Wheeling and Dealings, part 3 of 7

Wheeling and Dealings
5/20/2010

The next morning we set off on foot, slip-sliding away with suitcase and backpack down a muddy embankment between the hotel parking lot and the truck rental office, affirming my status as a trucker, not a CEO, and where, appropriately, the rental agent discovered that my driver’s license had expired. Shite! I had imagined I’d do all the driving, but, flip-flop, splish-splash, and I was a co-pilot, with nothing more to do than give directions, help with lane-changes, do food prep (primarily, unwrapping the remaining sandwich). East, down Rt. 22 past the Miracle Mile and up Mosside a half mile to the storage locker, a stone’s throw from my father’s office (may his memory be a blessing) where we loaded the truck, which turned out to be vastly larger than we needed, and we were on the road by 9:30am.

Over a curb or two, onto the Parkway West, past the slag heap by the Squirrel Hill Tunnel that is now a vast condo patch, down along the river thru downtown, over the Fort Pitt Bridge and thru the tunnel, whining the transmission into full scream up the Duquesne Heights, swerving onto 79 South (almost missed that one), detoured east thru downtown Wheeling, whoa! that ole girl never seems to throw off her lingering air of depression,

and on autopilot out 70 East, where I would take a third breath.