Buckeye Backroads

DATELINE: BECKLEY, WV, 7:45 p.m. EST

Miles Today: 430

Back at it once again. This morning I returned to my truck around 6:30 a.m., and this time only had an hour-long wait 'til my first load assignment of this deployment came in. I was to pick up a load in Old Fort (yes, that's an "o" in the second word, not another vowel), Ohio and take it to a Friday morning delivery in Greensboro, NC.

Now, Old Fort is off of county roads off of state highways, in the middle of nowhere. So I spent the majority of my work day driving the back roads of Ohio, first getting to O.F., then getting out of the Buckeye state. Once I found the proper turn-off to teh town (I missed it the first time and had to go all the way down to Tiffin to find a place to turn around; about a 40-minute delay) and made it to the company, things went OK. It was a drop-and-hook pickup, so I was in and outta' there in 30 minutes. Then came the long drive south on OH-53 and US-23 through Columbus to US-35, then southeast on 35 to eastbound I-64 in West Virginia. I picked up southbound I-77 in Charleston, WV, and have stopped for the night at a service plaza along the WV turnpike (a.k.a. I-77) at mile 45, near Beckley. I figure I have about 3 hours to drive from here to Greensboro, so I'll be up and rolling early in the morning in order to make my 9:30 a.m. delivery appointment.

As usual on my last night at home, I had lots to do, so I got to bed rather late. Then I was up early so Mrs. R.T. could drive me to my truck before heading to work herself. It's at least an hour round-trip for her, and she has to be at work by 7:30, so that made for a short night of sleep for both of us. Many thanks to the Mrs. As a result, I'm pretty tired right now and lookng forward to hitting the sack. So I'll bid you a fond "adieu" now. Thanks for looking in. Send me your questions and comments, and keep on truckin'.

PS: A note for future reference: I'm having trouble with my laptop's power cord, so the time may come when I can't get it to pass the juice to the laptop and the battery may run down. If that happens and I can't find a replacement while on the road, I may be silent on this blog for a while. At least 'til I get home next on 2/22. So don't freak out if you don't see any updates here for some period of time.