I took a van load-actually part of a load, only had 5,600 lbs. and the trailer was about a third of the way filled-to an Amish stove shop just out of Ashland, Ohio. The address said it was on rt.545 so, I could either go through Ashland on rt. 96 and go north on 545 or, stay on 250 up past Bailey Lake and come back south on 545. I opted for the latter so I wouldn't have to go all the way through town. As usual,I picked wrong. The place was easy enough to find,but it was on the right and I had to back in the driveway off the road. Since the driveway was angled in the way I was headed it would be nearly impossible to blind side in with a 53' van,so I went to look for a turnaround plce. Ended up going down to rt. 96,turned left,and had to go all the way into Ashland before I could get turned around. By the time I got back another truck was there parked in the road,waiting to back in.I didn't want to park in the highway,so I kept riding north on 545 until I got back to 250,then went back into Ashland to 96,then back to 545 and turned north again. By the time I got back this time the other truck was just pulling from the dock to close his doors.I wasn't going to make another lap around Ashland so I waited in the road for him to pull out. It was not a high traffic area.After I got unloaded with hand pallet jacks,and getting two crates reloaded to take back to Lynchburg because they weren't done right,I headed down to Vinton. Didn't really look like there was any good way to get from Ashland to Vinton,so I just took the direct route. Didn't see any low underpasses listed in the road atlas so I went down 13 to 256 to 664 to 93 to 324 to 160 to Vinton. I even had directions to this place-"look for a stable in front of a white farm house" But again,I found it with no problem and they even had a big gravel lot with plenty of room to back up to the dock.The place was called Ashland Stove Company,and the place in Ashland was Shrock Stove

This was a really neat operation here. A man and a woman was on the dock soldering some kind of boxes together,but they put 3 of the boxes at a time in a rack,painted some acid or flux on the seam,then tilted the rack back so the seam dipped into a thing like a trough that was filled with molten solder and the solder would stick everywhere they had painted the flux on. Then they'd turn them over and do the other sides. Then a little girl who looked about 10 or 11 would put them in a large sink and rinse the flux off then set them on the dock. Then she'd put a plastic handle in between two tabs on each end of the box,stick a piece of precut threaded rod through it,put a nut on each end and tighten them with her little wrench and a box ratchet. Everybody there was working except the dog,I didn't see him doing any work,but he was there,not sleeping in the shade like some dogs do. There were 2 little girls about 4 or 5 years old riding scooters back and forth the whole time,on the dock,between the buildings,in the buildings-just room-a-zoom-zoom the whole time I was there. Even the boy loading the trailer would ride the pallet jack like a scooter down the slight incline to the next building to get another pallet,and there were several near misses with the 2 little girls' scooters,but no crashes.

The trailer was almost full with this load,and I had 35,000 lbs. I slid the tandems up behind the landing gear legs like a Swift truck on the way up so I could go across 60 to Charleston,and left them there and came back the same way. When I went around the 15mph. curve at Chimney Corner I looked in the mirror and saw dust,smoke,rocks,gravel,asphalt,and concrete just flying! The bumper on the back of the trailer drug the pavement all the way around the curve-it's a tight hairpin to the right but drops down steeply too. Didn't hurt the bumper at all,I don't think it plowed the road up either. I backed the trailer to the dock in Lynchburg last night,dropped it and bobtailed home.