Virginia modifies rest area closures

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. We are still in the hospital here in Missouri, but Joe is feeling much better and we should be back on our way to Washington in the morning. We really needed to keep this load, especially since every one of our tarps and straps were used to secure this load. I'm just hoping its still there after being left in the truck stop for the last 3 days! :-) Thanks so much for all your prayers and well-wishes. We've had the chance to experience this weekend first hand several days of hospital food. Don't get me wrong, the hospital and the nurses here have been great, they have always brought me a meal whenever they brought one for Joe, and being that there are no restaurants within walking distance, its been a big help. I just can't help but wonder.......WHY is hospital food so unhealthy?? Everything that we have had has been high in fat, low in nutrients and high on the processed food chain. It just makes more sense to me that if you are trying to support your body in time of sickness or injury, you would want to eat as healthy as possible. That's just my thinking, anyway. The staff here has been wonderful, though, and to that, I am very thankful. (It is however a scary thought that we are actually looking forward to eating truck stop food again! LOL) Some of you might remember my previous rant concerning Virginia's callousness regarding truck parking. Here is a copy of an article I read today on etrucker.com: (It's nice to see they are making some sort of an effort to correct the situation, it's a small start)... Virginia modifies rest area closures By eTrucker Staff The Virginia Department of Transportation May 20 recommended keeping open six rest areas it had planned to close and making other adjustments to accommodate truck parking. VDOT still plans to close 19 of 42 rest areas but will keep open four along the I-81 corridor. It will also retain two truck-only facilities on I-95 near Daly City to address truck parking concerns. In response to trucking industry requests, VDOT will propose replacing the “two-hour” commercial parking rule in rest areas with “no overnight parking.” The department also will replace 225 truck parking spaces lost to rest area closures by reconfiguring parking lots at some remaining facilities. VDOT is making its final recommendations to the Commonwealth Transportation Board, which will adopt VDOT’s fiscal year 2010 budget at its June meeting. If approved by the CTB, these changes represent $9 million in annual savings and will begin in July. In February, VDOT said it would close 25 rest areas to save $12 million annually. VDOT hosted 11 public meetings across the commonwealth before finalizing its recommendations. The commonwealth also plans to seek federal law changes to allow future rest area commercialization. I hope the states start realizing just how difficult it is out here on the road, and how difficult it can be to stay within the federal hours of service guidelines, and try to cooperate more with drivers.