Interstate 66

It's not, it's not that bad.

I get on Interstate 66.

Now, maybe it's because it's the Christmas sea- you know, Chri- I don- I don't know, but dude, I'm...

I get on the interstate, and I mean, people, like, they are j- there are j- there's traffic that is just flying.

The last of the light was gone within the hour.

Jack had turned east onto I-66 with the sun already sinking behind them, headlights cutting into the early twilight.

He told himself he'd push for another hour, maybe two, close the distance while he still had the momentum.

But twilight became dusk, and dusk became full dark.

Nothing a stranger could really act on.

Jack had the whole route in his head now.

Take I-66 to the junction to the big north-south corridor.

That was Route 15, or the roads that fed into it, running north up through the Virginia Piedmont towards the Potomac.

That carries a huge amount of traffic and commerce through the Shenandoah Valley and Page Valley.

Right there with the interchange with I-66, a really busy area.

And then just north of there, we've got the inland port and everything else.

There's a lot going on in 340.

You don't have to be on I-81 or I-66 to see some traffic.

In fact, that's one of the projects that I wanted to mention.

We've talked about these huge projects on West Strasburg and at Exit 313.

Yes.

At fifteen miles a gallon, that was sixty miles.

He had seventy to go before he reached the I-66 junction, then sixty more after that.

He wasn't going to make it, not without fuel, not without something changing in the next few minutes.

And then he saw it.

Jack didn't slow down.

He kept the truck moving and didn't look back.

The last 30 miles to the I-66 junction went by in something close to silence.

Lily slept.

The county is warning that rechargeable batteries and pressurized gas tanks put out with curbside trash are causing fires and injuries.

Public works officials say several collection workers were hurt last week when a compacted gas container exploded, and firefighters recently put out a fire at the Interstate 66 transfer station started by a lithium-ion battery in the trash.

Sean Paul Truss, who oversees county waste collection, called putting pressurized tanks in a rear load truck extremely hazardous.

Batteries labeled alkaline, or carbon zinc, can go in household trash.

Everything else, including the batteries in phones, power tools, e-bikes, and vapes, needs a drop-off site.

The Interstate 66 transfer station and the Interstate 95 landfill complex both take them.

And voting is open in the FFX Now Reader's Choice Awards for the best fall activities in Fairfax County.

Write-ins are welcome, and voting closes at 8.30 in the morning on Friday, September 25th.