Daily Summary for 2/14/2023

Big Rig Steve officially done for the day at 18:09 EST, safely parked for the night after Steve herded the Blue Comet going uphill backwards and sideways into one of only three remaining free parking spots at the rest stop in Beford Township, Pennsylvania. Yes, BRT RC member Dave Benner was first to post “Stop the Clock” on BRT YT chat.

BRS started the broadcast day 10:18 EST in Columbus, Ohio after a fresh 70 hour clock after a reset from the weekend that Steve thoroughly used to complete several product reviews while enjoying his stay at the Holiday Inn. Steve gave road crew a review during today’s broadcast  of the IHG property . Many of the BRT RC were jealous of the breakfast meal. Yes, plenty of Bacon! Be sure to check out all the reviews and please comment on each, on the bigrigtravels.com web site. Find them under the Read the Blogs, then BRS reviews. 

First stop was the Pilot for coffee. A short trip up I-270 we arrived at the trailer wash out by Professional Truck Wash. New option as Steve had never been to this wash. Yes BRT RC question and BRS answer chat began while the professionals worked inside the trailer. Steve was happy that yesterday the Blue Comet truck batteries were changed out under warranty and also the batteries in the truck mass/weigh EZ pass bypass receiver were replaced. Yes it had been some time since we had had a green from the EZ pass unit. Also received the truck IFTA stickers for 2023. Whoo Hoo! Progress made during this shop maintenance stop.

Arrived at the shipper early and BRS flipped the camera to the British view again so we could continue along while the check in occurred. More BRT RC YT chat questions were answered while BRS waited. Yes, they started the loading process early and at 12:37 EST he was fully loaded and rolling again towards delivery. 

Next stop was the Love’s for truck fuel, Cat Scale to check our mass (weight). We chose the right Cat Scale as this Love’s had two of them side by side. (Wampus Kat has double the business here).  Yes we were legal beagles.  Steve updated Love’s status 156 gallons to Gold and 656 gallons to Diamond. We need to cover some miles. As we left to do just that, BRS advised even though he was not driving yesterday while truck was in the shop. His company compensated him well.

Rest area at Belmont Ohio at 15:12 EST was the next stop. BRS needed to check something. Yes an emergency email that he had been waiting for had arrived for review, then Steve defended himself after a viewer tuned in to find us stopped. Yes, entertaining as always whenever someone gets Steve going by accusing him of always being stopped when they tune in. Steve advised that we’re always stopped and not sure how we had completed all the mileage that we covered the past year. (I sometimes think that a road crew member must be purposely trying to push Steve’s hot button as they enjoy viewing BRS reaction). Steve is the star of the show, no question about that. Complaint vs. BRS no contest. BRS corrects the wrong assumption. Enough said.

Welcome to West Virginia (home state of our own BRT RC weirdo in the ditch and Flying WV) occurred at 15:35 EST. The Blue Comet started the hard climb up out of the Ohio river valley. Yes, we went quickly through the narrowest part of WV and soon we were welcome to Pennsylvania at 15:50 EST just after a BRS “We got Spirit how about you” chant. Steve advised that the State of  Pennsylvania requires Spotted Lantern permit. $1,500 fine to driver if you do not have the permit. Ouch.

16:50 passed thru a toll station in New Stanton PA

17:39 BRS commented on the bright lights as we rolled into and through the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel near Berlin PA. Shorty after exiting the tunnel (and it was a long tunnel) Steve pointed out, on the right side of I-70, a trailer that was broken into two halves. (Thank you Essemm for posting the intel on BRT discord for the summary post)

Numbers: 113 miles 181 km to drop at delivery as soon as we get there. 297 miles 477 km covered today including the early live load and rolling through Ohio, West Virginia into Pennsylvania.  Clocks 5:12 on the 11 hour, 5:29 on the 14 hour, 61:33 on the 70 hour. Eight day running total 1,325 miles 2,132 km. Do not gain back any hours as we had just completed second 70 hour clock reset since start of the February season. No alarm clock tomorrow morning. Watch snowman camera on the bigrigtravels.com website 24/7 to view of the row of big rigs in front of the Blue Comet and flow of traffic on I-70 to the right overnight.

We do have our next trip pre load appointment  tomorrow evening 22:00 EST which we will plan to arrive early for pick up.

It was wonderful to hear the BRT closing theme again at the end of the broadcast day. It was another good day. Glad to be back on the road.

Welcome to Pennsylvania.