1 box truck to Colorado Springs CO (delivered)

1 box truck to Peoria IL (Saturday)

... spending the night at Colby KS

2 cups of yogurt for me for breakfast. BB had a nuked sandwich, that was their hot food at this hotel.

As soon as it was 7 AM local, 8 AM eastern, I call on the Peoria truck. It goes to voicemail so we end up doing the whole setup via texting back and forth. But I did get the truck.

I hadn't asked which way to park in the parking lot and those who arrived after me parked crossways to what I did. I had planned on parking with the cars like I usually do but they had plenty of signs saying not to.

BB had said she was going to give me a head start today but ended up pulling out behind me.

I had less fuel than I thought so I will be stopping sooner and spending more. Wind isn't as bad today so the mileage gets back up to 10.1. It had been 10.7 when I picked it up but dropped all day yesterday.

1st stop was the Port of Entry / scale in NM. They just asked to see a copy of my permit which I had up on my notebook screen. So that only took a few seconds. They way they looked at my screen and their screen, I am thinking they already had it showing on their screen. Just making sure I had my copy.

Next stop was a block or two down the street at a Loves. 3 truck fuel island. One is out of service. The one I pick has a pickup with a travel trailer. After sitting waiting for a while, someone comes out of Loves with a bag of goodies and starts to fuel ... but their card doesn't work so they have to go back inside. This all took time.

When I get to the pump, I put in 24 gallons. Guessing that I am still going to be able to average 10 mpg. That part doesn't take long. BB and I talk while I waited and that is all we will see of each other until after the drop.

On our travels today we passed the Capulin volcano. I guess BB got a better look at it than I did. There are others in the area and I wasn't sure which one I was looking at until I was mostly past it.

There is also a sign for Sand Dunes ... <> 150 miles off the freeway.

Crossing into CO, I needed to cross their scale also. The two trucks ahead of me got pulled in ... so I'm thinking ... either these guys or in a bad mood today and I'll get pulled in also. Or they now will be too busy for me. They were too busy for me and I got the green light.

I wanted to call my tomorrow's pickup before noon today but the first rest area at an exit and across the freeway. (doesn't make sense with the 1st one being the Welcome center) So I thought I would find another one but did not before noon. So I stopped at an exit ramp and called. They seemed bothered that I had called. My dispatcher had already called ...

We had gone this route on I-25 not too long ago with a bus to Denver so some things looked familiar.

Last night I had ran the route for todays drop and wrote down the street names and turns. And I had that on my clip board ... but before long I saw the third turn before I saw the 2nd turn. Things were not adding up so I finally pulled over on the side of the road and keyed in business names I could see and how to get from there to the drop.

Then I made a U-turn into a mall and did the same thing again. Then I got out on the main street and pulled off a third time.

So with my new directions I got three turns into it and had to stop again and look. This time right on the street as there were not any easy parking spots for a truck.

Finally I got going in the correct direction. Ended up going right past a hotel we had stayed at in the past and could see the drop from there. I have not run the directions again yet. But if I had not had the computer run the directions, I think I could have gotten to the drop in 3 easy turns. BB had gotten lost also but she got there quite a while before me.

The guys see that the name on the truck does not match the name on my bill of lading, but it is the drops truck. They will have to find out which of their customers it belongs to. That is not my issue and they sign off. I did get there with plenty of fuel left. Even after my detours. Very frustrating but I was not up against a close time or worried about running low on fuel ... just how did this happen?

(Road construction, missing road signs)

A mile or so from the drop was a DQ. It was past lunch but I did not want to eat a lot now and then again later. And it had been a while since we've had a DQ. Then we stopped in the same parking lot for fuel.

No more stops until the hotel. BB changed stops once she saw this one had an in house restaurant. We drive about three of our eight hours to the next shipper tonight.

Final stop is the Comfort Inn in Colby. The layout is right but a lot has changed in the 10 plus years since I was here. I am pretty sure this is the town where I sat on the ground at McDonalds waiting for the Greyhound and watched as a tornado formed. It never crossed my mind to be taking pictures. By the time I realized this is real, the staff was ordering everyone into the restrooms.

Because of the layout of the area. The tornado hit the hotel, it was a Holiday Inn then, it is the Comfort Inn now. The crossed the freeway. And because of the overpass, the tornado lifted a little, missing the McD's I was in before dropping to the ground again in an empty field. I do have pictures of it crossing the field. (somewhere)

The in house restaurant is the City Limits Grill. BB got a burger and I had two trips to the salad bar. That was plenty for me.

The Village Inn in the parking lot is new and closed in the last 10+ years. And now they are building a new Comfort Inn in the parking lot. This hotel will stay and become another name, they don't say which name.

Load board

US - 168

IA - 2/0

MN -0-

WI - 2

Tomorrow we should get to the shipper and get about two hours down the road before dark. No Monday work lined up yet, so likely deadhead home from Peoria. (But we make enough in two weeks on this kind of trip that we don't need to work all month) But we do have lots of non-work lined up so we need to make money when we can.