Day 2 - Monday April 4, 2011 - Cherry Hill, NJ to Waynesboro, VA - 325 miles

     I finally got rolling in Cherry Hill about 10am. I was hoping the weather would warm up a little so I would not have to start out with heated stuff on. Turns out it did warm up in an unseasonable way.

     I discussed route options with daughter-in-law Meghan. Forecast high winds made me concerned about the Delaware Memorial Bridge, so I took a different route (on her advice) around Philadelphia. After I got out of the exurbs, I was in farm country mostly, heading south and west on good 'ole US-1. This road turned out to be pretty straight, but not filled with vehicles. This is always a nice experience, as it reduces the tension a bit. At one point, the road passes over a dam on the Susquehanna River (The Conowingo Dam), and at the southern end, there's a hydro-electric station. Since I continue to be a lover of civil engineering projects (remember the dam in Georgia last year), I tried to get a look at the thing, but was frustrated. The road drops steeply down to the river, and rises just as abruptly on the way out. Here's a photo I made where I was able to stop, albeit briefly:

The visitor center was closed, and there was no information available on-site. Looked to me like it's under renovation with new dam door being installed. That must be pretty hard to do with all the hydraulic pressure from the river.

Anyway, there's an interesting WikiPedia summary here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conowingo_Dam

Soon, my trek continued down through Maryland and West Virginia, into Virginia. About 100 miles of this piece was on Interstate 81 in Virginia. I say a hundred miles, but it felt like a lot more than that. I-81 is a real study in contrasts. Heading south, the Blue Ridge marches along beside the road. Skyline Drive and the Shenandoah National Park are there. It would be tempting to take your eyes off the road as you go...if it weren't for the fact that the road is filled (that's an understatement) with long-distance trucks, hauling all manner of things. I did stop at one truck stop to get some water (it was 90F in spots along the road). We don't have truck stops like these in New England:

This photo is just of the line to buy diesel fuel. Behind this was about four acres of parked trucks. This was on just one side of the road. 

This photo is of the other side:

I did speak some with a driver who was buying supplies for the road. He said he was headed to Alabama with some "freight." His purchases were: one large loaf of white bread, one pound of packaged bologna, and a large jar of French's yellow mustard. He said this would get him "all the way home."

Back on the very warm road, I spent a lot of time in company with a lot of trucks. Speed limit most of the time is 70mph, and they all drive 70mph, and the winds buffeted me constantly. I was glad to get to Waynesboro, but because of a major cold front coming through (high temperature here tomorrow is supposed to be 57F), I may stay off the Blue Ridge Parkway, and be back on I-81 again. Oof!