2 RV's to Drapper UT

... spending the night at Waukee IA (Des Moines)

Up and out of the room before 7 AM. We grab breakfast to-go. A hard boiled egg, two bacon patties, grape juice.

BB has to fuel before dropping the rental so I take the time to fuel also. Pilot in Northfield is the cheapest fuel today in MN. $3.10.

I get to the airport and circle twice before BB calls me. Today a street sweeper was working the loading/unloading area so any cars that were just sitting were being chased away. They don't seem to be doing much of that anymore, telling people to move on.

Non-stop trip back to IA. Trying to decide how the day is going to go. When we get to the shipper, we decide to just how far we can get.

We see and talk to one driver. He is going to the same place we are. He's picking up today but is only going as far as his house. Then he will leave tomorrow and get to the drop the same day we do.

When I get out of my RV after moving it, the wind is very brisk. I notice some large leaves blowing across the parking lot in formation ... then I realize they were the wad of napkins that had been in my pocket. They were long gone by then, I didn't chase them down.

Still lots of RV's. I counted 50 waiting to be hauled out. My guess is another 100 waiting to be driven out.

We have some fuel but it is now time to eat. So we head to Kwik Star and first fuel and then eat there.

Because of the wind, we have decided to take US-69 instead of the freeway. That way we can drive 55 mph instead of 65 mph. When we left the truck stop, the winds were 30+ with gusts to 48 mph. We could have shut down and would have with different RV's. But there doesn't seem to be much on these that the wind will hurt. It is more an issue of the poor fuel mileage we are going to get.

We stop first near Garner to see if we are going further than 10 miles today. We are. Then we stop again less than an hour later. We will keep going.

Then we stop at a Casey's in Gilbert for the restroom and some liquids. That is when we decide that we are only goings as far as Des Moines. Our fuel mileage is taking a beating and we already have lost enough time that we won't make it to Drapper on Tuesday night.

BB looks at the GPS and we will take the next left ... that is what the GPS says. But I look at the gravel road and say, no way. Two miles later we are on a paved and marked road to the freeway.

Once on the freeway, we got up to 65 mph ... for a minute. After that it was 55 - 60 mph the rest of the way. My 'wind assist' only kicked on once.

Bennigan's. We eat at the one attached to the Best Western in Clear Lake. I finally looked them up today. They currently have 9 US locations and three of those are in IA. (They also have some oversea's locations) Wiki doesn't say how many locations they had at their peak, but in 2008 when they filed for bankruptcy, they still had 288 locations.

Final stop is the Comfort Inn in Waukee. Food is next door from HyVee's Smokin' Cafe.

Laundry here is free and we were off the road early so BB got us set for the next week. The wraps on the RV's were already coming loose because of the wind and a poor install job so I spent some time re-taping them.

Donner's Pass has now been shut down for a couple of days, after first requiring chains. There are drivers in Reno and the other side waiting it out. If it drags on much longer, we will be taking the longer route via Las Vegas if we head to Livermore after Drapper.

Tomorrow.

We should have less wind and at some point a slight tail wind. We just did this route so planning is easy. We should make it to Sydney for the night.