1/16/10

Sometimes it all just falls into place. I'm not a big enough NFL fan to get excited about games in which my Redskins won't be losing playing, but the playoffs are still fun in their own way. I was hopeful that I would find myself somewhere with a fast internet connection and a place to park by the time today's games began. And here I am.

After a quick hop over to the shipper this morning, I found that my pickup was a drop/hook and that my loaded trailer was waiting for me. Beauty. From Pittston I was headed to Gordonsville, Virginia. Nice and simple route, right? Head south and catch up with US-15, then ride it all the way to Gordonsville. Not so fast though. My Swedish buddy Sjoe once drove down US-15 from Maryland into Virginia. According to him, it was a good thing that he didn't pass any cops. Apparently the Virginians don't like vehicles longer than 65 feet or something. Sjoe says that he saw no legitimate reason for trucks not to take that route, but I decided to keep it legal today.

So I could either stay with freeways down past Baltimore and D.C. before angling across or I could take I-81 to I-66 and then make my way southward from there. Gee, I wonder which route sounded better. Boo! I-95. Boo! I caught US-17 southward from I-66 and then joined up with US-15 a few miles down the road. I'll have to take a circuitous route from here, rather than stay with US-15 the rest of the way, but it shouldn't be too bad.

In the lovely sounding town of Opal, I saw a big truck stop on the left. I was in the right lane though, and the truck stop looked pretty shitty, so I continued along. After a mile or so, I saw another truck stop on the left side of the road. This time the traffic was clear for me to move over, so I turned in and called it a day. In proving that all is right with the world, this second truck stop has a SubWay. I know. I know.

Assuming that I can get back to the southbound side of the road in the morning, I should have around 65 miles to go from here. In addition to their fetish regarding 65 foot long vehicles, the Virginians have a weird system of delineating their towns. My destination is a good 10-15 miles south of Gordonsville, right along I-64, but it's in Gordonsville by golly. Kinda like the Pilot truck stop in Greenville that's considered to be in Staunton or something like that. Whatever. I don't draw the maps. If it works for the locals, then it works for me. I'm just hopeful that, since I'll be taking off bright and early, I can catch a break in the traffic and get back onto southbound US-17/15/29 from here. That doesn't seem to be a sure thing at this point.

I don't suppose we'll be doing any cartwheels to celebrate the 1,894 miles this week, but at least the extra $60 or so in additional pay will help out some. I came into this winter expecting things to be similar to last year, so I can't pretend that I'm terribly disappointed. Believe the talking heads on TV if you want to. I have my own economic views and I'm not sold on any of what they say. Incidentally, for anyone interested in the topic, these guys have a few thoughts on what lies ahead for those of us who hold steering wheels for a living. Sounds pretty reasonable to me, so I guess you bankers out there need to hurry up and start running some of these deadbeats out of business.