Maddenation
Mashed Potatoes
For the first time in my life, coming home from ND on Sunday, Route 80 was closed. That’s right. Flat out closed, leave the road closed, detour closed. Jim Mahood, my glee club buddy, and I were at exit 173 when the traffic stopped. Jim saw a sign that said, “Tune to AM 1640 for news of road conditions.” So he did, and I moved to the right lane to be able to exit if necessary. The radio message was staticky (how do you spell that?), as usual, but we could make out something about an accident causing the road to be closed after exit 178. Jim pulled out a Pensylvania map (it was his car I was driving) and discovered that one of the detour roads mentioned in that fuzzy radio message was nearby. I said, “Should we ditch here?” He said he wasn’t sure just as I zipped off the road.
So we take Rt. 64 toward Lock Haven and on the way hook up with 220, which was the road we were supposed to take from exit 178. Eventually, we catch Rt. 180 back to 80, but now we’re at exit 212! Nearly 40 miles of road closed. But why?
We stopped at a rest stop later and, talking to other weary travelers, found out that they had wasted an hour getting from exit 173 to 178. We congratulated ourselves for dodging that bullet, and went on still wondering what had caused the problem. The next day, I received an email from Jim, who quoted the news he had found on the web.
Dad • News • 10/03/06 • 1 commentsMILE RUN - An overturned tractor trailer closed down the eastbound lanes on Interstate 80 in Union County most of the day yesterday. Union County dispatchers say the crash happened just before six a.m. Sunday on the Interstate just east of the Mile Run exit in West Buffalo Township. Dispatchers say no one was hurt in the crash but the highway was shut down for over 12 hours as crews cleared the highway after the truck hauling potatoes, spilled it’s load. During that time a detour was put in place using Route 220 and I-180 in Clinton and Lycoming counties. PennDOT officials say the roadway was finally reopened to traffic around seven last evening. Jim Diehl (WGRC)
Comments
David • 10/07/06 • 11:26 AM:Mile Run was in one of my dreams last night. I’m not sure why, especially considering I read Dad’s post a few days ago. Maybe I was in Mile Run or talking about Mile Run. Don’t know. Weird! Thanks Pops for writing this one up - that’s what Maddenation is for, baby! (ps - I slept for 12 hours).
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