1 trash truck to Germantown WI (delivered)

1 RV to Mount Vernon IN (Wednesday)

... spending the night at Albert Lea MN

I wasn't planning on stopping for lunch so I decided I should eat breakfast. Scrambled eggs, with cheese and ham. Plus a few pieces of bacon. Just OJ because the apple juice looked like water. I told someone but didn't wait around for them to change it. I'm on a mission ... to get going.

Nothing new on the load board so no one to call.

When I leave the hotel I see someone with a pickup and trailer has parked on the street, that must be where 'truck parking' is.

No issues so I am pulling out at 7:15 AM. The sun isn't up yet but soon will be ... no clouds in the sky so we had the sun in our eyes in the AM and PM. 12 hour day today.

1st stop is the Kwik Trip in West Salem, the pumps are working again. They have one CNG pump past the truck islands so that is where I always fuel, out of the way of the other truckers. All islands were full today.

One of those truckers was hauling a plot combine. (I had to look it up to see what they were called.) I found five brands online. A few days ago I saw a Massey Ferguson plot combine. They aren't one of the five so that must be from the past.

When I went to pull out, I followed the trucker with the combine. He must have just pulled out of the field before he fueled. For the 10 miles I followed him, chaff, leaves and corn was blowing off of that combine.

Just before I got to where I-90 and I-94 merge, I looked in my mirror just in time to see someone just about hit my mud flaps. Wasn't watching so I don't know how fast they had come up on me ... as they past me, I saw that they were sitting cross-legged on their seat with their jammies still on. No foot near the gas or the brake.

Then after the two freeways merged, there was a big backup of trucks to get past us slow people. One semi was about six feet behind the one ahead of him as they went past my window ... so my guess of distance should be pretty close. See a lot of that. Need a dash cam.

2nd stop was the Kwik Trip in West Salem.

3rd stop was the Kwik Trip in Waukesha. Both CNG islands were being used with one truck ahead of me. One truck looked like a new one like mine but he pulled out and I never did see any placards so I don't know if it was new or just clean.

By now, I have decided I am done with Autocar trucks. I have been beaten up from every bump for the last three days. Today I even hit my head on the ceiling because I was not paying attention. Lots of times I am holding on with both hands just trying to stay in my seat (seat belt helps for that)

On yesterday's truck five lights stopped working from on the shaking. Today one of the inside panels on the truck popped loose exposing the wiring. (Next week I will find out how many fillings have been shaken loose)

4th stop is the drop in Germantown. Today I know to park facing the building. So I park right next to another driver who is still in their truck doing paperwork. I hop out and go find my contact. I find both of them, but the one that is going to inspect is still on break.

Outside I talk to the other driver and tell him that the inspector will be out. We talk. He is driving for the company I drove for yesterday. I was here yesterday at 9 AM, he was here at 1 PM ... and got back here before me today.

His wife has MS so he only does local trips that allow him to be home every night. On good days she drives the chase car. On the other days he uses rental cars.

... I check with Bridget to see if we can give him a ride ... then I ask where he will pick up his car ... Airport ... that would add 60 miles to our day so I don't offer.

About that time the inspector is done with his truck and the driver is gone without saying goodbye.

This locations runs every function of the truck for the inspection but they still are able to do one every 15 minutes. So not a long wait. A little warmer today, yesterday I froze the whole time I was there.

We send in my paperwork from the lot.

Still no good trips, and the company I worked for today did not ask me when I was available.

BB is hungry so we head to a FireHouse Subs. On the way we see Zupas. It wasn't on the map but that is where we stopped.

5th stop, Zupas in Menomonee Falls. As we are eating, BB is watching the load board. An RV shows up near us heading back to IA ...

... But BB wants to do all the math before she will let me call. I finally call before she is done. It's gone. When there is this little work, the trips are gone in seconds, not days. I like to call as soon as I see something ... IF it sounds good, we can put it on hold. BB wants to do all the math, run all the scenarios before we call.

So that was that one.

A few minutes after we left, the same dispatcher put a trip on out of IA. This time I did get BB to call right away and we did get it. BB got it. We are supposed to take one trip every 30 days and it is getting close to 60 days for her.

We are going to Mount Vernon IN. Right down on the border of KY with no way to get out of town, other than a chase car.

So now we know where we are heading and what we will be doing the next two days. Surprising, we are making OK money as long as we don't count the cost of our car.

We drove past the truck I didn't take yesterday. It is still there and has not shown back on our load board. That is why I did not want to stay. When there is an issue with money, it can be because the buyer doesn't have any ...

6th stop is Lyndon Station at a rest area, same as yesterday.

7th stop is the Loves in St Charles for fuel, cheapest fuel around, same as yesterday.

8th and final stop is the Best Western in Albert Lea. Not the Comfort Inn or Quality Inn this time. But first we stop at the HyVee Express. This one is not the same and neither is there food. No food made to order, I guess it needs to be a 'Cafe' for that. And the hot food we got was a chicken quesadilla. BB had one piece, that was all she could handle. Not good.

Load board

US - 209

IA - 1/0

MN - 6

WI - 1

We have about an hour to go in the AM to the shipper, then likely Waterloo for lunch and hotel in St Louis.

That will leave us about 200 miles to the drop on Thursday and 700 miles home. Closest work back to MN is 330 miles, there is also a truck 550 miles coming back to MN but with either we would not get back until Saturday. And we have plans on Mon, Tues, Weds (?) and Thurs next week.