HC01

Good carma built up following a lot of cars this year on great roads that were doing even less than the limit started paying off today. If we saw any cars on the road, they were going faster than we were.
We were making good time and looking at arriving at the B&B around 9pm. My mistake was in thinking that I-70 would appear and take us South to 68 West. Instead I was presented with a choice of 70 East or West.

I took West over Jon's objections. I forgot this is Pennsylvania, where we don't actually give you all the information you need on the road signs.
You have to go East on I-70 in order to go South enough to pick up I-68 West.

By the time I realized my mistake, we watched the last bits of daylight slip away at a maddening intersection.
Traffic Pro had been trying to tell me to turn around too- but I ignored it.
After removing the mosaic of very large bugs from my windsheild- but leaving the massive carcasses or many all over Emmy's nose, we set off in the darkness to take I-70 East back where we came from to meet the elusive I- 68 West.
An hour to get back to where we were, and then the same 2 hours we had from that point to get to the B&B would put us in well after 11pm, and since that last hour was all twisties through the forest, it looked like a nasty proposition.
It occured to us to call the B&B and warn them we would be late.
Jon's digital had no service, which is where my trusty old analog comes in handy. (Cell phones usually have no service at the exact same place where you need to call someone for help.) I called the proprietress. She kept repeating my location in disbelief, as if she believed if she scolded me enough, we'd come in sooner.
I had little time for this incredulity as the night was swallowing up my headlight wake. Then I could no longer hear her. Frustrated, I called Jon on the radio- "I could kill her" I said. "She wasted all this time going on about where we were and how late we were going to be and I lost the connection." We decided to call them back and see if maybe we should give up on making it to Elkins tonight. The husband answered, clearly agitated. "Are you going to kill my wife?"
Oops.
Apparently my little analog phone and it's abysmal speaker phone attachment had mischeiviously allowed the proprietress to hear me threaten her life.
After a little more chatting, it was decided that perhaps it was wiser too stay somewhere else.
Now it's dark, although the moon is lighting up the silouettes of the mountains rather conveniently. Jon and I were fading. It was time to call it quits at 9pm. I asked Traffic Pro for directions and it snapped into action. It knew where we were and where we were going and had no problem inserting a hotel stop. The closest hotels are 8 mi behind us and the closest hotel in front of us is the

Holiday Inn Cumberland, 33 miles ahead. (It's nice that Traffic Pro tells you if the hotel is ahead, behind, to the side...)
That reassuring voice. Fine. I called Holiday-Inn, got an agent who made me so crazy I gave up on him. Voilö, the Holiday Inn appears, and Traffic Pro guides us through the Interchange- which again had no signs to get us to the hotel.
No driving around in circles in the middle of the night trying to find the hotel. :)
The walk in rate at the hotel is $10 cheaper than the best rate offered on the phone, the hotel lot is around the corner, but the city lot is right in front of the door. We opt for the city lot and it's convenience. Turns out I can see just barely- the chrome of our babies noses out my window.

It was a terrific day. I have much longer than I want to go tomorrow, but I can always stop outside Alcoa if it gets too late.
I'd only traveled 247 miles- far short of the 385 I had planned. Now you know why I don't post my routes or plan pick up stops...

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