Lucky (?) 7

DATELINE: BLOOMSBURG, PA, 7:15 p.m. EST

Miles Today: 466

My, what a long day. I know, they're all long (well, most of 'em), but some just seem longer than others for whatever reason. I'm sure today seemed extra lenghty because of the amount of time I spent driving on highway US-7, most of it two-lanes passing through town after town with much-reduced speed limits. But let me tell the whole story.

I got up at 4:30 this morning so I could drive the remaining 80-to-90 miles to my pickup and get there by my 7:00 appointment. I was rolling at 5:00, and spent the first two of my hours on "7", southbound along the western side of Vermont. The sun was well up by the time I reached the company in Florence, VT, so finding it was easy enough, despite it being down a couple of back roads. (The near-prominent signs along the road and Mapquesting the place last night helped a whole lot.)

The pickup was a drop-and-hook, so it went nice 'n quick with minimal human intervention. You remember my problems earlier with sliding the tandem axles on older trailers? Well, when I dropped the empty this morning, I had to slide the tandems to the back per the company's instructions. The space I parked the trailer in was mostly a thick sheet of smooth ice, so all 8 of the trailer's tires were on that surface. But the tandems slid--and the tires didn't--with nary a problem. Yes, it was a newer trailer, though not one of the absolute newest. But I was happy to have that struggle averted.

The tandems on the trailer I picked up slid into place right away, too, though I did that operation on a gravel surface instead of the ice. Anyway, I was in and out of that pickup in 30 minutes. Then it was back to southbound 7 for what seemed and interminable amount of time.

My plan was to take 7 down into MA and pick up westbound I-90 when I came across it. It seemed like a good plan when I plotted the route (Florence to Milwaukee) on the US map. However, I should have consulted the MA state map to ensure that 90 was accessible from 7. Well, it was, but via a couple other state highways. There is no direct access from US-7 to I-90. Grrrrrr! So I skipped to Plan B, which was to stay on 7 all the way down into CT, where I could grab I-84. Had I been able to take 90, I would have wound up on 84 eventually, anyway, to work my way into PA from NY. So I really wasn't going out of my way at all. It's just that the Interstates would have been much faster, even if a tad longer mileage-wise.

All-in-all, my entire journey on US-7 took about 7 hours; 2 pre-pickup, 5 post. Boy was I getting tired of that slog by the time I got to 84 and could finally let 'er rip, put the pedal to the metal, fly like the wind, make tracks, etc. What also added to how long the day felt was the realization when I hit 84 that I still had 4 more hours to drive today. Oy!

Don't get me wrong, the scenery along US-7 was very nice: hilly; a good look at "real" America; rivers and streams, many with roiling rapids; and the like. It would make a nice route on a vacation trip. But on the job with a L-O-N-G trip to make in 2 days, I really did have to be making good time, and that road just did not accommodate that.

Back to finishing up the day. It was good to finally be making headway on the Interstates, but even that was tempered somewhat. I have another very heavy load (44,000+ pounds), so the hilly terrain on my route slowed me down as well. I reached the TA at this town (where I've been twice before) with about 15 minutes to spare on my 11 driving hours for the day. So the route challenges are why, despite all the time behind the wheel, I only managed 466 miles today. But hey, today was a 5-state day! (VT, MA, CT, NY, and PA.) I can't think of any other 5-state days I've had anytime recently. (And I'm too tired to go back through my records looking for one.) I know I have had several, or perhaps many, 4-state days. I guess it helps if MA and CT are among them.

Across the street from this TA is a run-down mall, but a bunch of restaurants and fast food outlets ring the mall's grounds. Among them is a Quaker Steak and Lube establishment, a sports bar with a NASCAR theme. I visited the place on my first stop here last summer, and after today's drive I really felt like appeasing my frustrations with some of their wings and a beer. It's about a 10-minute walk over to the place, and the weather wasn't too bad at all--not too cold, not too windy--despite being February in PA. So I did. The wings (I went with the medium-spicy "Golden Garlic" sauce) and bacon cheese fries combo along with a cold Bass Ale really hit the spot. I don't ever drink alcohol when I'm out on the road, and I probably won't again, but sometimes you just gotta' say, "What the ****". (See Tom Cruise's "Risky Business" for the proper quote if you don't know it already.)

That's all for today, folks; time to step outside and see if the lunar eclipse is visible. Thanks for dropping by. I have another long haul for tomorrow, so I'll be up and at 'em early again in the morning. Check back to see how far I get. Maybe I can shoot for a personal daily distance record--but with all of the mountains to climb here in PA, that may be a long shot. Drop me a line, and keep right on truckin'.