Newfoundland 2022
  
 

Day 06

July 19

  
     
     
   
  I am so tired from yesterday that I just sleep in til I wake up. Big Bertha with her precious cargo is patiently waiting on me after I get checked out of my room.  
   
  After the 'train wreck' on I495 coming up, I decided to take Highway 9 across Vermont and miss the mess. As I head out, I pass right by the Royal Diner - a place I have enjoyed some good breakfasts over the years - but it is unfortunately for me closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  
   
  Vermont Highway 9 is a good motorcycle road as I have been this way more than once.  
   
  But pretty soon I am glad that I am not on two wheels today trying to negotiate this construction.  
   
  They have taken the road bed all the way down to the dirt and gravel and it is a nasty mess.  
   
  And this sign is certainly understatement about the road conditions.  
   
  In several places it is shut down to one lane which makes for a lot stops and gos and one way traffic for ten miles or so.  
   
  I'm finally through it and come into little village of Wilmington - whose police station happens to be right on this road downtown. Funny how a feller would remember something like that ...  
   
  But then we are back out in the open spaces and I enjoy the lovely roadside lakes ...  
   
  and hilly vistas. The skies look bad but then I remember that it does not matter today since I am encased in what I hope is a leak proof cage.  
   
  Then it's a turn down Highway 7 once I cross over into New York state.  
   
  Along the way I spot this really large chair but it strikes me as kinda of odd that it has a wooden building as its occupant.  
   
  Even though this old barn is sagging a bit, I am still amazed at how 'weather sound' it is. A good coat of paint and a little repair work here and there it would be almost like new. Where I grew up, you just didn't see many barns that weren't lean-to affairs barely propped up on the hillsides they occupied. They were not really shelters for livestock but merely feeding and milking stations for them.  
   
  Even on back roads, I reckon you still hit construction zones but at least this backup isn't due to a merge.  
   
  I make it to I87 for a little ways and it is in pretty bad shape so I understand the need for construction. I decide to bypass the toll section of I90 since I am in this UHaul truck and use US 20 to get to I88.  
   
  I88 is my path to get to I81 - my last road of the day.  
   
  But it too is fraught with construction zones and traffic down to one lane in a lot of places.  
   
  Finally I make it to 81 the last highway of the day and last highway before I40, the 'Mother Road' back to the Holler.  
   
  My next gas stop is the highest cost fill up of the entire trip. Best I can figure, the UHaul truck gets about 11 miles per gallon with a good tailwind and going downhill.  
   
  When I pass this bridge, it always reminds me of the old Roman aqueducts.  
   
  Soon I am back in the 'state line crossing' business of I81 with Pennsylvania ...  
   
  then Maryland ...  
   
  then West Virginia ...  
   
  then the last border of the day - Virginia.  
   
  But it does not seem to matter what 'state' I am in, I seem to be in the 'state' of 'traffic jams' like this one.  
   
  Finally I arrive at the Days Inn in Wytheville where I have stayed many times.  
   
  It's a nice motel and the lady puts me in a ground floor room where I can back Big Bertha right up to my door.  
   
  My supper is a left over sandwich from lunch and some other stuff I picked up at my various gas stops during the day.  
   
  At least from here I've got about 375 more miles to cover and I know I will get a great breakfast at the Shoney's next door in the morning. With these pleasant thoughts floating through my tired old head, I drift off into a pleasant slumber.