9-19-2006 Junction City, KS to Erlanger, Ky – Louisville, KY to McPherson, KS

8:30 PM Out the door, off to Salina. Pick up an empty at the yard and stop at the Flying J for the usual. This looks to be an uneventful trip. Stop at the Topeka, Service Area on the KTP. (Decent breakfast available at Hardee’s.) Nice and cool out, so I shut the truck down. Will likely need the extra wool blanket I carry, though. It’s already down into the 40’s.

9-20-06 Off around 8:00. Nice morning out. The paving crew is on hiatus today, so no back up east of KCMO. I catch the broadcast of Sen. Barack Obama’s speech on energy independence on Franken’s show. That guy has a bright future ahead of him… I stop at a Denny’s in Shelbyville, IN. It really isn’t designed for truck parking, but several of us do. I’ll have to remember this spot.

9-21-06 Off around 4:30 AM. Breakfast at Denny’s again. Get to Erlanger about an hour ahead of schedule, even before anyone but the Fed-Ex repair guy across the way. Unloaded and headed for Louisville. Not as big of a hurry this time, as I have plenty of time to get there before they shut down. Load quickly and head for home.

9-22-06 Spent the night at Betty’s Truck Stop near Houstonia, MO. Watched a big storm near KC, but it never got close to me. Cool and humid this morning. Pull out and head for home. Unload in McPherson without any trouble and head for Salina. Fuel and unload and into the Cavalier. Not much for an eventful trip this run; some are like that, which is nice. Don’t need too much excitement…..

9-8-2006 Junction City, KS to Columbia MD – Baltimore, MD to Tompkinsville, KY – Louisville, KY to McPherson, KS


3:45 PM – Out the door headed for MD. Little bit of rain. The Mrs. Is worried about one of the stray kittens she has been caring for. Doubt it will make it many more days. Stop into the Flying J for coffee, ice and cash as usual. Maybe I’ll make Kingdom City, MO tonight.

9-9-06 Nobody by the scale last night, so parking was easy. Water still draining into the truck from the A/C system, so hope it doesn’t flood this trip. Have to write that up when I get in. It’s one long pull to Keyser’s Ridge, MD from here. Almost exactly a day’s drive – 710 miles.
Little weather crossing IL and IN, but an uneventful trip today. Highlight was Rev. Dr. James Forbes on Air America Radio interviewing Noam Chomsky about his new book “Failed States”.

9-10-06 Spent the night near Friendsville, MD just west of Keyser’s Ridge. Shut the truck off all night since it was cool and the next morning my coolant level was low enough to set off the alarm, which will engage the automatic shut-down in 1 minute. I started out of the rest area and the truck died before I got out. I restarted it and continued on and it died again. I re-re-started it and got heading up the hill enough to get the coolant sloshing around and heating up and expanding to cover the sensor.

On my way finally, I’ll have to add some water when I get to Columbia, MD.

Passing under Green Lantern Rd. I see that it is the Eastern Continental Divide. Not much of a mountain compared to the Rockies. Little bit of fog at the higher elevations. Hope the sun starts burning it off soon.

Climbing up Braddock Mtn. I see the elevation sign is 985 feet. Funny that this is a mountain and it’s still 500 feet lower in elevation than the McPherson airport back home.

Unload and head to the New Transit Truckstop in Millersville, MD. Get hit up for money twice, once by a rather nice looking 30-something woman about 4 PM and some guy at 2 AM. I wasn’t quite as nice to the dude at 2 AM; he got told to get lost in no uncertain terms. Neither gets a handout, as both are most likely scam-artists.


9-11-06 I sleep fitfully after that; I usually get up that early, so it’s hard to go back to sleep. A bit later I shuffle in for coffee and breakfast. I reload at the Baltimore Marine Terminal with Russian plywood for KY. Waiting to be loaded I see the M.V. Pepino D’Amato, an American flagged freighter being loaded with coal by a massive conveyor system. There are mountains of coal here, hopper cars loaded to the brim and huge equipment to move it around.

On the way out I pass through Ft. Meade, the HQ of the NSA. It’s a rather creepy-looking place, rather like a second-rate community college, except for the MP’s with their German shepherd attack dogs patrolling the grounds.

Passing through West Virginia, it has really opened up and poured. Need to find a place to stop.

9-12-06 Spent the night near Nitro, WV. Gee…I wonder how that town got it’s name here in the middle of coal country? Stop for fuel at Cannonsdale, KY. Continue on to Lexington and turn south to the Louis B. Nunn Cumberland Parkway. I get to Tompkinsville, KY on the narrowest road I’ve seen in a while. At Edmonton, KY I see a sign saying it was the hometown of the Kentucky Headhunters, a great alt-country band. Unload and head for Louisville and try to make it before they close. I get there with 15 minutes to spare, exactly when I said I’d be there. It was a close estimate; closer than I like. Reload in Louisville for McPherson and grab a quick nap before heading out; it’s been a long day. Take off and drive right by the motel my folks are staying at for the big Southern-gospel music convention in Louisville. Weird that we’re all here at the same time. No time to meet up as they are already at the convention center and I want to get on the road for home.


9-13-06 Stay near Grayville, IL. Less than 10 hours home from here. Uneventful run to Galva for the night to unload next morning in McPherson.

9-14-06 Unload in McPherson and head for Salina. Fuel up and head to the yard. Unload the truck of my personal gear, load up the Cavalier and head for the house. About a 3000 mile week…


It’s good to be home.

8-29-2006 Abilene, KS to Ruther Glen, VA – Baltimore, MD to Junction City, KS

11:10AM I’m out the door headed for Virginia. Dispatch called and said that there wasn’t a reefer at the yard (needed for this trip) so I should go to Junction City and get an empty. (Strange intermittent clunk in the left front end of the Cavalier; hope it isn’t a ball joint.)

I guess I’m getting paid for the extra miles, but……

When I get to Salina, it turns out one has emptied out at Abilene, so just a short jaunt to get it and head in to get loaded.

Quick stop for the usual at the Flying Hook – ice, water, cash and coffee. On to Abilene for the empty and into the shipper's to load.

About an hour later, I’m on my way to VA.

The usual scenery ensues after a short snooze at Topeka. (I shouldn’t get up so early…)

The six-lane section of the KS Turnpike is getting closer to completion. Beautiful sunset and Marc Maron sitting in with Sam Seder on AAR makes for a nice drive east.

Stop at Kingdom City, MO for the night. Some doofus has parked east of me and really closed up the distance for the line of trucks on the east side of the lot to get out easily. I was worried I was getting too close, but since he pulled in there, I’m not going to sweat it.

Guess I’ll hear angry air horns in the morning if they can’t get out.

8-30-06 Breakfast at Denny’s again. Not bad for the money and the coffee’s good; plus they usually give me a big mug of ice for my water mug. Fog sets in after leaving Kingdom City; right down to the deck. Hope it burns off before long- even fog doesn’t slow the crazy drivers down much on this section of Speedway 70.

Rachael Maddow replays CNN’s Kyra Phillips and her little bathroom open microphone faux pas. She called her sister-in-law a “control freak” over national TeeVee. The loud ZZZZZZZZZZiiip of her dress was a nice touch, too.

Bet Thanksgiving at the Phillips house will be interesting this year…..

Hopefully I beat the traffic at St. Louis.

I catch a great interview of John McPhee about his new book Uncommon Carriers. It chronicles the long-haul truck drivers, riverboat crewmembers, Merchant Marine, etc. of the country. Add that one to my list, too.

Tom Ashbrook’s On Point has an interesting discussion on Daniel Dennett’s controversial new book Breaking The Spell: Religion as a Natual Phenomenon with it’s author and Boston College Professor of Theology Stephen Pope. I can’t say I would totally agree with Dennett’s theories regarding the origins of religion and it’s evolution along with mankind; but he does make some interesting and thought provoking observations, however Prof. Pope made even better ones.

If you’re into PodCasting, I would recommend downloading that one.

Stop at the Goshen Road rest area in IL for a sandwich and a break.

Fuel at Haubtstadt, IN. Continue across IN on I-64 into KY. I’m trying to think of a way to make my log look halfway accurate in dealing with the turnpike coming up in West Virginia. Maybe I’ll stop on it somewhere and I can make the toll receipt timestamp agree with a legal (well, sort of…) log. Stop for coffee and more ice at the Flying J at the KY – WV line.

8-31-06 I spent the night on top of the mountain (what passes for one in this area, anyway…) above the New River gorge. I think the closest town is Smoot, WV.

The sign at the "Mandatory Truck Stop (to) Check Brakes" says “No Overnight Parking”.

It wasn’t ALL night…just most of it. No law enforcement officials stopped by to say “Hello”, so it was a successful slumber. It’s at least a 7% grade on the way down. I head down in 6th gear and the compression brake eliminates the need to use the brakes very much, so I make it to the bottom without incident or the stink of hot brakes. The “Runaway Truck Emergency Ramp” is at least two miles from the top; I don’t see how you could make it to there if you were indeed in a runaway condition. My guess is that you would be burning in a crumpled heap in the bottom of one of the ravines long before you got to the ramp.

Climbing up the next mountain on I-64 near exit 99 I see there are lights inset into the road surface on the edges about every 30 feet or so. They’re quite bright; I guess to mark the edges in the fog (usually a low hanging cloud) so common here. Really a neat idea and the first time I’ve ever encountered it.

I make my delivery appointment on time and I get a satellite message to reload in Baltimore, MD. This is welcome news, as the remnants of hurricane Ernesto are heading up the eastern seabord and leaving much rain and high winds in their wake. I want to reload and get out of the area before that hits…

I bypass the bridge construction at Washington DC by going around the west side, missing the Woodrow Wilson bridge mess completely.

I’ve read it is the worst commuter delay in the nation. No point in finding out firsthand…

It takes a few hours, but I get out of Baltimore after the evening rush and head for the MD panhandle. Pass through Cumberland, MD: the hometown of actor/voice talent Eddie Deezen. The name might not ring a bell, but you’ve likely heard his unmistakable voice in a commercial, movie or cartoon. (Hint: He’s the odd little guy with the ventriloquist’s dummy on the Ferris wheel in the movie 1941).

Stop for the night on top of Keyser’s Ridge at Little Sandy’s Truck Stop. (Exit 14 on I-68.)


9-1-06 Omelet and three cups of coffee for breakfast. Back on the road, now driving in the outer edge of precipitation from Ernesto. Slow quiet day across Ohio (a.k.a. Slow-hio).

55 MPH makes an almost endless drive seem worse.

I see a wonderfully profound bumper sticker on a car: Blind Faith in Bad Leaders is NOT “Patriotism”.

Stop for the night at Marshall, IL at a big, well-lit rest area. It’s cool enough outside tonight to shut the truck off and open the windows for a nice breeze.

9-2-06 I get up at 4:15 AM and pull out. Hope I can get in and drop this load early today.

Stop for a break and coffee in Effingham, IL. About exit 13 on I-270 in IL, I see a nice bike trail heading off northwest with a recumbent speeding along it. There are several nice trails like this in the St. Louis area.

On across MO into KS.

Stop for a 30 minute nap at the rest area just west of Maple Hill. That’s what I get for getting up so early…

Drop the loaded trailer and hook an empty reefer in Junction City and head for home. Stop for fuel at the Petro 2 in Salina and then to the yard to drop the empty and get my stuff gathered up.

4:50 PM In the Cavalier and headed to the house. Another run in the record books.

Nice to be home again.