Day 2, Stopped for the Night

I’m holed up tonight at a Comfort Inn in Martinsburg, WV. The lady at the West Virginia Welcome Center recommended it. This is much nicer than the Days Inn from last night and cheaper, too.  I’m on the second floor with a king size bed and there are no stains on the comforter and the place is cleaner. There is an Italian restaurant and a steak house nearby, but I’m too tired and it’s too cold to go back out.

I left the Days Inn at 9 a.m. this morning after brushing snow off the truck. It was 16 degrees. I stopped for gas at the bottom of the hill. It was a full serve station. I asked the man if he knew where to get a seat belt extender and he suggested Auto Zone, the first exit into PA. I couldn’t get the belt done up at all.

There was 13434.8 miles on the odometer when I crossed the PA line and the Delaware River. Auto Zone did not have what I wanted, nor did K-Mart further down. I found another auto parts store and they had one, but you need tools to install it at the bottom bracket of the unit. There was no way I could do that! However, without wearing a jacket or sweater, I managed to connect the belt across me. The biggest issue seems to be that I can’t see where to hook it in and I must be somehow turning it wrong. When it works, it snaps in easily. It’s tight and there’s no more room, but not horribly uncomfortable. The girl at the store told me her grandmother was given one by the Ford garage. No Ford garages around that area, though.

So after wasting an hour, I headed south. The weather was dreary and cold. The windshield kept filling with salt. I probably should have picked up some windshield washer fluid at one of the stores. The rate I’m going, the reservoirs must be about empty by now.

By 11:30, I had passed through Scranton and picked up 81S and drove past Wilkes-Barre. Attention had to be devoted to the road, though the traffic wasn’t that bad. The big trucks didn’t intimidate me at all. I was disappointed not to be able to really look around, but in some places, they had huge walls and you couldn’t see anyway. Then there were the passes through rock. Wow, the work that must have gone into making these highways.  I don’t even remember the cities. I was tired and hungry. Off to the right an old derelict factory caught my eye. Just the kind of place I like to photograph; caving in with most the windows gone.

I took the next exit. Oops, it was just an on ramp to another highway. That threw me for a loop, I got a little panicky and took the first exit off that. Ah, it took me right by that factory. I pulled over and got out. I had to go around to the passenger side to put on sweater and coat as it was only 12 degrees outside. There was a 10 foot tall black iron fence around the property. I stuck the camera through the bars to get some photos. I couldn’t get the manual focus to work. Something crunched when I turned the focus piece. Uh, oh. When my other lens messed up that’s what happened. Does this mean I’m going to have to give up on the Tamron lenses? This will be the third one that’s broken on me. At least it’s under warranty.

The faded sign to the property on one of the buildings said “Blue Coal Mining” or something like that. In a cleared area in front was a new sign saying “Future Site of Miners Memorial.” This must have been a coal mining facility. I’ll post photos in the morning. I know little about coal mining except that it must be a horrific job. Can you imagine going down in those mines?

I couldn’t find my way back to 81. Hey, getting lost is part of the adventure. Yes, I could have pulled my cell phone out and accessed GPS, but I didn’t. I finally stopped at a gas station and asked directions. In my getting lost, I ended back in Wilkes-Barre which worked out kind of nice because I’d seen some restaurants from the highway earlier and now I was going right by.

I pulled into a Perkins Family Restaurant. They serve breakfast all day. Even though it was 12:30 p.m., I ordered the special of three pancakes covered in strawberries and blackberries, two eggs, home fries, and two slices of bacon. The eggs were cooked perfectly. I don’t eat eggs that often because I like the over hard with the yolks broken and I can seldom get them that way. No, I couldn’t eat it all, but it was so good. Worth the stop.

Back on the highway, the speed limit fluctuated between 55 and 65. I tried to look around. It seemed like there were a lot of bare spots like trees had been cut or thinned. There was one big hill that was white with snow with the bare trees sticking straight up like a bunch of sticks on a white background. It looked really weird. Other places looked like the ground had been all dug up and messed up and just left. It made me feel uncomfortable seeing that. There were miles of this… ugliness. It seemed wrong and unnatural.

What’s amazing, though is that the highway is high, like it’s cut into the side of the mountains. When I did get a chance to look, the views to the side dropped way down into valleys and then up more mountains in the distance. One could see for miles and miles. And then the road goes up or around a corner and different vista is presented. Oh, to be able to stop, but there were no pull offs on this highway.

Then it was down, down, down and traffic ebbed and flowed. I kept looking at the thermometer in the truck waiting for the outside temperature to rise the further south I got. It got as low as 10 and as high as 20, but still very cold. About 20 miles before Harrisburg, the scenery changed to farmland; beautiful, huge farms with gigantic silos. Acres and acres of open country dotted with fences and home and barns. Some of the buildings were built from stone. Absolutely gorgeous country and I was busy traveling at 70 mph. I debated about stopping early for the night so I could explore some of these farms on the morrow, but it’s too cold. I want to get into a climate.

I passed into Maryland over the Potomoc River and continued on into West Virginia where I stopped at the Visitor Center at a rest stop. The woman suggested the Comfort Inn in Martinsburg and I took her offer.

So, I am in for the night. I wish I would take the time to stop more often and take more notes. There were things I wanted to mention and can’t remember now.