Trip #14: Ottawa, IL to Littleton, CO

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I awoke sweaty and tired in the middle of the night after having gone to sleep in more moderate conditions. Apparently a weather front had passed through during my slumber bringing heat and humidity. Having no other choice, I idled the truck and went back to bed for a few more hours.

Once I got up for real it was an easy hour's drive down to Ottawa, Illinois and the Petsmart DC. Unfortunately, my load wasn't ready yet because they were still loading fish aboard. I thought they would be in some super cool space age mobile aquariums or something, but it turns out they are just bagged up and put in boxes. Sucks to be a fish I guess.

The reefer unit was set to -10 degrees, so once I turned it on I changed it up to a balmy 76 as is required for these kinds of loads. Otherwise all the stores would receive was frozen fish sticks.

The Iowa-80 truck stop in Walcott, Iowa drew me in yet again and I spent 80 dollars on stuff to get my CB working in the new truck and a Sirius satellite gizmo. My truck had XM radio built in to the original receiver but I got very tired of their programming during my stint at CFI, as XM radio was a freebie for all the drivers.

During my trip to our Omaha yard the word came down that the price of fuel was going up there by 12 cents tomorrow, so fuel accordingly. Accordingly, I topped off my tanks tonight to save almost 20 bucks. My current load weighs in at 40,000 lbs, with half of it going to Lincoln, Nebraska tomorrow morning and the other half in Colorado the following morning. Truck MPG was 7.4, according to the computer.

I brought my truck in to the ThermoKing folks and was told they need it for an entire day. This after they consulted with their HQ about my problem and concluded that the only fix was to replace the head gasket or some such. Someday...