1 RV to Ramsey MN

... spending the night at Black River Falls WI

What a day ... a long day for us.

As far as I can remember, everything went OK in the early AM. I had been screaming at kids in my dreams so that had me wondering how my real day was going to go.

We pull out at our usual time. At some point before we leave the hotel room, we realize that we have left 3 of our 4 I-passes in our personal car back in IA. It wasn't just our bad one that was left there.

So now BB starts to do some serious thinking about driving one of the two units without an I-pass. There are no longer any toll booths in IL. And the rental car adds a stiff fee for processing missed tolls.

The first thing we do is re-route so that we do not go on the toll road this AM. It adds a little more time but does cut off some miles.

And by going this way we see lots of Amish. There are places where the paved shoulder has a rut from the horse shoes. Like the runs on the mountains from the tire changes. At one point we could see three buggies coming in our direction within the next half mile. Another thing we noticed was that is was washing or at least drying day. Yesterday it had rained or snowed depending on where you were.

And in this area, not all Amish are farmers. They are living on modern type house that they likely bought and likely have changed to meet the Amish standards. We also noticed solar panels on what appeared to be Amish dwellings. That one I will have to look into.

By the time we get to down, BB needs to stop before we get to the lot. This gas station looks like a medieval castle from the outside. BB went in, I did not.

We get to the lot and find our RV. Someone else starts yelling over the fence, he thinks they have changed the access code. It's on his paperwork but he hadn't looked at that before he started yelling.

Before we are ready to go, I find that same driver to ask about this division. They were recently bought by our main carrier and still operate kind of their own way. So I wanted to see if there was anything I should know, be aware of. Turns out he had never seem the paperwork that was in my RV and I got a look at his which I had never seen before.

It wasn't long before BB headed over to get me going ... and then she got in on the conversation. We spent at least a half hour talking and could have kept going all day and into the night.

BB heads out to the airport and I head to the Loves for fuel. This time I know where I am going so I don't miss it like last time. Something has changed with their computers and we can no longer use the rewards card with the company payment card. It took them, two of them, one being the store manager a while to figure out that is what was locking the transaction. Now tonight I see someone on one of the driveaway groups had the same issue today.

Leaving Loves I mis-read a sign and ended up in town. When I first stopped to see where I was, all the the stores had multi locations in this area so I still had no idea where I was. I should have headed back to Loves then. Instead I kept going until I saw something that I thought was unique that I could find on a map. It would take 10 minutes longer to keep going than going back where I came from. I texted BB to say I'd be late, but not how late picking her up.

On the four lane we get to where we can see there is a truck stalled in the left lane so everyone will have to merge. As usual some people merge right away and others wait until the last seconds. Some of the people who merged right away get tired of getting passed. Today that was a guy with a truck with a couple of large round bales. Unique so I had been watching him for a while. He is just about to where there is a break in the concrete median when he gets into the left lane and tries to make a u-turn. Problem is the person ahead of him decided to do the same thing at the same time. The farmer was there first so he tries to make a u-turn with oncoming traffic coming.

He can't make it, so he has to back up ... right into the other truck that was also trying to make a u-turn. He hits the 2nd truck hard enough that I can see it rock when he hits it and when he pulls forward and I can see the damage done.

... and he leaves. Hit and run. 20-20 hindsight I should have pulled over and called 911. 20-20 hindsight I should have started recording when I saw what was going to happen. They were both making illegal U-turns with on-coming traffic, this was not likely to end well.

And the guy who was broke down, his front tire was flat and it looked like part of the front end broke in the process.

After all this, the issue at Loves, getting lost and traffic delay, BB has been waiting at the airport for about 45 minutes with no idea where I am or why I am late. And the first thing I say to her is ... 'it's been a good day for us.' We're late, but no serious issues.

When we get to the entrance of the IN toll road, the booth can't read my I-pass so I have to take a ticket. Then when we get to the end of the toll road later ... it does read my I-pass so I can't pay. No people, all computers so no one to talk to. No idea what I will be billed or when.

Oh, the rental car that we had to get for three days ... BB just returned it and their computer billed us for two days. IF we had know we were going to change plans like this, we could have cut off even more time and gotten it returned in one day.

At the first rest area / oasis we stop for food. Sbarro's pizza and ziti.

From here I call the drop, the sound glad their RV is coming.

(more later)

(Wednesday AM)

Chicago is slow, we loose at least another half hour. Later last night I see two messages that that section of freeway was completely closed both Monday and again Tuesday morning due to accidents. When we were there, BB could see on the GPS map where the accident was ahead of us, and the overhead signs said that the two right lanes were closed but we stayed in them ... and by the time we got to where the accident was, it was gone.

Quick stop at the Belvidere Oasis, it has been three plus hours since our last stop. Maybe we were delayed more than a half hour.

This time we didn't go for cheapest fuel. I've got an RV and I prefer to fuel with the cars when I have one. The best price for me for that is Loves and Dekorra was in the correct area. Before I ran out and close enough to the drop I should not have to stop again. I may need to stop near the drop and bring it up to delivery level. That's the plan, we can't drain any out so this is the better option.

Mauston. Recently when we were heading south we saw the miles long delays heading north. Today we are in that line. Another half hour lost, at least.

We want to stay somewhat on plan so we stop at the Double Nickle and eat. The Log Cabin Deli is already closed. Meatloaf is the special of the day so I'm good.

Back in the RV and driving down the freeway, I see a turkey flying out of the trees. If I hadn't hit the breaks, I would have hit it right on the windshield.

Another hour and we are at our hotel in Black River Falls. It is somewhere on the last leg of the day that we realize that we would not have enough legal hours to get home tonight. Something we had talked about, but never done the hours math on.

Turkey

HOS :)

Load board

US - 224

IA - 9/7

MN - 10

IA - 25

rental - 1