Thursday, February 7, 2008

Spokane,WA

Something funny about that title? Well, it could be that it is a little less than 30 miles from where we took off yesterday. We took off yesterday and made it over Snoqualmie before they shut it down again. So we are just cruising along knowing that there is snow in Montana and Idaho thinking that we will probably stop in Spokane and head out at first light so we can see on the snow packed roads. About 10 miles before we get into Spokane, it starts snowing and the snow is sticking. We pull into a Petro and let dispatch know we are shut down because of the weather. Again. Get up this morning and check the weather and road conditions online. Chains are required in Idaho and Montana at the state line on 4th of July Pass and Lookout Pass. So right now it is 1230 our time, 1030 local time, and we are still stuck here. I hope we can at least make it to exit 16 in Montana at some point. There is another place there that we can park if we can make it that far. The bad weather is going to plague us all the way on this trip. Right now the roads are snowpacked or icy all the way to Butte which is about 250 miles or so. And then we are delivering in the Chicago area and they just got a bunch of snow dumped on them and things are treacherous there.

Money is starting to get pretty tight. We love what we are doing and don't plan on stopping, but this weather is really cutting into our wallets. When you get stuck because of the weather and can't run, then you aren't making money. I don't understand how some teams haven't even been up in this area all winter and it seems like we are permanent residents up here. If we can make it through the next few weeks, hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can make some money.

So for the time being, we are hanging out here. There is one guy that is hauling a yacht. He picked it up in SEattle and is headed to New York with it. He has been her for 4 days because the passes have restrictions on oversized vehicles. Even when there is no chain law, they aren't letting over sized vehicles over the passes so he is really screwed. So I just have to take that into consideration and know that things could be worse.

3 comments:

J&J said...

Sorry to hear about the luck you're having. This has been one really bad winter. At least for the people who live up north! I live in Florida and it has been absolutely wonderful this winter! I was wondering if you get any kind of layover pay or anything at all when you are stuck due to weather? Doesn't seem right that you don't get anything! Also, I was trying to log on to pumpkindriver.com and they moved the site and it didn't redirect me to the new site. Any idea on how to find it? Good luck out there and stay safe!

T-Net said...

Unfortunately we don't get anything. We could have kept going because we do carry chains but I didn't want to chain because if it is bad enough they are requiring chains, then we need to be stopped. But we ended up chaining today or else we would have been stuck longer because another storm was coming in. I know they have been moving pumpkindriver.com to a new server but we should still be able to access it once it is all moved. I tried logging on last night and they hadn't finished all the upgrades yet. I will check after I update my blog for today. :) And I would love to be in Florida right now.....

Tater tots said...
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