Patience is a virtue. Me and a couple buddies left at 6 am to go to Duffield VA to chase U41 with 8099, the southern heritage unit leading. We arrived between 9-10 am expecting it to already be on the way. We were bummed to see it was STILL sitting in Andover. Texted a couple people and found out that U41 went OD at 2pm. So for 4 hours we passed the time doing whatever we could possibly think of in Appalachia VA. Walked the town 2-3 times, Found a old busted basketball hoop so we bought a basketball to play, even took a Power Nap. 2pm finally rolls around, and a solo teir 4 rolls by us, picks up a low gondola, and goes back to the yard. We sat there like “there’s no way that was our U41…” we went back to Andover around 3pm and STILL 8099 hasn’t moved. Disappointed was an understatement. To keep the day from being a total failure, we decided that we were gonna spend the rest of the day in Bluefield WV. So we start that way. 30 minutes into our drive, I get a text. “U41 with 8099 leading pulled up to Appalachia.” Jaw on the floor. Flipped a hard U turn and flew back that way, and intercepted them at Big Stone Gap. If we would have waited maybe 10 more minutes we would have seen them get on their train instead of putting ourselves in a ridiculously stressful situation. So here is U41 passing through the infamous Natural Tunnel State Park.
