other dog

I passed by there yesterday. That's the old Dukes sign...or the frame the sign used to be in anyway.

Excellent- I hardly got any pictures this week.

You're right about that. We have a yard full of trucks with engine lights on, Paccars, Detroits, Maxforces, Cummins- it doesn't matter any more. Jeff Moore finally said he wishes he had kept the 2000 model W900L I used to drive for him and rebuilt it. It had an N14 525 in it with a 13 spd. and 3.70 rears, and there was nothing wrong with it when he traded it for that '06 Peterbilt. I got somewhere around 6 mpg. with it, got about 5 in the Pete with a C15 and 3.55 rears, now I get 5.9 with the Paccar but I have about 100 less horsepower and 3.36 rears. It's a good flat ground truck, but unfortunately I stay in the hills of Va, W.V, Oh, and western Pa. most of the time with heavy loads of steel and lumber.

yes it is,I fuel there pretty often.

Sounds like "Jigsaw". He had an old Transtar with a 318 in it leased to H.H.Moore. We were hauling chips one summer from a Westvaco woodyard in Ivy, just west of Charlottesville. Jigsaw's uncle used to ride with him a lot and they'd be climbing up Afton mountain with Jigsaw holding his door open with his foot and his uncle would be holding the passenger door open with his foot. They'd be running about 15 mph, that was the weakest 318 I ever saw. We got on 64 at the Crozet exit at the bottom of the mountain when we pulled from Ivy. I got on the big road one day and passed a parking lot just before you started climbing. He got on the radio and said I was losing chips, and they were gonna beat the paint off his load of cars. So I pulled onto the shoulder and fixed the tail gate, the pin had come out of one side, and still caught and passed that parking lot before he got to the top of the mountain. He didn't say anything that time.

I saw a General yesterday.

Same deal with the lumber, haven't hauled a load in months.

Passed by this morning. I started to stop over at Longdale Furnace and check out the old Ponderosa this morning but I didn't. Looked like you could still get in there, saw a van trailer dropped in the lot. I didn't want to stop at the bottom of the mountain, and when i'm going west i'm usually running a couple hunnert, but i'll stop there before long.

I remember it too. I never stopped there, but I knew other drivers that did. I remember one time I was coming out of Chicago on a Friday evening. I was driving either an F model Mack or a K100, I don't remember. I made my way through the worst of the traffic, finally got on 65 south, and south of rt. 30 figured I could finally make some good time and be home early Saturday morning...except there was this white Ford van in the left lane holding everything up. I was behind it in the left lane waiting for it to move over, but it never did. Another truck passed on the right and when he passed the van he told me to take a look and let him know if he saw what he thought he saw. Soon as I got a break I moved to the right lane, looked in the van, and there was a beautiful blond girl (really-she was!) wearing nothing but a yellow robe. She was turned around facing the passenger window, leaning back against the man that was driving. One foot in the seat, one in the floor.The robe was completely open in front. She got on the CB- might have been a walkie-talkie for all I know, I hadn't noticed an antenna- and said "sorry to hold you boys up, but I knew if we got over you wouldn't see anything." I thanked her and told her if she ever saw me up that way again to please hold me up again. Anyway, that's where she said they were headed,to Naked City. To this day it was the best seat cover shot i've ever seen.

That's Lee Hi at Lexington, on rt.11 between 81 and 64 west. You can go left out of there and go to 64, or right and back to 81. Oh...already answered. Should have finished reading everything,eh?

I remember that one, can't remember the name of it either. You didn't have a lot of options in that part of the world. There was another one on 84 not far from Hartford, it was a TA or 76 but you could never find a parking space there.

They had lots of pictures on the wall there of NASCAR drivers that stopped there and country music people too. I heard the original owner sold it, but I don't know why. He might have just retired and didn't have any family to take it over, I don't know. It was open for several years after it was sold but it went steadily downhill the whole time until it just closed altogether.

yes, that's it. there was one down on the south side of 465 and one north of 465 on 65 that I know of. there was another truckstop down on the southside of Indianapolis that was always packed with lot lizards, that's all you heard on the cb, but I can't remember the name of it. Was that the Calumet in Chicago?

I stopped there a time or two when we were running Boston a lot, best I remember there wasn't much parking there. Seemed like everybody had a "Where in the hell is the Mass 10?" bumper sticker on their trailer then.

Oh yeah, that reminds me- the truckstop at Newcomerstown at rt.36 and I-77 used to be a Duke's. Used to fuel there, had a good restaurant, and a good store. The truckstop is still there, but you'd never know it was the same place.

I stop at Big Boys truckstop in Dunn now. Don't know how the food is, but they've always got parking because all the super truckers are at the Flying J. The heat lamp bistits are pretty good for breakfast though.

The main thing with a 13 is to move the splitter button while you're still on the throttle, upshifting or down shifting. Then you won't ever get that "zzzzzzzzzttt..." sound and you're in nothing. When you're slowing to downshift, even if you're coasting, get back on the throttle before you move the button from OD to direct, then let off the throttle and get back on it and it will downshift as soon as you get back on the throttle.

Yep, the Cumberland Restaurant on rt. 60 in Cumberland was like a truckstop when I was growing up, always several trucks on both sides of the road. It was open 24/7. Then there was the Ponderosa on rt. 60. a couple in Ansted,W.V. one before you got to Montgomery, and Cedar Top in Cedar Grove,W.V. All these were open before they finished I-64. Now there's nothing between Sam Black Church and Charleston.

They still pump your fuel for you at Lee Hi, and clean your windows and mirrors. They used to give you a free coffee when you fueled, but not any more. One time the girl at the fuel desk asked me if I wanted my fuel receipts stapled and I said "yeah, at least i'll get a free staple."

OK, more models then- T shirt models.

Looks like the real thing here-

I took this at the old Ponderosa Truckstop in Longdale Furnce, east of Clifton Forge,Va. right at the bottom of North Mountain on rt. 60. I'd just left the truck wash ( ) Didn't take a lot of pictures back then. It's still standing as far as I know, I should check it out some day. We used to stop there a lot to fuel, eat, get tires fixed,etc. when we were hauling chips to Covington. They had a hamburger called the "Hennis Burger". After it closed, don't remember the year, we got fuel at Lee-Hi in Lexington. Still do sometimes. And Pliny Truckstop on rt.35 in Pliny, W.V. had a huge burger called the Pliny Burger, it had one of everything on it- a burger patty, ham, salami, maybe bologna, maybe even Spam, plus the standard lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onion. It's closed now too. Used to be a lot of Blue and Gray truckstops in Indiana. You could order the catfish platter and you got a whole catfish, as long as the platter. Hard to find a real meal any more, it's just fast food and most of the old truckstops are gone, now it's travel plazas that mostly cater to 4 wheelers.

I stopped there once in '79, hadn't been driving but a few months. I had unloaded in Deptford, N.J. and was going to Gardner, Ma. to pick up something, load of furniture I think. I was scared to get out of the truck though.

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It does! That was a good place to stop in the 80's, about the only truckstop I made it a point to stop at every time I went up 81. Good food and great scenery.