Troy,IL

Thursday morning found us waking up bright and early at 0215 so that we could get to our next load up in Westboro,MA by 0600. After the snow that they had in that area, the roads were pretty much a mess, but we made it without sliding off of the road. It took them forever to get me loaded but by around 1030 I was on the road. It was a high value load and I couldn't stop for 200 miles. Somehow I managed to make it to Pittston which is about 270 miles without stopping. But boy did I have to use the ladies room when we got there. :) As we pulled in they checked the trailer and determined that we needed brakes done, so we dropped the trailer in the shop, grabbed a bite to eat in the truck and about 2 hours later we were on the way again.

This load was a short 1000 miles that had us dropping in Pleasant Prairie,WI. I ended up and got there about 2 hours early and was finished before my actual appointment time. I love it when that happens. FM didn't have anything right away so I headed to the Petro about 14 miles up the road to wait. I got there and got a spot about 4 trucks from the front. I love it when that happens too! I chilled for a while and around 1230 I get a load that has to be picked up by 1300. Good thing I was only 9.5 miles away. J was still asleep through all of this and luckily this was a place we had picked up before so I knew where I was going. I got there and checked in, dropped my trailer and picked up a pre-loaded one. J finally woke up when he heard me banging on the bracket that holds the load locks. I couldn't get it open to put the load locks back in it that I had in the empty trailer. Don't know why I bothered since I found the loaded trailer and had to get them back down again to brace that load. LOL But he was up and dressed by this time so he put them in the trailer for me.

We now have yet another hazmat load. I swear we have had more hazmat loads this month than we have had non-hazmat loads. That is ok with me though. They usually pay a little better. :) Once we got the trailer sealed we headed to the Pilot to scale. We were heavy, but after moving the tandems one notch forward, we were good to go. This load is going to Laredo and isn't due until Monday morning. As I have said before, nothing happens in Laredo on the weekend as far as freight goes. All of the forwarding companies are closed. With that in mind, we knew we had tons of time on this load to go the short 1400 miles by Monday morning considering it was only Friday afternoon. So we headed back to the Petro at x333 on I-94 in Sturtevant,WI where we did laundry, grabbed a shower, had a nice meal and a nice night of non moving sleep.

I got up this morning and headed out around 0600. We figured we each only had to drive about 350 miles a shift and we would still be there by midnight on Sunday night. We will get there earlier though. I had a nice drive through the Chicago area this morning since it was Saturday. I love when there is no traffic through there. (Jim, I would have called but it was pretty early and I didn't want to call and wake you guys up at 0700 on the weekend!)

Anyway, so I was having a nice leisurely drive, going 55 mph trying to get good fuel mileage, when it happened. What happened? Well, I will tell you. With it being winter, there is snow and ice everywhere, right? And that includes on cars and trucks. You see them driving down the highway every day with snow blowing off of them. And chunks of ice falling from the top of the trailer or the bottom of the trailer. I had a DART truck come past me doing about 60. I flashed my lights for him to come back over into the right lane, and he did. He got about two trucks in front of me when chunks of ice started breaking free from the top of his trailer. I watched a few pieces fly off, but they were fairly small. Then comes the BIG piece. Not a "sheet" of it, but it was about an 18 inch square and litterally about 3 inches thick. It flies off, but I swear it stayed suspended in the air. The other smaller debris has flown off to the side. Not this piece. As I am watching it I say out loud, "oh shit!" I check my mirror super fast and there is a car in the left lane at the back of my trailer so I don't have time to change lanes. What can I do but brace for impact? That huge chunk of ice hit my front passenger window straight on. Shattered the window. Well, not shattered in the sense that you can't see out of it, but there are at minimum 40 lines running through that window. The break is in the form of an X with the majority of the damage in the bottom part of the X but some lines in the top part of it also. When it hit I yelled another bad word beginning with a F, poor Smokey bolts to the back and on top of J who is sleeping, who simultaneously yells "Are you ok? What was that?", to which I reply, "DART had some ice fly off his trailer and busted my f'in window!" At that point I had to decide between pulling over or trying to catch him. Of course I tried to catch him. I floored the truck and finally caught up with him about 2 miles up. I was praying the Illinois State Patrol wasn't around because I was doing 70 in a 55. I finally catch up with him but he doesn't have a CB. He finally figures out I need him to pull over. We pull over at the weigh station that is closed and he gets out and we talk and I let him know what happened. He came to look at the window and couldn't believe it. He was very nice and apologetic, even though it wasn't something he did on purpose. He called his company and I called ours and we ended up with him giving me his insurance info and we will go from there.

We were stopping in Springfield anyway tonight to have them check this trailer we have so we will have them check the windshield. It should be fine as far as DOT is concerned. I just don't want to stop and have it fixed in Springfield. That means giving this load to someone else to deliver, us getting stuck there while they fix it, and then getting in line to wait for a load out of there. I would rather deliver this load to Laredo and get it fixed there. I think I will take my chances getting a load in Laredo vs waiting on one there in Springfield. :)

So that was my exciting day. I was just telling J this afternoon that it isn't fair that EVERYTHING happens to me. I am the one that drives when we have to chain, I am the one that hit the deer, I am the one that had the bear run out in front of me, I am the one that had the car driving the wrong way on I-70 coming right at me, I am the one that had the steer tire blow and now I am the one that gets assaulted by the flying ice! He said it is because I am an angel watching over him and I take care of that stuff to keep him safe. Maybe he is right, but God definitely watches over us and keeps us safe. I can't take credit for that. But I will keep on letting him think I am an angel for as long as he wants. :)