is room here.
This is at the rental car place in Troy, about 3 miles from the drop. The first car they give BB, they tell her there is a check engine light on, but there are no issues. WRONG. When she starts the car, the check engine and five other lights come on.
Car #2. It has a cracked windshield and a few dings. It is supposed to be a hybrid but it never charges over 1%.
Once we move our things, I'm off to the drop. As I walk into the shop, someone is just walking out of the office and they ask if they can help. They can't, but they point to the person in the shop who can. I'm in and out in about five minutes.
They are happy to have the truck as their customer has been waiting for it.
No good work to grab so we head to Maumee for the night. Not exactly on the way home, but closer to other work than here in Detroit.
It is now close to 4:30 here and rush hour has started. The GPS has a bypass route for us that takes 20 minutes a couple of places waiting on the on ramps. Makes me wonder how bad the main route would have been. It was all freeway. Detroit is one of the places I will not take an off freeway short-cut.
Once we are clear of the traffic, BB makes a hotel reservation. Both at noon and again tonight I am telling BB where food is that she can't find on the map. I can't remember all the details but am close. As we get off the freeway near Toledo I point out a place ... that is where we ate. I don't remember the food or the name, but it was near the freeway between Cracker Barrel and a breakfast only place. :)
Tonight we are at the Comfort Inn in Maumee.
Load board
US - 156
IA - 2
MN - 4
WI - 1
Monday AM when we picked up, we had lots of options once we got to the MI/OH/IN area. They went quickly and nothing new and good has been added. There had been two trucks coming back to Ankeny IA and BB was willing to drive one. One went right away as did another truck to IA. There also had been an RV to IA.
Now all there is is one to Ankeny. Not sure if that will pay to do. Also this truck to Detroit did not pay as well as the last tanker I did. So we would have been better sitting and waiting for the IA trips ... IF BB will cancel her appointment ... and then we'd miss family events this weekend.