Daily Summary for 4/15/2025

Little Chute, WI to Melrose Park, IL to BRS HQ Belvidere, IL

Big Rig Travels Tuesday began at 9:45 am.  It was 40 degrees and partly cloudy near Little Chute, WI.  Steve had picked up the load and was back at the truck stop where he had spent the night, Bobtail Bob, near the retro McDonalds.  “Alright, let’s do our paperwork.”  We are beginning our trip to Melrose Park, IL.  Steve began talking to Zelda, “Oh hush, I think I can drive, maybe.”  “Still windy today, very windy yesterday and we were empty.  Now that we are loaded, it will be a little easier to deal with.”

A sign spotted near Slinger, WI by BigRIgSteve at 11:10 am, “Never blame others for the road that you are on.  It’s your own asphalt…that’s actually pretty good.” 

A slow down due to construction, reducing lanes for bridge work on I-41 near Milwaukee at 11:27 pm. 

Love’s stop near Oak Creek, WI at 12:02 pm.  Fuel for the Blue Comet.  As Steve got out of the truck, “all this wind is making the allergies kick up.  Brrr it’s cold.”  It is 47 degrees and party sunny.  “Man, one day the wind is going to just tear the door off its hinge.”  As we left the Love’s, “so we got 72 miles to go to the receiver” at 12:24 pm.

Welcome to Illinois at 12:50 pm near Wadsworth. 

Another slow down due to construction on I-294 near Elmhurst, IL at 1:39 pm.  BRS advised, “they’ve been working on this are for <a long time>”. 

Near North Lake, IL at 1:46 pm, “maybe one day they fix all this big mess.”  

“Hey how you guys doing? We are almost there, we are almost ready for delivery. A live unload at 3:45 pm”

Arrival at the receiver near Melrose Park, IL to check in at 2:00 pm.  “Alright, let’s do our delivery.”  Recording ends.

At 8:22 pm, it was 51 degrees and dark.   Recording begins at the receiver in Franklin Park, IL.  “Need to find nighttime glasses.”  Camera is in the nighttime setting/view.  BRS needs to check out the trailer to make sure it’s empty, prior to starting our dead head trip to “off time” at BRT HQ in Belvidere, IL.  As we are mobilizing to leave,  Steve notes, “4 hrs and 32 minutes to do whatever we are going to do.”  Steve advised, “had started our day late as we knew they would take a long time to unload us.”

At 8:30 pm, Steve explained what happened between the end of the last recording and now.  He then has some good info to help trucking to be better.  Steve then advises, “I’m off the soap box” at 8:38 pm.

“Whole lot less traffic at this hour, this is a whole lot better.”  He had noted earlier how bad the traffic was on the way too the receiver.

Love’s stop near Hampshire, IL at 9:27 pm.  “We got to get our customary drive home final cup of coffee…get home, get beat up by the puppy dogs and go to bed.” “Some creative parking going on at Love’s, look at this.  You can’t even get in the main parking lot.”  As Steve gets out of the truck to get coffee, he is instantly greeted by a hitchhiker carrying two bags of belongings asking Steve where are you going?  Steve responds, “I’m going home.”  After returning to the truck, he advises we are 17 gallons from gold, that we are going to need to pick up more gallons when we return if we are going to make platinum status for May.  Also noted, freight has been weird for a couple of years now. 

Backroads to Belvidere as we take the Grant Hwy, US20. 

Steve points out “Marengo!” at 9:49 pm.  That leads into story time about a historical marker in Idaho, “The rock”. 

Then, “Welcome to Garden Prairie” at 10:00 pm.

“Welcome back to World Headquarters…Belvidere”.  At 10:12 pm, Steve advises that he will be doing a special broadcast during time off, as the bobbleheads should have arrived.  “Thanks for hanging out with me, I will see you soon.”

 

Numbers:  0 miles to receiver/shipper.  We covered ??? miles rolling out of Wisconsin and into Illinois

Clocks: Back to the house for off time.  Fresh 70 hour when Steve returns.

No alarm clock ⏰ tomorrow.   

Choose the BRT YouTube channel alarm bell to receive notifications for the start of our broadcast. Check out Bigrigtravels Road Crew facebook page to see pictures captured from other road crew.

Another good day for Big Rig Travels.

Welcome to Illinois

Please post comments anything of importance or interest of today’s trip that was not included or feedback for Steve about todays broadcast. 

Yes, if you have missed today you can replay some or all of today’s trip. Choose the YouTube channel icon at the bottom of the page on Bigrigtravels website and while you’re at the website check out the BRT store for BRT merchandise.