Made it!

It took forever, but we made it to our drop up in the Chicago area. This morning I left a rest area at the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin on I-94. I drove about an hour to the next rest area and had to go to the restroom so I pulled in. When I went in, there was a television with the weather information on it. It was showing regional and the local weather. Where I was at was showing -10, which was about right because the truck said it was -8. But what surprised me was the next screen that popped up. It was the one showing the windchills on the map. Where i was at was showing a wind chill of -41. Holy cow!!! I new it was freaking cold outside, but DAAMNNN!! That is just ridiculous cold. So cold that when the wind hits your face, your nose just closes up and doesn't want to breathe because it is too cold. So you have to breathe out of your mouth. I will be so happy when we get out of this cold weather.

Anyway, so I was cruising along when I first took off going about 55 because the roads still had some icy spots and snow over the road. This went on for about 100 miles. Then after I got through Madison, the road went to crap. Complete black ice on the road. We were all on the road going about 25 mph. As I toodle along, I have a 4 wheeler in front of me and then another semi in front of that car. As we are crawling at our slow 25 mph, this Dodge Durango decided to pass us going probably 45-50. As he passes the car in front of me, the car decides to get in the hammer lane and pass the truck in front of him behind the Durango. Not a smart idea. The Durango gets about 50 yards in front of us in the hammer lane and loses control of the car. It spins and flips over, the top hitting the guard rail on the left and then lands right side up in the center median. All of us let off the gas but we know better than to hit our brakes. Even though the first truck is driving through a cloud of snow, he does great and keeps it straight. The car that was passing behind the Durango gets past the Durango and pulls off to the left and is able to come to a stop. By now I am passing the car and still slowing down. Myself and the other truck it seemed were going to stop also and help, but when we noticed for sure the other car was stopping to help, we kept going. It wasn't safe for us to stop considering how heavy and big we are, but at least someone did stop to help them. It is Sunday morning and I can't help but think they were probably on their way to church. I hope God was watching over them today!

Well, made the drop at Estes. Was in and out of there in about 20 minutes. It was nice. Got to the gate, he told me where to go, went in, guy told me to park anywhere so I parked in the empty spot next to the gate and then bobtailed out of there. Fastest I have ever been in and out of a place. Then I drove up right into Winsonsin to Kenosha and picked up an empty trailer at Daimler Chrysler. Drove another 30 miles or so to a Flying J and pulled over to let J drive. I left around 0330 this am so I was tired.

Now J is driving us up to Green Bay where we are picking up our next load. Then we are going to head to the Green Bay OC and do some laundry. This wind is REALLY windy and hitting us broadside. I'm not liking it. We may head out early in the AM and give this wind a chance to die down. Weather up here hasn't been great lately.