So, we left home this morning and drove to Osage Beach, MO to pick up a couple of dirt bikes going to Massachusetts. As we went through Camdenton and Lake Ozark, I couldn't help but think of how much nicer it is driving through there when it's 'off season'. Not that we don't love our tourists, but try driving a truck and trailer through Hwy. 54 between Memorial Day and Labor Day! Speaking of Lake O, my very good friend, J, emailed me from Iraq ~ he should be home about the time Party Cove is in full swing. Everybody should visit Party Cove at least once in their lifetime.
We made it across St. Louis today without any problems. Traffic was actully pretty light, for St. Louis ~ we were on the 270 loop north of the city, and I think traffic is generally a little lighter there than on the south side of the city, where all the interstates run through. We made it to Effingham, IL around 3:30 or 4:00 and stopped to get gas at Flying J, then to eat at Ponderosa ~ for my blog on Ponderosa, click here. If you would like to know what is healthier to eat while dining out, click for Part 1 of that blog here; and Part 2 of that blog here. I'm planning on getting fast food restaurants done in the next week or so ~ that's the plan anyway.
We had a little incident going across Indiana. If you read my blog, you know the truck has been acting up. (Oh, and speaking of that ~ we got fuel in a farming community with 50/50 fuel and the truck ran GREAT ~ so, I called and asked what 50/50 meant??? For there anyway, they mix No 1 and No 2 diesel because the farmers use it in there vehicles and farm equipment, and can't take the chance of getting gelled up on a cold morning. Once that tank of fuel was gone, the truck went back to running rough. So.....off road diesel makes the truck run better???? Okay, Powerstoke 6.0 gurus, what's up with that???) So, anyway, the truck cuts out and carries on and acts like it's going to die if the RPMs go down ~ and once the truck gets it 'coughed out' (cause that's what it feels like it's doing), it throws black/gray smoke everywhere, and once it gets through all that, it runs fine again. WELL, there was this vehicle tailgating us, and Chris is notorious for slowing down ridiculously slow, and turning the flashers on, until the vehicle figures it out and goes around us. So, he tapped the breaks ~ that didn't work; so he slowed down ~ that didn't work; so, he turned the flashers on ~ THAT didn't work ~~ turns out the guy didn't pass us because he was going to take the next exit. Chris figured this out, so went s-l-o-w-l-y down the exit, in front of this vehicle, till the last minute, and then he pulled us back out on the interstate..........just to mess with the guy for tailgating. Well, as luck would have it, there was a cop sitting there........and we got pulled over. This always aggravates me.....Chris thinks he's teaching the tailgator a lesson; I think it's US that got pulled over, therefore, it's US that ended up wasting 20 minutes with the cops. Tailgator guy was probably already at home with his shoes off sitting in his recliner. The cops asked us what we were doing; and why we were going 30 mph on the interstate.....and did we know that was illegal. We blamed it on the truck (since slowing down DID make it blow smoke and act up) and told them it kicked in at the last minute and we jumped back on the interstate. After checking our plates, license, tags, insurance, and registration, they told us there was a rest area a couple miles up and we should pull off there and check the truck ~ and have a nice night. Sometimes I hate testosterone! In Chris's defense of his tailgator rules, the cops were EVERYWHERE in Indiana that night, and had somebody pulled over every couple of miles ~ so, I think they were saturating the area and looking for any reason to pull vehicles over to do checks.
We decided to drive as much as possible tonight and get to the first stop, get a hotel, and get some rest. We like doing that sometimes ~ cuts down on lodging expenses and days out on the road. Tonight we drove until about 3:00 am when we stopped at a rest area, somewhere in Ohio. We were about half way between Columbus and Akron, and it was starting to snow ~ not much, but a little ~ at 3;00 am, when you've been on the road for 17 hours straight, any excuse to stop is a good excuse. We plannned on just sleeping for an hour or so, then hitting the road again, but we slept (off and on ~ after all, we were sleeping in the front seats of the truck), until about 6:00 am, and then took about an hour to check weather, get our bearings, etc. At around 7:00, we continued on and got to Bloomsburg, PA around 1:30 in the afternoon. We had a reservation at the Econo Lodge, and they let us go ahead and check in early. If you ever have reason to need a hotel in Bloomsburg, PA, stay at the Econo Lodge by Columbia Mall. This is the second time we've stayed here this month, and both experiences have been great.
This Econo Lodge is pretty classy for an Econo Lodge. The rooms are nice and comfortable....and clean. The hotel staff is great! Both times we've stayed here, we've ordered food delivery, and both times, the hotel staff has called our room to make sure it was alright for the delivery person to come to our room. I hadn't ever really thought about it before, but that is an excellent source of security. A couple weeks ago when we stayed here, we ordered from La Fontana and the food was great. This time, we ordered from Chinatown Restaurant. I couldn't find a menu in the phone book or online, so we just ordered our old standbys. Chris had combination fried rice and sweet and sour shrimp; I had orange chicken (by far, my favorite chinese meal). The food was hot and the delivery was fast, and the staff was very pleasant. One thing about Bloomsburg is that there seems to be an over abundance of restaurants offering delivery ~ a huge plus to a traveler! The only thing I would suggest is that the restaurants put a menu online ~ there were several restaurants we were interested in ordering from, but we couldn't find a menu anywhere.
With bellies full and being completely exhausted, we went to sleep around 8:00 pm. Nice trade off when you drive most of the night and only get a couple hours of sleep, then to get to the hotel in time to actually enjoy the leisure, order food brought to you, and get a good long night's sleep ~ can't beat that!
No comments:
Post a Comment