1 refer truck to Romeoville IL

1 tanker truck to Blaine MN (Thursday)

... spending the night at Van Wert OH

Woke up just before 8 AM local and got up. Had been awake during the night because I ate way too much food yesterday.

So breakfast was one small carton of yogurt.

We watch the board, we do the math. We almost call on a trip that didn't pay any better than the one we turned down yesterday. And this one would get us another 400 miles from home.

We even looked at how far we would have to drive in a rental car to get to a long trip. We talked about heading home, but there is no work and there is bad weather coming in so we'd be off for a few days.

IN did put out an RV to SK this AM, then an RV to MI. I ask BB about it but she wants to do math and I want to call. It took a minute or two before I called and it was already gone. It would have paid better than any of the other trips we had been looking at. But I did find out how that location pays, what they pay. It would have been worth it.

Then the gold mine :) ... Two RV's to AK. That is <> once a decade trip to have two going. And we are right here, within a couple of miles from the RV's.

... we pass. It's winter, we aren't ready for it. Maybe next time. And we would have to talk ahead of time to see how we would get back home. Flying is not at the top of my list. Right now it is a little cold for a coast cruise.

It would have been 3,500-4,500 miles depending on where they wanted us to cross the border and which roads they wanted us to take.

Finally I looked again at a trip I had seen a few times but it was too far of a dead head. But now we were looking at total trip miles, not just the dead head after the drop. This one has a long dead head to the truck but we drop in Chicago. Closer to home and closer to where the trucks are here in IN.

I call dispatch, they don't know off hand how much it pays but 'it will be worth it' I wait to see the money before deciding, Yes, we will net almost 2.5x as much as either of the other two trips we have looked at.

I wasn't ready to walk out the door, should have been. But we were <> waiting for dispatch to send paperwork so we can use the hotel printer. They didn't send it so we we left the hotel.

And rental cars are getting to be an issue. We've had to adjust our plans as to where we will drop the car. We are in the car, leaving the hotel, when BB finally gets on the phone and changes how / what we are going to do with rental cars today.

Plan and reservations had been for us to drop this car at South Bend this AM and switch to a Avis. Avis was cheaper and easier to changes plans ... next time we need to. Instead we keep this car, saving us an hour plus, and will drop it where we picked it up. We thought that would save us money, it usually does, but today a local was the same price as a one way.

Lots of lots of RV's, travel trailers, buses, work vans. Some places there are 20, 40, 60, 80 acres just for storage. And sometimes they are empty, others are mostly full. Plenty of work once the buyer decides what goes where and when.

1st stop is at Edon at a Loves. Usually the cheapest fuel. Still no paperwork. So we fuel and go.

Paperwork does come in and goes to our junk email. BB spends a while looking for somewhere down the road where we might need a stop anyways where we can print my bill of lading. Finally we decide to stop where we know there is a Loves, Perrysburg. Another hour only between stops. But they do it right and cheap.

So Loves in Perrysburg was our 2nd stop. We also got food from Arby's. I had a slider, that was plenty for me still.

Another hour and we are off the freeway for the last few hours. Most of this was two lane, at one point the car was up to 50 mpg. It likes the slower speeds. Didn't see much for Amish today until we were almost to the shipper. And I don't think they were Amish, Mennonites most likely. Living on city lots, riding electric bicycles and more colorful clothing.

Somewhere in the cross country, BB sees a trip in Elgin going back home. We want it, she's looking for her phone so I assume she is going to dial in for it. Nope, she figured I was going to stop when I got a chance and call. Still this communication thing. By the time she does dial my phone, we have gotten to a town and I've pulled into a parking lot.

Yes ... I have my tanker endorsement. No ... I do not tow. And this one I will need to scale, in MN. We do it with the buses for one shipper, it's just extra time. No scales between the border and the drop. South St Paul will be the closest.

It was quite a while later that we remembered that there was a storm coming in and we did not want to be in MN this weekend. Oh well, we may not make it to MN this weekend?

3rd stop is in Ashland at an gOasis. We didn't know it was not a TA until we got there. (another interesting story I had to look up ... Goasis)

From here we are less than an hour to the shipper, the last 10 miles won't be a truck route in a lot of area's of the country. Not here, but other area's we went through some interesting cities. Houses, likely 200 years old, built close together and near the street.

We find the shipper just as they are shutting down for the day. Not an issue as it is 'self service.' I find my paperwork but not my truck, there are five right where mine should be but not mine. But I have keys so I know it it ready ... hopefully on the outside of the now locked gates (we had wandered what could go wrong now that we have our week planned)

I call dispatch and they know where they park the overflow. It was there ... and had fuel. Often times these new trucks are on fumes.

When I call in to get dispatched, I asked if these trips always pay this good ... he says yes, he wants drivers to come back to do another trip for him.

We leave out from the shipper just a few minutes later than guesstimate Plan is to get as the rental car returned and stop at the first hotel.

I have enough fuel to get half way to the airport tonight before fueling.

Loves in Upper Sandusky is that fuel stop, BB also buys food. And we decide that it will really be 8 PM when we get to the airport so we change our plans to stop short in Van Wert.

After I leave Loves, I notice that my dome light is one ... and there is a sticker on the dash that just says 'dome light' but is not a switch. I try a few different times to shut it off but then assume a door is open or something. Finally I put two and two together. This truck has all kinds of camera's. It likely can not watch the driver if there is not enough light in the cab so the dome light has to stay on. And yes, once I shut the truck off. I could turn the dome light off.

... this has been a while. We get to the hotel and no where to park. Once spot left and it is taking the last six spots and is against the building. This would have worked better with one of those self parking cars. I get parked using all six of the available spots. Someone is going to wonder how I got in there without damaging their cars.

Food for me tonight is the 2nd half of BB's sandwich. So light meals today.

Load board

US - 157

IA - 1/0

MN - 11

WI - 2