1 boom truck to Carthage NC
... spending the night at Knoxville TN
Good day :)
Spent the night last night in the Comfort Inn in Lonoke AR.
I'm not sure today's eggs were 'real,' but the were not bad. Plus other stuff including juice pouches. I had to grab one of those for later.
We were going to get going at 6:30 but live takes longer than planned some times. We ended up being ready to go at 6:45.
Truck started, first time. No starter fluid. No questions, I'll just drive.
1st stop today was the Petro in West Memphis. We had talked about stopping other places because the last Petro/TA's we have stopped at have had such long lines. :) One truck and the other 5 islands are empty.
The first pump I pulled up to had an error message, and the second one wouldn't read my card but no line so not a huge issue. In and out in a few minutes.
As we are leaving, the semi driver pulling in is on his cell phone, phone in hand. Yesterday I saw a driveaway driver using both hands on his phone while driving. $2,750 fine if caught by someone other than me.
Then we get to cross THE bridge. The I-40 bridge that was closed a couple of years ago because of stress fractures. We made it across.
When deciding out stops today, we use Google maps. It was showing us that traffic was being detoured between Memphis and Nashville off of I-40. One time it would be one detour, the next time we'd look it would be somewhere else but away from the same accident. Accident was last night about 11 PM and the road is still closed.
Overhead signs coming out of Memphis still said the road was closed at mile marker __
But we just waited to be detoured and we were not. It looked like they had dragged (at least) two semi's into the ditch to clear the roads. So they were still working on it almost 10 hours later.
2nd stop was the Loves in Holladay TN. As usual, we park, get our food and come back to our truck. Today we both had gyro's. Good, and fresh.
3rd stop was a rest area in Buffalo Valley.
We had to cross two TN weigh scales today. No issues. We also went past an inspection station, no scale ... that I thought I saw was closed. Then the trucker ahead of me, hit the brakes and went in and there was an officer there doing an inspection. A few miles later there is a cop coming up behind me ... then he passed me. Whew.
At the first scale they were in full inspection mode. A dozen or so trucks pulled in and officers inspecting some of the trucks. Luckily not mine, again.
4th and final stop was the Comfort Inn in east Knoxville. They have no truck parking so we waited until we were at their lot and I could walk in and ask if where I parked was OK. Then we made a reservation. Truck parking is supposed to be on the street but there not really a place there either. I made their two lane area around their building a one lane. We have seen this done here before so we guessed it would be OK, it was.
Then we walked next door. But first I asked the person at the desk which place they liked better. They told us both places are owned by the same family.
Different, but good. I couldn't eat it all. And I still hurt.
Todays count was 49 no-tows and 9 units towing or hauling a car. One was towing one and hauling one ???
Load board
US - 175
IA - 11/10
MN - 1
WI - 7
Tomorrow we will fuel next door where fuel is cheaper than in NC. Then we have about four hours before we pick up the rental car, then another two hours to the drop.
This thing has given us enough issues, we will be glad to be done with it.
All the trips home from here are gone ... so our rental car is for home.
There is a Gatlinburg SkyBridge pretty close to our drop, but I think we will pass ...