1 box truck to Omaha NE (delivered)
1 box truck to Brooklyn Park MN
... spending the night at Independence KS
Up with the alarm. At 7 AM I call dispatch on the east coast. I ask them to hold an order for we while I call the drop. The drop opens at 7 AM so it is a quick call. Yes, they are open Good Friday (and this Saturday.) So I call dispatch back and book the trip.
There were other options but the logistics for this looked the best.
Breakfast was yogurt. It was not a restful night for me so I decided to go with something light.
... when I checked out, I told the person at the front desk that there had been stuff in the trash can in our room when we checked it ... 'no problem' was their answer. Not sure English was there 1st (or 2nd) language.
Front desk also said it was -3 degrees this AM. I think they meant Celsius.
I knew I was running low on DEF last night and would have stopped at the SA in Davenport if we had been staying at that hotel. But we were not so I did not. Not wanting to have a warning light come on, I decided to put in two gallons right here at the Pilot.
Saw my first transporter there in the parking lot. A small trash truck being moved by us. Saw a lot of transporters again today. We are on the move.
I wanted to run my fuel down to 1/8 and re-fill from there. By the time it got that low, I was up to 6.5 mpg so I filled based on that.
I fueled at a Pilot in Brooklyn IA. And from there I called the drop.
Got to play tag with a couple of trucks on both ends of the state. My truck would hold at 65 mph and theirs would do 75 mph going down hill but only 55 mph going up hill. Neither of us inched passed the other, we went zoom.
This truck ... never did get used to it. If I was not in the center of the lane, it would be beeping at me and shutting the radio off and changing my dash screen.
... and the radar. It would slow me down before it would show that the truck ahead of me was on the radar. When another truck/car was on my radar, it would show how fast they were going which was nice. But it had it's 'safe area' and it would slow me down if anyone was in it.
Someone passes me at 70 mph and pulls in front of me ... it slows me down.
With some units, once I turn on my signal to pass ... the truck will speed up to the cruise setting, even if I am still behind a slower truck. On this one, I signal, change lanes, and it would wait another five seconds before speeding back up to cruise speed. So I was using my footfeet a lot of the time my cruise was on.
As I go passed the rest area in Adair, BB is just backing out of her parking spot. She catches up to me close enough to see the truck number and then follows me from there.
When I first left the Pilot back in Brooklyn, my mpg went down to 6.4 so I was thinking I was going to need more fuel. Then it bounced between 6.4 and 6.5 for an hour plus before going up. It finally got up to 6.8 mpg.
I had not looked at a map of my drop last night so I pulled over at the last rest area. I wrote down what I saw on the map but had a good idea of where I was going ... I thought.
I take the 1st exit once we are in NE, it doesn't look right. I was expecting this exit to be a mile or more from the state line. And the cross street I was going to turn on has a different name. Opps ... I must have gotten off too soon.
(That cross street also had a 'no trucks' sign)
But instead of turning around, I figure I will just keep going until I see a cross street that I was going to be on. Problem was, I thought I was east of where I needed to be and I was actually already too far west.
Did see a couple more of those 'no truck' signs, too late. I finally stopped at looked at a map again. I had gotten off at the correct exit. The cross street that said 'no trucks' was the correct street, it just has a different name for a few feet and I had not zoomed in far enough to see it.
I had lost BB, she didn't want to follow me when I was lost. She went right to the drop. I burnt off some of that extra fuel. Not sure how, but I left an extra 1/8 of a tank of fuel for the drop. So I was getting way of the 6.5 mpg that it was showing.
I did find my way back to a street that I knew and found the drop. Check in only took a couple of minutes.
My drop was less than a mile from US-75 in Omaha. And my next pick up is right on US-75 ... 300 miles south.
First stop with the rental car is the Chic-fil-A in Bellevue. We went through the drive thru ... I handed him my credit card, he hand me my food and away I go ... opps. I need that credit card back :)
Next stop is at the Casey's in Auburn. We have stopped here before, not too many other places to stop.
Then the TA on I-35 in Lebo for the restroom.
And finally the Arby's in Independence for food and then the Comfort Inn for the night. Almost twice the price as the others but it is what we are used to.
By now there is a truck from here going to Duluth MN. But I am already committed and we don't want to leave our car here. BB could drive the Duluth one.
Load board
US - 270
IA - 4
MN - 8
WI - 4