We deliberately drag our feet until 0930 but it’s not going to matter, it’s just going to be cold. The only good news is the wind has died down. It’s not howling from the north like yesterday. We have to run south on Highway 9 initially so we are only doing about 55mph and it gives us a chance to get used to the wind chill. It’s a completely different story when we reach Interstate 70 and head east in earnest. The speed limit is 70 but I hold it down to 65 because it’s just a little more comfortable on the temperature.
Our ultimate goal is Culpeper, Va., and we need to be there by early afternoon. Culpeper is 572 miles away and we need to gut out at least 400 to give us an easy ride on Friday morning.
We are just making miles today. We have all of our gear on and since the wind has died down, it’s cold but bearable. We both pull the headovers up to cover nose and mouth and settle in for a long day. Around noon we stop at a TA Truck Stop for fuel and a warm up. Soup and hot coffee does the job and when we get back on the Wing, the temperature is 51 degrees. A real heat wave. It does make the going a little easier but not by much.
I keep checking the temperature and it does creep up but 54 is as good as it gets. That brings the wind chill up to 33.5; we’d been running with wind chills below freezing all morning. This has not been fun. Marguerite has been keeping busy trying to keep busy and I’ve just tried to keep from getting run over by big trucks.
I-70 East or West, think big trucks, lots of big trucks all going as fast as they dare. The road is in bad need of repair. There are some sections that have been redone and a fine, but where it’s bad, it’s scary. The bumps are so severe they hurt our backs and snap our necks. By late afternoon we’ve no sense of humor left. We’ve left Ohio, passed across the neck of West Virginia and are twenty plus miles into Pennsylvania before we intersect I-79 and start heading south towards Morgantown.
We picked up a motel discount coupon book at a rest area, and looking through it discover the opportunities are slim, very slim. It’s 5 o’clock, we’ve come about 380 bone chilling miles, I’ve had it and so has Marguerite. We need fuel, so I make a command decision, next town, gas and motel, we quit for the day, no matter what. By 17:30 ( 5:30 PM) we are checked into a Microtel for the modest fee of $95.00, the Wing is on its stand and Marguerite and I are both to tired and cold to be ticked off because we had to pay such a ridiculous price for a motel.
The weather for tomorrow may be a little better but for now all we want is a really hot shower and a warm room. We will worry about tomorrow when it comes.
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