Battle Mountain,NV

It has been a few days, but we have been pushing it hard to get to California in the hopes that we would miss some of the bad weather. We picked up this load on Friday afternoon, and by the time we picked it up and scaled, we decided to call it a night since we do have a little extra time and there were some snow flurries there in PA where we stopped. I got a pretty good nights sleep, although cold, and then I was up and on the road at 0300. I managed to get us to the OH/IN state line, well actually the first service plaza in IN and from there J took over. I had an easy day with no real bad weather. He didn't have much bad weather either but he had a lot of wind.

That covered Saturday so Sunday morning J woke me up in Des Moines,IA. Unfortunately he didn't get me out of the wind and I had to deal with it most of the day. I managed to get us to Big Springs,NE where we stopped at the Pilot and switched and off J went. He did great and got me to Evanston,WY. He said there was some black ice and some parts were snow covered and blowing snow, but he managed to get me where he needed to. I can always count on him!

When I got up there in Evanston this morning, it was COLD. My temp on the truck showed -22 outside. HOLY MOLY that is freaking cold. I lucked out and didn't have any problems with the roads between there and Salt Lake City where I stopped to get fuel at our yard. Quick bathroom break and fuel and I was on the road. My plan was to get to Winnemucca,NV by the end of my shift because we have a friend there that we wanted to have lunch with. It turns out that it didn't happen. As I left Salt Lake and headed west, the skies started looking bad, like snow. Sure enough, I get about 30 miles into Nevada and it is a major snow storm. The first pass that I get to at about mile marker 380, and that is a complete guess, states that the chain law is in effect. And this after I have been driving on packed snow and ice for about 20 miles. Great! I hate waking J up but I need his help getting the chains on. I managed to get one of them on, but I can't get them tight enough. With the chains on, I take off and make it another 30 or so miles into Well,NV where we pull into the Flying J for a breather. We grab some lunch and I call 511 to see how far I am going to have to go with chains. We were stopped at mile marker 351 and chains are required to mile marker 280. Great, only another 70 miles to go!!! With a full belly, I pull out of the parking lot and continue west. I imagine I went another 40 miles or so when the sun came out and one lane was just wet and not snow covered so I took the first exit I could find to get the chains off. Finally barefoot again, without chains that is, I was back on the road. J finally was able to get a nap in for a while. I managed to drive till 1645, which put me exactly at my 11 hours, because J didn't get much sleep with having to get up to chain and he needed a little more rest.

With basically dry roads, I pulled into the Flying J and woke J up so he could take over. He has a pretty easy day. He only has to go about 240 miles tonight to Sparks,NV. We are going to spend the night there and I will drive the last 240 to the first receiver in the morning. Our first appointment is at 0800 local, or 1000 our time, so if I hit the road by 0400, with a shower at 0300, then that will give me 6 hours to do the 240 miles and that should be no problem. Our second drop is a short 50 miles away at 1100 then our last is down in Santa Ana,CA on Wednesday morning at 0900 local. Looks like we will get another good night of non moving sleep tomorrow while we wait to deliver our last drop. If anyone is stopped somewhere tomorrow afternoon or evening anywhere on a direct route from Newark,CA to Santa Ana,CA let me know and we can have dinner or something!