Big Rig Steve ended today at the receiver  in Marengo, Ohio and is safely parked for the night after unloading.

Today was the birthday for Big Rig Travels we began our 16^th year. Today also is the one year anniversary for our truck the Blue Comet which Steve earned by completing 1 million miles of driving. Yes, we are now getting closer now to 2 million miles. Steve original plan was only to be truck driver for 1 million miles.

Happy Birthday BRT! 15 years ago Big Rig Travels was formulated at BRS kitchen table. Steve advised  “16 years of bringing America to your arm chair”

Steve started the day in Gary, Indiana 8:10 CST after the trailer repairs were finally completed. Yesterday’s down time helped give BRS time to work on various projects while he was waiting all day.  Besides, there were no other trips so we had to stay with this one.

We needed coffee so we stopped at the TA at 8:30 CST and another record was set. What would that record be? The highest amount that Steve has ever paid for coffee “$2.88 and were not talking Starbucks coffee we are talking TA truck stop coffee! “  

10:50 CST We rolled into the Loves in Plymouth, Indiana for a fuel stop. Yes, coffee was also acquired.

 At approximately 11:06 CST Steve reminisced  about the history of Big Rig Travels and how it started in 2008 on a company called Cam Streams from over in England (Moderator John259’s home country) with a 320 x 320 viewing box for up to ten viewers at a time. Then we went to 100 people at time. Next we moved to U Stream  and progressed to Veatle (I am not sure of correct spelling ) which went out of business after six months. So back to U Stream. When You tube allowed broadcasting longer than 15 minutes we began with You tube. In 2016 we had the automatic options added. You will have to listen to the stream to find out what other surprises will becoming in 2023.  I recommend  watching the play back if you missed the history and those that have helped make BRT what it is today. There is even a tease about what we will see when RV Steve happens.  Steve has kept the promise that he gave from the start “that we will always be free to watch”. Steve will do exactly what we’re doing whether 5 people or 5 million people are watching. The Viewers are most important part of the BRT success.

After being honked at after entering Ohio at 13:02 EST and parking at a rest stop in Convoy, Ohio, we learned that we did not have any tire issues, but that another driver had been greeting BRS. We also had a run down by Steve on all those that had purchased Steve a coffee on the website during the most recent drive. Steve said I am the only un-cool driver. (you need to watch the stream to find out what that was about).

At 13:44 EST a meet up occurred in Lima, Ohio were Steve met up with Semi Ernie another YouTube driver. Steve and Ernie exchanged medallions. Whoop whoop!  We got us  a medallion from another truck driver Semi Ernie. Twitter subscribers to BigRigSteve received the image of the meet up and the new medallion  that BRS tweeted later in the day.

Steve left us off prior to arrival to the receiver, so no numbers were addressed today, but we did start with fresh 70 hour clock this morning after a 34+hr wait for the trailer repairs yesterday. We completed the advertised trip, 332 miles 531 km. We will drag our empty back the same trek to Joliet Illinois tomorrow morning.

Please take the time and comment a Happy 15^th Birthday Greeting to Big Rig Travels as Steve would enjoy hearing well wishes from the BRT Road Crew.

Big Rig Steve started the day in Lincoln Illinois. Started rolling 9:00am CST up I-55 and then I-155  to Peoria IL, yes the former home of the Spirit of Peoria.

Yes, Spirit is History but you can get your very own greeting cards with professional image of the Spirit  by our own tour guide Big Rig Steve at the store on the website Bigrigtravels.com and Calendars are 50% off while they last.

  As we rolled out of Peoria on two lane backroads 10:10 CST we came across a parked vehicle on a gravel road of to the right. Waving out the window of that said parked vehicle was believed to be our very own Road Crew member Peggy Perk as the Blue Comet went past we greeted with the big air horn and waves from the 600 plus crew riding with along  with Aunt J and Steve.

We arrived at Sterling IL ahead of our appointment time so a mini watch party started Steve answered chat questions while waiting for the 12:15 CST to enter the receiver for the live off load.

Delivery completed, Steve rolled on at 15:29 CST headed to Rochelle IL Loves  to fuel up the trailer refer tank. Steve asked a trivia question “what is Big Rig Steve’s favorite coffee of choice” (or something close to that). Wait …Wait for it, yes answer was Southern Pecan which BRT has a bag in the truck at all times. As Steve climbed back in the Blue Comet a big “BRRR” (yes we are not in the south anymore) and checked off his acquired Coffee, Oreos and Hot dogs.  We then worked our way over to I-39 and few miles up stopped at the Blue Beacon for trailer wash out. As we pulled in, the line was as far out as one could see… oh no. Luckily two wash bay lines and we strolled up like we owned the streaking beacon in the open lane to the trailer “wash out only” bay. Another question/answer session broke out during the washout. Which included history lesson how Steve in younger times would write out invisible messages on paper with lemon juice. Yes BRTRC  Wally 3 USAFWR chimed in that he was up on this way of communication. You have to watch the stream play back to find out how one would read the message.

Next stop was the Loves in Monroe Center IL at 17:39 where we caught some beautiful sky as we went in for a splash of truck fuel. Yep afterwards we were down to 401 gallons away from attaining March Gold status for a new short month of February in which we are collecting our Diamond status bonus now all this month. Woo Hoo.

As far as Numbers – None of the Clocks count as we are going to time off and a full 70 hour reset. Traveled  in Illinois today approximately 191 miles 307 km including delivery and preparation of the trailer for next trip.

 Big Rig Steve ended the broadcast today at the home of the BRT Headquarters in Belvidere IL. An few miles prior to arriving at BRT HQ Steve asked everyone to start gathering up each ones stuff in the truck.  As we all know Aunt J was not cleaning up after herself much less 769 road crew in the truck. BRS noted his very best friend Germany Jens on his YouTube would enjoy any of the crew watching him during BRT time off. As we arrived at the BRT HQ parking same as always when we reach time off  Steve address us  “ take care you all ! ”  January 2023 season comes to an end.

BRT will return on February 6^th  you can watch the status bar on the web site starting Monday  to see when we start, which all depends on where our trip loads as to when we would go live.

See you Road Crew when we roll again next week.

 Big Rig Steve officially ended the day safely parked at the drop yard at 17:20 CST. As Steve arrived at the drop yard, he said “welcome back to truck driving”. I was waiting for Steve to say his negative ”yay”!

 BRS title for today’s summary “Whole wasted day”.  As Trish S posted on BRT chat , “summed up the day Ric-Rac, you will have an interesting summary today. Nothing but trouble.”

 We started first day of season two for 2023 at BRT world headquarters Belvidere Illinois at 10:00 CST from our usual location. Nope, BRS did not call in sick today, we started rolling.  BRT RC member Super Caitlin 1 posted on BRT chat that it was her third year anniversary today of watching Big Rig Travels. Today, we were also lucky and blessed to have the presence of our moderator Gossamer 86 back to greet BRT RC members as each entered the BRT YouTube Chat. As we rolled down I-90 towards the windy city (BRS noted it was windy on the road) of Chicago, Steve discussed what had occurred during this time off, which included completing another product review to be released soon. Steve also informed us that Orangey and Stitch were both wanting his attention as they sensed he was leaving again. BRS also noted that he had purchased a new vacuum pressurized, rotating tumbling marinator that he would do a review on in the future for us. “Boy that worked nice!” As we continued on, chat was busy with many of the road crew asking common questions that kept moderators and RC busy answering, many of which the answers are available on the Bigrigtravels.com  website in the ?FAQs tab. We rode in silence for quite some time until we reached Elgin at 10:38 CST. Steve inquired as to which route we should take through the big city. Yes you’ll have to watch the stream playback to find out our route. (Clue: The view looked brilliant).  10:56 CST a story broke out about off time, which never goes by without a trip to the Costco.

 Steve left us to go into the drop yard to pick up preloaded trailer. Sometime later Steve posted on Twitter, “so we searched all over for the loaded trailer we were supposed to deliver at 3:00 PM, finally found it in the shop. The reefer is bad, the brakes need to be replaced, the driver that dropped it didn’t tell anyone. The yard dog found the conditions during a routine yard check.”   At 14:30 CST, BRT was back on the air leaving Gary for a new trip. Yes, we were headed to pickup next trip after the first trip Steve advised “Oh my, this morning was just a practice.” Trip to Gary was fun though.  Twitter subscribers to BRT knew exactly what was going on from Steve’s post while he was in the yard sorting out his next move. The previous trip’s preloaded trailer was left in the shop for obvious reasons. So we dead headed on with our original empty trailer to Joliet.  Drop and hook proceeded. Yes, another preloaded trailer with troubles was acquired.

16:07 CST BRS arrived at the Pilot in Gary to fill the refer fuel tank that was empty and the refer had not been running. Oh no. Tank was filled, the refer was put into startup mode while Steve went in for well-earned coffee. Nope, error code popped up on start-up, yes Houston, we have a problem. 16:51 CST Steve advised that this was the third trip in a row with a trailer issue. Yes, first one was the trailer we picked up last week in Murfreesboro Tn that we had to wait on for repairs. (Yes the same trailer that we just left in Joliet).  16:50 CST Steve’s summary of how the day has gone occurred. With all the issues, Steve advised that we are headed back to the yard to get the repairs completed for our new problems. Steve noted we are not taking any chances, experienced drivers put safety first. As usual,  Steve rolled with what he was dealt, calm and collected works out the best solution. A night at the company yard.

Numbers for first day back: Approximately  192 miles 307 km covered today. Clocks we started the day with: 70 hours on 70hr clock . Estimate we used approximately 7:20 minutes of on duty time. Steve will update tomorrow to exact hours left as we did not go over any numbers today.

Welcome Crew Back to the road and to Indiana to start season two.

BigRigSteve officially done for the day 17:44 CST safely parked with only :46 minutes left on 70 hour clock.🕰️ .

Yes, we arrived in Lincoln Illinois! which was posted by John 259 on BRT discord channel earlier in the day. **The Grand Where Will Steve Stop Tonight competition for Tuesday 31-Jan-23** Casey: Lincoln, Illinois. Yes, indeed today’s BRT RC member chose correctly.

BRS started the broadcast day at 7:55am CST after he had picked up the preloaded “old” trailer at the shipper in Murfreesboro, TN with the repairs completed.

We started up I-24 heading north smooth sailing until 9:30 CST as predicted by @Essemm on BRT discord posted, ” this is looking very bad”☹️😱 we ran into traffic backed up near Clarksville, Tennessee. Steve witnessed a questionable move by one SUV to try to switch to south bound side to get out of the stoppage by an attempt to drive through the ice covered median grassy area and ended up stuck spinning tires in the middle of that mess. Yes Steve advised that law enforcement was stopping to offer congratulatory greeting to them. BRS also educated us on how to safety drive in the icy wintery conditions. 

9:55 am CST we were welcomed by the Kentucky State sign and soon after, another slow down. BRS stretched his coffee as he noted that he cannot make coffee in the Blue Comet while driving and even with all the training Aunt J still has not grasped the task of how to brew coffee.

BRS at 10:11 CST noted the guy that writes the daily summaries on the blog. Steve really enjoys reading them every evening even though Steve has already lived it! Woohoo! Steve does love saying “Mankato !“

BRS continue with story about school and all the words. 25 words each day Monday, Tuesday ,Wednesday and Thursday, then Friday was a test ! Out of those 100 💯 words the teacher would pick twenty words we had to use in a sentence and spell em correctly. The most educational class to Steve ever. This brought us to the Calvert City, KY for a much needed stop at Love’s at 11:54 CST. Steve advised at the current rate we would end up with 100 miles to go at the end of the day, so the bosses advised that we don’t need to push if conditions are not allowing us, they will gladly reschedule delivery.

At 12:24 CST a big rig passed us on the left. BRS noted the front bumper was dragging (no it was not the same truck we had passed yesterday). At 12:39 CST we rolled through Paducah, KY, home of the High Point Band. Yes, they wrote the BRS song. Shortly after, a sign then welcomed us back to Illinois as we crossed the Ohio River, while a Menards truck passed us and the singing commenced by our tour guide “Save BIG money at Menards!” commercial jingle rang out.

We continued on north to the home of Superman, yes, Metropolis. The question arose “Should we request help to make delivery on time?”

At 15:00 CST, at New Baden, IL, our 30 minute break was taken at the Loves. The low coolant warning light issue for the refer was discussed. Steve noted, he does not have a 15 foot ladder on the truck to resolve the issue. We did a drive through at 16:34 CST, Litchfield, IL a mass (weigh) station, due to no beep, no green, no red we went through. No mass was taken. Delivery is delayed until 1300 CST tomorrow

Numbers for the day: only thing addressed is :46 minutes on the 70 hour clock. We gain 9 hours tomorrow.

Watch the snowman and the website status bar on www.bigrigtravels.com website for updates. No alarm clock tomorrow morning

Welcome back to Illinois!