Indiana Ice

Yesterday I headed out of Fort Worth headed to Indiana. I got us about half way through Oklahoma on US 69 and then J took over. I had already hit some snow but the roads were ok, just wet. J takes off and right before the Missouri state line it starts coming down hard. He pulled into the Welcome Center Rest Area right across the Missouri state line. I was still awake and could tell the roads were bad even though I was in the bunk with the curtain closed. He had slowed down and it was in 9th gear because I heard it downshift. So when he stops I ask him what he is doing and he says he has to clean off the wipers. Well, that means it is snowing, bad. Then I ask him how the roads are and he say, "Well, I'm ok if I follow the tire tracks in the snow." WTF? That bad already? So I get out and it is a white out. I tell him there is no way he is going any further. The roads are too bad! So he sends in a message that we are stopping and I will take over in the morning.

Fast forward to about 0630 this morning. Snow has finally stopped, but it is a mess. Miraculously the roads are wet, but not snow packed. The Missouri DOT was putting salt on the roads and it works great. So I toodle on along and there are cars off the road every where. I am just thankful we stopped for the night. We make it to Edwardsville and stop and eat lunch and take off again. J heads back to sleep. As I am cruising through Illinois on I-70 I see 6, yes, 6 semis off the side of the road that were jack-knifed due to the ice. One of them was teetering on a guardrail with the cab of the truck just hanging in the air over the ditch. You know that driver about shit when he went flying over that guardrail. By the grace of God he is still alive. So after seeing all of those trucks off the road, I am really really glad that we decided to stop for the night. When I took off driving and the roads were wet but clear, I thought maybe we should have kept going. THEN I see all the trucks that were wrecked. Yep, it was a sign. I never second guess my gut feelings.

So we just delivered here in a suburb of Indianapolis and are now heading to our Indy OC to drop this trailer and pick up our next load. This next load is going to Kent,WA. I don't know if you have been watching the news but I-90 has been closed for 5 days at Snoqualmie Pass in Washington due to avalanches. That is the road we need to take. Great. So we decided we will take I-80 and then take I-84 to Portland and I-5 up into the Seattle area. That would work if I-80 wasn't shut down. We are hoping though that I-80 will be back open when we get to it. I HATE I-80 in Wyoming, but we don't have much of an alternative. Besides, even if they do open I-90, there are more mountains that way and they will probably have the chain law in effect.

That is what we are dealing with. I hope it clears up before we hit Wyoming!