1 RV to Ramsey MN (delivered)

1 trash truck to South Sioux City NE

... spending the night at Worthington MN

Breakfast is eaten and we are ready to roll at 7:30. It is raining, raining enough that I pull the RV around under their entry to go in and check out. Hadn't thought of doing that for BB and our luggage.

Snowing again just a few miles north of us. It rains pretty hard for the first hour, then only light rain the 2nd hour and then mostly dry once we are in MN.

MN scale is open so I have to cross it. Some guy ahead of me decided to take the exit instead of crossing the scale and then once off the freeway, each truck gets a light on where to go. The trucks ahead of me had to cross the scale, but I got the bypass ... at the last second, the truck ahead of me sees the bypass light and cuts his tires. Pretty sure he knew that wasn't for him, but no one chanced either of them down as far as I know.

It's been over two hours so we stop at the rest area in MN.

Then 15 minutes later we are at the rental car place. I drop BB off and wait for her call. They do have a car so I'm gone. We are past the end of rush hour so clear sailing to the drop. Much easier than coming in directly from the south into all the road construction. Today was easy.

I need to deliver with 1/4th tank of fuel and that is what I am at, but I stop at the nearby Holiday and put in one more gallon. I don't want the gauge to drop below 1/4th before they check it in. By the time I am backing into a parking spot, BB is there. I need to get my paperwork in order for the drop so BB gets all of our luggage into our rental car.

A few blocks away and we are at the drop. It is across the street from the one I dropped about a week ago. They are happy to see me. I give them the paperwork and go and wait in the car. It takes them most of an hour.

There is one customer there that I talked to a couple of times. About RV's, about what I do for a living and about scammers. He got a scam call while we were sitting there.

This place wrote up a lot of issues but wrote 'none' under driver damage so I am good. I hadn't dealt with this dispatch office or shipper before so I call to make sure I'm doing everything correct.

BB didn't come into this shop with me so our next stop is back at the Holiday. I call the trash truck dispatcher and have to leave a message.

From there we drove a few miles, three miles, but it takes a half hour because of the road construction. We stop in Anoka to get to-go food from Chik-fil-A. We go inside hopping it is faster. Good food. I got a sandwich today, easier to eat in the car. I usually get nuggets and dip but that can be messy.

By now dispatch has called me back and I have a trip heading to NE. There are three and they would like me to do all three but I don't commit this far ahead of time. There had been a rental truck this AM that would have gone great with this trip but it was gone the 2nd time we checked this AM. :( Not this trip is not going to pay nearly as well.

An hour and a half later we are at the dispatch office, my paperwork is not in the box yet so I need to call again. Once I do get it and walk back to my car, the car is locked and I notice someone is now parked behind it ... and the person is smiling at me. BB. :) I am trying to get in the wrong car.

Hmmm ... both of my carriers had had two lock boxes for truck keys. Now my local carrier is back to one. Things not going well since they lost the last dispatcher? One box is empty so they haven't added a new carrier yet. I do see the carrier that the driver I talked to in Dayton works for, they do have box here.

My long haul carrier had a full box, this box has <> 20 keys in it today. I don't look at the 2nd box.

Inspection takes about a half hour. BB finds it almost right away. Before we leave we decide to get as far as Worthington. We would have to go all the way to Sioux City to get to cheaper hotels. Paying for both the rental car and a high priced hotel means we are not going to make a lot on this trip.

It rains most of the way to Worthington. I have the radio on a local station for a while and they are saying possible snow again this weekend ...

BB pulls into the hotel as soon as I am parked. This hotel has drinks and snacks on weeknights. That is what we end up eating for supper. Chips, dips and olives. BB also has carrots and celery. Cheap, but not great.

I did get paid for the fuel I had over filled :) and the DEF I thought I was short had also been paid so money issues are all OK.

1st stop - West Lakeland at the MN rest area

2nd / non-stop was in Landfall to pick up a rental car

3rd - Holiday in Ramsey

4th - drop in Ramsey

5th - Holiday in Ramsey

6th - Chic-fil-A in Anoka

7th - Dodge Center office and shipper

8th - Comfort Inn in Worthington

Loadboard

US - 217

IA - 8/7

MN - 14

WI - 25

The only rental truck close is going to LA, the state. I did call on three trucks in WI going down to STL but they are paying about half of the other trips we are doing so not worth doing for us.

Tomorrow we have about two more hours to the drop. Then about three hours to our personal car and another two plus hours back to the rental. We should get the rental dropped off before they close. We had thought we would be using it longer when there was more work on the load board.

If the load board stays, we will likely to another MN to IA trip on Friday before heading out again over the weekend.