2 RV's to 1,000 Oaks CA

... spending the night at Barstow CA

Less than two hours to go in the AM.

Breakfast, good food but. I had to find the staff to ask for serving utensils. When they brought them out, I said thank you but got no relay. Other than that one person, everyone else on the PM and AM staff would say something every time we walked past the desk.

Eggs, bacon, hash, apple somethings. We had an apple something and BB commented that it was warmer than the eggs. Good, whatever kind of pastry it was.

Sun is just coming up over the hills as we are getting up. Not much for bright colors this AM, a better picture would have been behind us as the sun was first hitting the hills.

This hotel has about half the entry area filled with military / purple heart memorabilia. On the walls, on tables, on display shelves.

Our first stop is 10 miles down the road at an off-brand truck stop. Fuel there is $.70 less than across the street at the other truck stops. Interesting place. I don't remember what it was called the first time I saw it. I asked today and they gave a list of fuel brands but they didn't think it was every a chain truckstop.

But it is full sized. Gas pumps, diesel pumps, store, restaurant, shop. It is now the Greyhound stop for this town. ??? All but one of it's diesel pumps were down today and blocked off with barriers so I'm guessing it wasn't just today. But the place was packed with trucks. Some of the off-brand places are ghost towns. This one had all the shelves stocked, I'm guessing it is doing OK.

AZ scale was closed today. Two decks of trucks that were at our hotel this AM were sitting at the scale. I'm guessing they needed to get their permits. There was one car at the scale office so they may have been open for that.

We did see two more buses this AM, one had no lettering and the other one BB and I could not agree on what it said. But buses are moving.

The TA in Holbrook is our next stop. Popeyes is not open yet but for us it was just a quick restroom break.

Within a few miles we can see Mt Flagstaff. A little hazy but clear enough for that. At that point we are still 90 miles from the base of the mountain.

Next stop is the Maverick in Williams. We stopped there because fuel was cheaper than the Loves. Today the off brand fuel has been cheaper than the truck stops even with the discount we get with our carrier.

But we have plenty of fuel so we park and eat. Shelf food. While we are eating, looking out the window of the station we notice that there is a man with a camper at one of the pumps. He may have fueled before we got there, but as we watch ... he exchanges propane tanks, walks his dog, wonders around and was still at the pump when we left a half hour later. And this is a busy place, all pumps being used all the time.

Another 100 miles down the road and we are at the Loves in Kingman. From here we MAY get to the drop without fueling again. Busy place here also. We finally pick a pump and have to wait. We watched another pump which was empty a lot and had a few quick users, but we were going to move once we were in line.

Today there were people at the fruit inspection station. One quick question and we were on our way.

Stopped at the rest area near Essex for a quick break. From here BB made our reservation.

We did see two more buses being transported. These were being hauled so most likely electric buses.

The Quality Inn in Barstow is half the price of the Comfort Inn tonight so we saved the money. We have likely stayed at each a dozen plus times. This one has an on-site restaurant so that is where we ate. BB commented a few times how good this food was. And tomorrow, if I remember correctly, we get made to order breakfast with our hotel stay.

I did check in on the field situation and still too cold this week. 40 there today, 90+ here today. It does look like we missed out on seeing the northern lights last night :(

1st stop - NKS for fuel in Gallup

2nd - TA Express in Holbrook for restrooms

3rd - Maverick in Williams for shelf food

4th - Loves in Kingman for fuel

5th - rest area near Essex

6th - Quality Inn in Barstow

7th - Mexican restaurant in Barstow in Quality Inn

Load board

US - 176

IA - 6/4

MN - 6

WI - 17

Tomorrow we have two plus hours to the drop so one stop. Then it is another six hours up to the bus shipper. I was watching my hours of service because we have already been working every day for over two weeks. But I won't run short on hours until this weekend ... and if we are still working this weekend we will likely need to shut down to wait for the drop to open on Monday. So not an issue.

The bus dispatcher also moves tree trucks. And we can see those on the load board and he still has some ... going to Oregon. I'm guessing we will take it if that is all there is or all that is offered. 600 more paid miles and then the rental car is $200 cheaper home than out of CA. Unless we keep our car from the drop. That is the cheapest being another $100 less than the one out of OR. Not sure if BB will keep that one and follow for the 500 miles?