1 tanker truck to Blaine MN (delivered)

... spending the night at home

Alarm at 6 AM ... even though we were not planning on leaving until 9 AM. Snow. It had snowed overnight. Snow was deep enough that it covered the grass, but didn't stick to the pavement in most places.

Breakfast was OK, plus they had passion orange guava juice. It was good, I even took an extra cup to re-fill my juice bottle.

I call local dispatch and tell them that I will not be able to move a truck for them today. Still not sure what will happen with the roads and my check engine icon and they want me to commit to a pickup time on a Friday afternoon. Cutting it too close for me.

Because the weather was good, we did end up leaving at 8:30. The ramp to get back onto the freeway is closed so we had to go through town. I'd never been in down town Black River Falls before.

No issues with traffic, but I soon notice that the DEF gauge has dropped to near the low line.

So first stop is an unplanned stop at the TA Express in Osseo. At first I only see one pump with DEF at the pump. Then I see that it has DEF on both sides, the only other station I know of that has that is in Fargo ND. As I drive around to get to that pump, I realize that all pumps have DEF, they are just not all in the same side of the pump.

When we get to the MN scale, the scale is open so we will need to cross. But we do get the bypass so we do not see how heavy the truck is. Then we back track to get our car. We had talked about how we were going to do this, as long as I didn't 'know' how much my truck weighed ... we were going to drop BB at the door.

Problem this time of year is that the city streets have weight limits on them. When we left Monday AM we even did a U-turn on our street so we could read the weight limit sign. 9 ton, per axle.

... and today the sign was gone :) they have removed the weight limit so that is no longer an issue. But we did not adjust.

We had made plans to meet in the driveway of the soccer fields. We didn't want the truck to be on the city streets any longer than needed ... but that was no longer the issue. When I got to the soccer fields, I realized that that was directly across from the DOT scale. So I kept driving. The old driver training place looked to be the better option. No fence, no snow on the pavement.

While I wait for BB and I call dispatch to see what I should do about the check engine icon that is still on. I will deliver and only deal with it IF the customer refuses it. Then I call the local dispatcher and ask about work. This carrier used to send out emails at the end of every quarter saying they need drivers ... they no longer do that ... so ... BB and I have talked and I may start doing a trip whenever we are in town and NOT be around at the end of the quarter. We seem to do a lot of sitting waiting for the 'right trip' as I only end up doing short trash truck trips lately.

They have one going to IL ... I said I would call them back. We wanted something going directly south, away from the next storm.

BB arrives and we move the luggage to the car and I head to the scale. This truck needs to be scaled and the closest one is in S St Paul. I could have asked for extra mileage pay but did not. It would have been another <>, $20.

I'm in auto mode when I get near the truckstop and get off at the wrong exit. But I know the area, just not where the roads go now. I have been coming to this area since it was all cattle yards. Now all the meat packing plants are gone and the buildings are on their 2nd-3rd owners.

I add two more gallons of fuel to cover the last 20+ miles to the drop. Then I scale the unit. The truck is 9,000+ pounds on the front axle. Just over half of the legal weight limit on the streets. NOT an issue.

That was at the Kwik Trip in South St Paul. There are not a lot of scales in MN, at least not CAT scales. This one is closest to the drop.

From here we head up Concord / US-156. I know I used to be on the road some, don't remember why, and don't remember most of the buildings. Lots has changed but not the lay of the land.

I looked at a map to know where my drop was. Next to the Anoka airport. Just didn't look to see what streets to take to get there. But I followed my nose and then could see their drops other trucks from the street I was on.

Someone at the drop knew about the truck and quickly looked at it and signed for it. I parked it while they made copies and we were done.

BB and I talk a little about the IL trip and finally decide not to take it. IF we took it, we would want to leave Saturday for a 400 mile trip. There is not that much extra money in the trip and then we saw that some models say this storm could track the direction we were heading. So we could, could end up getting snowed in in a hotel.

So I called and said we'd talk next week. I had thought about offering to work Saturday, but the storm is to be moving in late Saturday and sometimes we don't get back with the buses until late, late. And the buses are 60 foot buses which can be a little tricky on slick roads.

Food ... the closest place was the 'Ole Piper Inn.' I think the place has been there close to 40 years but today was the first time I've been in it. Good food. I had a philly, BB had a rachel.

When we left, we heard sirens. Close. Once we were in our car we saw them. This place sits at the corner of a stop light and there had been an accident. Maybe a dozen squad cars, fire truck and an ambulance was just getting there. And then loading someone in. We decided to go out a different way.

We stop for food on the way home as we will now be home for a long weekend. Depending on where the storm tracks.

Load board

US - 142

IA - 4/2

MN - 5

WI - 9

We will now be off until the storm clears. MN has not had any short trips with our long haul carrier, IA has had a few RV's. One dispatcher has had a few trucks out of MN, two to NY and then one to OR that we saw.

We talked about dead heading to KS to pick up a truck but that would also involve extra time to wait for the storm to clear.