1 roll-off truck to Hopkins MN
... spending the night at home
Detour
Tornado
Long day
--------------------------
(one day later)
Breakfast today was one small carton of yogurt.
Travel was mostly on roads with dividing lines but a few miles were the one lane blacktop kind.
1st stop - The shipper in Winamac. This looks like the one I remember. No one at the front office door, just a phone and bunch of signs.
Someone picks up when I call and I am directed where to go. Their office is the 'scale house' in the middle of a big storage lot. They sign, I sign. My truck is directly across from the office.
We do the inspection. All is good. The truck has enough fuel to get to a truckstop so I will not need to fuel here in town.
Down the road we get to a 'road closed' sign. I remember that when I looked at the maps last night, I had showed BB that there were three options to get out of Winamac and none of them took this road. That helps me make a snap choice, I make the turn without hitting anything but it was a 'last minute turn.'
This one was no big deal, we are just going around two different sides of a square. This is roughly the route I had looked at yesterday. And this route has no towns to slow us down.
It did make me nervous that there was not a single detour sign after we turned down that road. I just watched for a good road ... and then the detour road was closed so we had to turn.
2nd stop - Valparaiso - Pilot - for fuel. At this point the truck showed I was getting close to 8 mpg so I expected the mpg to go up over the next 500 miles.
From here on, it should be four lane and then freeway all the way home.
'Ramp closed' :(
The ramp to get on I-65 was closed with no marked detour. So I kept going on US-30, looking for a major highway or a name I have seen before. BB has been following me but just as she gets over in the left lane, we come to US-41. I would have taken it but she is now in the lead so I'm thinking she has turned on the GPS.
Nope, she pulls into the next turn and we park. We look at maps. We do want US-41 and off we go. Off I go, the stoplight and traffic only let one person, me, through. That is the last I see of her until our next arranged stop.
When I get to the freeway, there are more 'road closed' signs. But then I see that it is the ramp to I-80/94 East that is closed. We are heading west.
West bound traffic is moving well over the posted. This is the one town I do not dare to drive the speed limit in construction zones. And there are lots of those.
Oncoming traffic, those heading east bound were pretty much backed up for the whole <> 10 miles I was on I-80. Stop and go, four plus lanes wide.
3rd stop is the Loves in Hampshire. BB is not there yet. I would have saved time if I had just ordered right away, but I waited for her. And waited.
And when she gets there she is wound. She thought we were going east, even though the GPS was telling her west. So she passes I-80/94. The road she is on becomes a city street and the area starts to look less friendly.
I haven't looked but I'm guessing it is about five miles of stoplights between the freeways.
And traffic on through downtown Chicago was even worse. But I she found out the view from the high bridge is nice.
We order, we eat, we talk. We lost about an hour of travel time because of the road closures. Now we are up against nightfall getting home.
WI scale is closed.
4th stop is Black River Falls at the rest area. BB is here before I. We decide to get home tonight. It will be sunset.
At noon, I thought we would be crossing the MN/IA border at sunset. We are running 10 minutes late but it is still light enough to do my post trip inspection.
At noon, BB says when she saw the storm coming in, she was hoping a tornado would not top off her day. Tonight I hear that there were 3 tornado's in WI from that storm.
Food ... we have only eaten once today and now it is after 7 PM. First we try Bub's, and we watch them shut off the lights inside. Next we try Culver's, but even after 7 PM on a weeknight there is a long line at the drive thru, we have found if the drive thru is busy, so is the inside counter. We end up at Noodles.
Short night, but in our own bed.
Load board
US - 191
IA - 19/17
MN - 16
WI -7