Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

Tossing in my thoughts and prayers as well.

 

I heard that sigh of relief all the way over here......

 

Okay, opinion time: What's the best way to get from the Armstrong Wood Flooring plant in Beverly, WV to Lumber Liquidators in Sandston, VA?

My GPS wanted me to go east on US33, but the route looked pretty hairy on the map upon close inspection. Additionally, although US33 is STAA rated in WV, it curiously is not in VA (at least according to my 2017 Rand McNally Trucker's Atlas).

The route I thought looked interesting was to take US219 south to I-64. However, that only looked slightly less hairy than US33. Eighty miles of undivided two-lane back road. The advantage was that, at least according to the atlas, it was STAA-rated the whole way.

There was another Abilene driver there, one of those "Chester Trucking" guys. I haven't been around long enough to know if those guys are owner ops or if they're just some really small mom-and-pop outfit who subcontracts to Abilene or what. They drive the green-and-grey trucks.

Anyhow, he looked like he was an old pro, so I asked him what he thought and he said he was going north on US219 until it turned into US48, and then he was gonna follow US48 because it was a brand new divided highway almost like driving on the interstate.

But even that was hairy. Took me an hour to drive 34 miles from Elkins to Thomas via US219. Lots of twisty curves and hairpin turns and 6% grades (and one 9% grade) and narrow lanes and yadda yadda yadda. Almost stalled the truck out on a hairpin curve that was also on a 7% upgrade.

And once I got to US48, it was indeed very interstate-esque. But even there, long straight 6% grades, both up and down. At one point I was wondering why I smelled crayons so strongly until I realized I was smelling my brakes.

I think I was supposed to take US259 south in Baker, but I forgot that bit and wound up just outside of Winchester by the time I finally hit an actual interstate.

I think next time I'm just going to go back to I-79 and then pick up the turnpike outside of Beckley. Will take longer, but my nerves will thank me.

 

Also: There is a big electronic sign outside the Richmond yard announcing that the railroad crossing will be closed for some unspecified reason, and for an unspecified length of time, so you're just going to have to find a way around it, buster.

I really hope it's still closed tomorrow circa 9:00am, because I would laugh my keister off if the daily Flood of Brown had to find a different route out of their facility.

 

@ExtremeUnction I can only tell you about the 33,you don't want to run it.The best way would be to head back to the interstate,but I think it add's over 100 miles to the trip,there's just no good route coming out.

 

Anyone know the deal with the new grey boxes and scales? Do they actually beep or show a light like the old ones?

I picked mine up last week and then went home so I've only run 2 days with it and only hit one scale so far. It didn't do anything at the scale but the prepass works so idk.

 

You beat me to it. I'm sitting at the Jane Lew, waiting on a 9am appointment, trying to determine which way I'm gonna go. My DM wants me to go 33, says he's run it before when he drove here, and I got some advice on that route from my father who used to run oversized on lowboys through there, but if anyone has a saner notion that's under 9 hrs (all I got left on my 70,) I'm all ears. Last thing I want is to wind up living out a Red Simpson song a week before my daughter's first birthday.