5/25/10

We start with Virginia.  Virginia had a pretty good performance today.  My route up I-95 to US-17 to I-66 to I-81 to VA-37 to US-522 was surprisingly easy and the SubWay was even open at 9:30am when I stopped at a little truck stop in Opal for a bite to eat.  We'll give Virginia a passing grade.

On into West Virginia.  Good old Goddamned West Virginia.  You know what I think about West Virginia, don't you?

Yeah, fail.  Epic fail, in fact.  In the last little hick town before Maryland, they had the road down to one lane.  There was some hayseed out there with his little stop/slow sign, directing each lane to proceed through the construction zone when it's turn came around.  Unfortunately for me, I was on the side of the road that was leading into town.  The southbound traffic was already in town, and was getting backed up through the intersection with the town's one stoplight.  So naturally Jethro and the gang had to give the southbound side more time to roll through and leave us on the northbound side sitting and waiting.  45 minutes.  Fail.

Maryland.  Yeah, we have to mention Maryland because it was technically part of the route.  Ten miles or so and that state was done.  Good enough.

Pennsylvania then.  Construction every twenty miles it seems like.  For all of the millions of dollars that people pay in tolls, that turnpike sure does have a hard time staying in proper condition.  We'll go ahead and give the trip across I-76 a passing grade though, if for no other reason than that the car traffic was light and the truck drivers did a decent job of proceeding in an orderly manner.

So... what comes after Pennsylvania?  Ahh yes, Ohio.  Remember this shit from a few days ago?  On that occasion, the asshats in charge of road construction had only screwed the eastbound side of the road by taking it from three lanes down to one.  Today they did the same thing to the westbound side.  Good times.  After I got through that three-mile jam in a half hour or so, I was back out on the open road and trying to calculate how far into Indiana I could make it tonight.  Cue more brake lights - now.  Some weisenheimer in a pickup truck had gone and flipped his camper trailer on its side.  One more time... three lanes down to one.  And the one open lane was stop and go while a wrecker tried to get the pickup back in the full upright and locked position.  I hate to break it to you Ohio, but we're not gonna be able to give you a passing grade on this trip.

The delays in West Virginia and Ohio sucked quite a few of the potential miles out of today's driving.  By the time I got past the accident, I only had enough time left to reach the Ohio/Indiana line.  That would have left me in a pretty crappy spot for tonight and still would have left a long day of driving for tomorrow, so I just stopped at the Petro outside Toledo instead.  A couple of friends drove down and took me out to dinner, so that was pretty good.  And the parking lot here is enormous so I was able to find a spot where nobody can park on my right.  Since my weight bench is on my passenger's seat and my weights are in the side box on the right of my truck, the Fenian Godfather Fitness Center was able to operate without any impediments.

I only covered 529 miles today by the time all was said and done.  This means that I'll have to knock out a little over 600 tomorrow.  I don't think I'll have any parking options in Minnesota, so I'll most likely end up camping out somewhere on the western edge of Wisconsin.  Then a ten hour break and some more early morning driving will get me into the Twin Cities area for Thursday's delivery.

Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin - pop quiz tomorrow.  You will be graded.