Packed up and hit the road this morning. Even though packing involved hauling up all the gear I had been using for the past 3 months of living in a real house, it still only took me about 30 mins longer to actually hook up and be on my way. Of course I did get up a couple hours earlier than I would usually rise, and I didn't spend much time with reading the comics or doing the crossword.
    I pulled out around 10:30 and headed for the interstate in Christiansburg. I felt a little weird driving with the trailer behind me. I had pretty much forgotten what it was like towing Esmerelda behind the truck, but once on the highway it settled down into the routine I remember from before. I headed south and a little west to the town of Abingdon before turning north toward the town of Lexington, KY. The road is pretty good for most of the way except for a 9 mile section of really narrow, nearly single lane, road connecting up two sections of different hwy's that Emma, my GPS, decided I needed to take for some reason. I managed to get through it without either running off the road or running somebody else off, but it was kind of close at times.
    There was also this huge, torrential rain storm that hit somewhere around the town of 'Beefhead' Kentucky. Rain was coming down so hard at times that I was down to 15 mph and even then it was kind of hard to see the road during the worst of it. Managed to get through it though and the good news is that the truck and trailer are now pretty clean.
    I'm holed up at a truck stop outside of Louisville right now, but am about to get back on the road for another hour or so. With any luck I'll find a nice rest area in the next hour or so and then wait out the rest of the evening. So far it's about 400 miles down and another 1,100 to go.




   One last thing: I miss my friend Rima. I hope she is doing well tonight.


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