1 bus to Loveland CO

... spending the night at Needles CA

Spent last night at Santa Nella CA.

No alarm, because no one set one. We had just crashed.

We planned on leaving by the time they are supposed to start breakfast, so I had two of the oranges we had been carrying around for a while. BB had something else from our collection.

We did look at breakfast after we turned in our keys. BB grabbed an egg patty and a sausage patty ... almost with her fingers before she caught herself. She ate it as we walked back to the bus.

RV dispatch calls me before we get on the road, they think I am delivering in Loveland today ... no, Monday I will deliver. They have an RV in Loveland going to SLC that has to be delivered by/on Tuesday or it will sit until after Jan 1. I didn't say NO, and now I see that the trip is still out there. BB and I talk about it later. We would break even on the trip. Two hotels, an extra rental car day. And we would not get home until Friday ... of Christmas weekend after being gone for four weeks straight.

The transporter that was parked right ahead of me is still there when we pull out.

1st stop is an hour and a half down the road at the Avenal rest area. Driving at 55 mph so we are sometimes splitting legs that we have done in just one leg.

2nd stop is in Buttonwillow for CNG fuel. No one there when I pull in, ten minutes later when I leave there are two other trucks fueling and two in line. Because of the 'drain' on the pressure from fueling three units at one time, I am only able to get 3,000# today. It's not like pumping gas, when the CNG shuts off, it is done. To squeeze anymore in, you need to re-start the pump and will likely only get in another 1/10th or two of a gallon.

Last time we were here, I had problems getting their connection to work. Last time someone else at the station even tried to help me. This time I had issues again, but this bus has two different places to connect. The 2nd location worked fine.

No receipt so I had to take pictures of the price, gallons and total.

There was a homeless gal around the station. Homeless as in walking, with a dog, carrying bags and pillow. But better kept than some of the staff we see behind the counters. ??? About 20 something. Not acting strange, just roaming free.

3rd stop was the Pilot in Tehachapi for food. PJ's, but they did not have veggies so BB decided on Wendy's instead.

Bus does OK on the hills, I'm able to pass the trucks that had been passing me if I don't loose power by someone slowing me down.

4th stop, Barstow, for fuel. A bus is already there. Of course we had to talk to them. The told me what kind of bus it was, I said I had never head of them. They only other bus I had heard of was El Dorado. Same thing, they just used different names sometimes. He was also CNG and was heading to Dallas. He only runs 400 miles a day, we are pushing it to run 500 on these short days.

Leaving Barstow we meet a bus ... one of ours, heading west ???

We did see a few other transporters today, but no other buses passing me.

One of the highway signs said our rest area was closed so we had one less stop today. It did end up being open, but by then BB wasn't wanting to stop anymore.

5th stop was for food a the Wagon Wheel in Needles. Real food, small cafe. It was either this or Jack in the Box or McD's. Good food.

Then to the next exit to the Quality Inn. Not watching as well as I should have. Not sure how close I got to a semi on my blind side as I was turning. Enough to spook me, not sure how close it was though. My backup camera that was working is now just showing red when I back up.

After we check in, we see that there is another bus in the lot. I go talk to them ... they are heading to Orlando with this one :( Along with six other drivers. This person hasn't worked in almost four weeks so they were needing a good trip. We may have talked before, she thought so and BB thought so when I mentioned the name.

Load board

US - 109

IA - 1/0

MN -0-

WI - 6

Lots of stops tomorrow. We will likely only get 400 miles again tomorrow. Fuel pumps are not spaced right, governed at 55 mph, about 10 hours of daylight.

Three trips heading out of Denver today right back to CA :) Much warmer in CA right now that MN.