Turn Around And You're There

Off I went on another paint delivery into the deep boonies of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. Vinny gave me directions to C&M Hardwoods on Leboeuf Trail in Centerville. He's not my first choice for directions, but of all the humans currently at Sherwin Williams Meadville, he was the only one who knows where it is. "Go up that street there, what is that, 27?" Great, not even out of sight of the store and he's unsure of his information. "You know where you turn left to go up the hill to the Fairgrounds?" "You mean 77. Yes." "Go on up the hill to the KwikFill" Good. If there's a KwikFill, a Country Fair or a Sheetz, he's all over it. "Keep going through Blooming Valley, and on the other side you'll go up the hill and keep going until you come to a road to the right called Lyona Road. There's really no landmarks out there to help you find it."  So far so good. "Turn right on Lyona Road and go to the end. The highway (he means 408) bends there, so going straight from Lyona Road puts you on the highway to Townville. Go through Townville, and on the other side you'll come to a four way intersection. I always look for a dilapidated trailer, and soon after that there's this four way. There's a sign there that says C&M Hardwoods. Turn right. It's a dirt road. Go about, I don't know, I'm terrible with distances, maybe a mile and a half?" I shrugged. "You'll find it. There's a building on the right and a building on the left. I don't think there's a sign, but you'll see Chris' green Ford truck." Well, I thought, I've gone farther on less before, how far wrong can I go? Let's find out.

The early stages were easy. But once I was past the KwikFill, I felt like I was in uncharted territory. On I went through Blooming Valley and up the other side, and on and on, trying to read every street sign going off to the right, knowing how well unmarked much of rural Pennsylvania is (see "The Road Less Marked" several posts back) and keep up speed so as not to piss off the local drivers. After way too many minutes of barreling along Route77 on the far side of Blooming Valley, I decided I must have missed it. I began looking for a place to pull off this busy highway. Up ahead there was a road off to the right. I slowed down and turned right onto, you guessed it, Lyona Road.

On I went on Lyona, rereading my notes I took while Vinny rambled. Miles down the road I finally came to the double stop signs in series taking you in a straight line from Lyona Road to the eastbound leg of Route 408. On through Townville and out the other side. Now I have gone there and back again, and I still couldn't tell you where this dilapidated trailer is. Perhaps, after all my decades in the South, I have a different idea of what to look for when it comes to dilapidated trailers. Anyway, I kept going and going until I figured I must have missed it. I began looking for a good place to turn around. There was an intersection up ahead. Oh look it's...Leboeuf Trail. There's the C&M Hardwoods thataway sign. I pulled off and found my delivery ticket. 11505 Leboeuf Trail was the address. On I went.

As usual, house numbers were hard to come by, but enough people had numbers on their mailboxes for me to track my progress from 12530 down through 11875 and then there was a cluster of mailboxes with four digit numbers! I went too far? How did I do that? I looked for a place to turn around. Guess what. C&M does have a sign. Right there.

The cluster of mailboxes served a cluster of houses down a little dirt cross street. Silly me.