Travels with Sasha Day 22

February 10 

I woke up early and was in the shower at 5 a.m. Everything is packed but the laptop. The morning writing is done and when I pull back the curtains, I see snow in the parking lot lights. Wait a minute! I hung out here two extra days to avoid snow. The forecast said rain. 

I finish up and am eager to get on the road. I take a couple of small bags out to the car. The doors are frozen and I have to give a tug to get them open. I start the vehicle to put on heat and defroster while I’m rearranging and things inside. I scrape the windshield and move the car to the covered drive up and bring a trolley to the fourth floor to load up the rest of my belongings. I’m all checked out and ready to go at 7:15 a.m. 

The temperature is 32 degrees and the weather helped in the decision of the route. No extra sightseeing today. I head up Rte. 17N. Traffic is heavy, but after awhile, when away from the city, the highway narrows and the traffic thins. This is the Virginia I love with the open rolling hills and farms. I take some photos… maybe I’ll do a book of Taken along the Highway. 

The driving isn’t bad. I catch I-66W to I-81N and cross the West Virginia border at 8:55 and cross the Potomac River into Maryland 20 minutes later. There are patches of snow in the fields now and the speed limit drops to 65 mph and it’s only 60 mph going through Hagerstown. The Pennsylvania border is crossed at 9:25. 

I love, love, love the farms along this route with their humongous fields and huge silos. Again, there is much open countryside, rolling hills, and interesting trees. (I need to find out the trees that have white and brown trunks and limbs. Usually the upper trunk and branches are white.) But sometimes the big trucks block my view. Awwww.  

There is more snow in the fields and now in the meridian. I-81N climbs and a couple of cities – Chambersburg, Harrisburg – are passed. The terrain becomes rockier. Three hours go by and I keep driving. My legs start to ache as the driving goes on and on with me picking up the camera occasionally to get a couple of shots. Sometimes my brain kind of zones out and I catch myself drifting. I yawn a lot and I’m on my second bottle of water. For some reason, I’m very thirsty today. 

The gas gauge drops. I push further and finally take a break for lunch when I reach Wilkes-Barre, exit 168. I saw a sign for Applebees, but decide on Red Robin. I’ve never eaten at a Red Robin. It advertises “gourmet burgers.” There’s a bar inside and TVs every few feet. Oh, my, God! Then there are little computer things on the table with more advertising. I hear a guy in the next booth talking about being able to play games on these things… for a price. Gosh, can’t people come in for a meal without TVs, computers, and cell phones? 

The burger is good and you can have all the fries you want. When I go to pay, the waitress says the credit card can be run on that computer on the table. I’m not sure how I feel about all that. While the burger was good, that would not be a place where I’d return. 

There are no gas stations near the restaurants. First I drive one way for a bit, then turn around and come back by the restaurants and stores. I find a Sheetz station at the bottom of the hill on another road. How confusing. The gas costs $2.39/gl. The most expensive I’ve seen all day. 

New billboards now have flashing advertisements. Personally, I think these should be illegal. It’s too easy to get distracted and not watch the road, especially the ones that advertise more than one product or event. Also, there were times when the flash made me jump thinking it was police or emergency vehicles. Some signs are very, very high. Again, I find these hard to read. When looking up that high, it’s hard to see the traffic around. I don’t get it. 

The speed limit on I-81N drops to 55 mph due to construction areas around Pittston and for miles further. Some vehicles never slow down even though there are signs threatening double fines for speeding in these zones. This makes the driving even more tedious. For some reason, I have a harder time keeping awake when moving slower and do a lot of wriggling in my seat. 

Scranton is reached and it’s up, around, down on I-380 and finally east on I-84. Hmm, I should have looked at the atlas to see how many exits. It’s easy to count down because it gives an idea how far  to go, but when the exit numbers go up, I have no idea how much further and I don’t remember the towns I traveled through on the way south.  

I thought I had another half to an hour more to go and am surprised when I see the sign for Metamoras, Pa., and Port Jervis, N.Y. I consider driving further, but a stop is needed anyway, so I may as well call it a day.

 

The woman at the desk isn’t the friendliest. Oh, I miss those southerners! This one could probably care less if I booked the room or not. She assigns Room 105 and I go check it out (and to use the facility). There’s a good-sized vanity in the bathroom, but the sink is at the same end as the toilet. That’s kind of yucky to have to squeeze beside the toilet to wash hand or, worse even, brush teeth! 

I get my things inside the room. I have to pull up on the door handle from the inside to get it to latch. Oh, I’ll definitely be double locking tonight. The TV is old style and there are not enough electrical outlets for this day and age. I unplug the coffee pot so I can plug in the laptop. The chair to this desk is not a swivel desk chair nor on rollers and it has a cigarette burn in the seat cushion (and this is a non-smoking room). 

One thing I do like is the burnt orange comforter on the bed. The spot of color is nice against the white sheets and the white snow bank outside the window.  

However, this price is the average I’ve been paying for rooms and this one if far less quality. I understand older and things getting run down, but to charge the same price as better quality places… Then again, there isn’t much else between here and home unless I want to drive a lot further (either direction).

But I did my goal today. Tomorrow I’ll arrive home.