Ice Road Truckers ~

It's a cozy eve here at Bronwyn Manor as Birthday Boy Jacob, five years old today, Natalie (sometimes), Caroline and her TuckBuddy Brian (he of the Bermuda house/job and also a pilot) and I are watching -- surprise!! -- "Cars," Jacob for perhaps the 225th time -- literally. Dr Brado and Holly are off at the gym and M, KHA (Known Here As) BeBe, has Brady Ben in tow.

The trip here was interesting, as expected, and went well. I rolled out at 3pm, spent 90 minutes having a supper of pizza and fro-yo at the Richmond Costco, and then got a nice 90-minute nap at the WalMart in Waynesboro, where I met up at 10pm with Rew & Corelyn. By then the winds were gusting to 40mph and temps were tumbling downward thru the 20's; putting the van on the dolly for the first time in these conditions was, well, interesting. It was so cold I decided to just leave the parking lights on on the van instead of rigging up the magnetic-mounts. After a quick trip thru the WalMart, off we went into the arctic blast.

Cor watched a movie on her laptop asRew and I talked about this and that. The miles rolled by and traffic was light, so I put the A/Bus on a long leash and let the gusty wind blow it around. We stopped about 0230 at a Flying J ($2.21/9!) and I refueled the A/Bus and the van in 13F and winds probably gusting close to 40mph. It was a near-religious experience.

My goal for the next rest stop was Kingsport TN and by 0330 we were there. Though the A/Bus is a bit drafty in extreme conditions like this, the twin furnaces kept us warm and I left the genset running on General Principles (diesels don't like extreme cold). RewCor burrowed into sleeping bags on the twin couches and I got a good 2.5-hour sleep before rolling out again at 0600. By 0800 we were in Knoxville and I enjoyed a hearty breakfast at Cameron and Linda Coates' home (Cor's dad) before rolling on in here. RewCor will roll on over Wed morning. Despite the extreme conditions, it was a glitch-free trip.

Fascinating/meaningless trip stats courtesy of my GPS: total trip time, 22hrs 30min; sit-time, 9hrs40min; moving average speed, 54mph. So there you are. And here I yam. A big bowl of Holly's fresh home-made chili, an equally-delicious 90-minute nap, and I'm back in bizness.

Brian is a Vanderbilt grad and, as a man of truly discriminating taste, also enjoys country & bluegrass and even knows of the Station Inn, a nondescript-looking but nationally-renowned downtown bluegrass haven here. The cultured among us will make our way down there tonight.

It will be frigid again tonight but then quickly moderate, with almost 60F on C'mas. The great Christmas Run-Up has begun!