Trick question. One guy passed and was right in front of me (maybe fifteen yards ahead), while another was passing him in the left lane, so there were big trucks in both lanes. Do you see them now? That was the good part of the day. At that point, it was about twelve degrees outside and the snow was just that powdery blowing stuff, making visibility the only issue. Even that wouldn't have been bad but the roads had not been plowed, so the less traveled left lane kicked up a hell of a smokescreen whenever someone went by.
About five minutes after I snapped that shot, I guess an angel must have whispered in my ear. Traffic was moving along anywhere between 45mph and 60mph when I got the sudden feeling that something wasn't right. I have no idea where the feeling came from, as traffic was moving along and I could see nothing wrong, but it was a pretty strong feeling. So I started slowing down... way down. Then I spotted the traffic at a dead stop right in front of me. (Maybe I should think about getting another CB in here.) I managed to stop in time, as did the first two people behind me. Others behind them started skidding off the road. The cause for the stoppage was a string of accidents on both sides of the road ahead. The most gruesome thing I saw was what looked like a trio of firemen trying to retrieve the body of a truck driver from his burned-out cab on the westbound side. Why in the hell do these trucks always burn to the ground, by the way? I'm not gonna lie to you - it's pretty damn disconcerting. According to news reports (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel linked below) there was only one fatality and it was on my side, so I guess they were pulling something else from the wreckage on the westbound side.
"The worst car accident appeared to have occurred in Dane County near DeForest, where a 37-year-old Madison man died after his Jeep rear-ended a semitrailer truck that had slowed for other semis that had slid off the freeway."
So, the freeway was closed for around an hour. Good times, good times.
After that, things got progressively worse. The temperature started to rise, so the snow started to pack as it got more wet. Then the freezing rain kicked in. Then more accidents, a few of them again looking pretty damn wicked. I managed to plug along, but it was tough sledding (pun intended) to say the least. Above 40mph, it was tough to maintain traction. The roads were bumpy and it was windy as hell. The performance of the Wisconsin highway department was an absolute disgrace. It's understood that someone who loses control on a slick road was going too fast, by default. I have no disagreement there. That being said, a halfway competent effort to tend to the roads could have saved at least one life today. I honestly believe that.
Once I crossed into Illinois the roads had been plowed and salted, leaving them clean and wet in some spots, dry in others. Furthermore, they were in the process of replowing and resalting to prepare for the overnight precipitation. This storm started early in the morning. The fact that Wisconsin had done nothing by this evening is unacceptable. It was eerily reminiscent of the worst road situation I encountered last winter. On that day, Missouri was a steady scene of carnage and disaster. Then, across the bridge, Illinois' roads were clean and dry. Something is very wrong there.
The rest of the drive was a slow but steady affair. The freezing rain gradually became rain. The traffic got progressively lighter, at least for a while. Closer to Chicago there was plenty of slower traffic that refused to keep right. Until that time I hadn't decided which route to take. Since most of those douchebags were heading down the bypass, I stayed on I-90. Back to the speed limit. Beauty.
Indiana - no issues.
Michigan - no issues... almost. The last part of the drive, from Grand Rapids to Cedar Springs, was on a fucking hockey rink. Cars, unable to see what was ahead of me, kept passing me. Then they kept spinning out. So I kept slowing down to keep my distance from them. So more cars kept passing, and spinning out, and I kept slowing... I made it to the customer in something loosely resembling eleven hours, so that's good enough for me. Then came time to drop the trailer...
You know the deal. Snow, then rain = ice sheet. I got into the customer's unplowed lot (they're not open on weekends, remember?) without any major issues. Too bad I don't have my skates with me. I set up carefully, not making any sudden changes in direction, and backed my trailer to a spot on the yard. No worries there. I released the fifth wheel and the connections. So far, so good. I put the truck in gear. And I went nowhere. I got out, pulled out my crowbar, chipped away as much ice as possible, and tried again. And I went nowhere. Just about the time I was out of bright ideas, I remembered a bit of advice I got from a Canadian tow truck driver last winter - "Quit being such a pussy. Start it in third gear and give it hell." Well, his advice got me out of the ice in Canada at the time. It also got me out from under that trailer tonight. It's a little scary gunning it in third gear when you're used to inching out and making sure the trailer sits steadily on the ground. Visions of my truck flying forward and the trailer crashing down were in my head at the time. As it went though, gunning it in third gear on the ice caused me to inch forward more slowly than I would have in low gear on dry pavement.
There are a few CFI trailers here, but they're all locked in the docks. (This place is closed on weekends, remember?) So, sans empty, I had to call and talk to someone in Joplin. This is becoming far too common for my liking. I can usually go a month or two without talking to those people. Lately I have to call about every load. She put me on the board with no empty. I'm not going to highlight for home now, instead rolling the dice that I'll get bobtailed to Taylor to board there. I only need ten minutes to run home and grab my mail. Unless there's a load to pick up that won't require me to drop an empty, bobtailing to the yard seems like the most logical thing. The other less desirable option is that they could sit me here for a day until this place opens at 7am Monday. We may have a fight on our hands if that happens.
This was one of those days that leaves me thinking it over after all is said and done. For a restless mind like my own, this is usually not a good thing. Anyhow, I turned sixteen and got my driver's license on September 10th, 1992. A couple of months later I was learning at the winter driving school of hard knocks. Now I guess this would be my sixteenth winter in this stuff and my second in a big truck. I have to imagine that, through so many years of trial and error (with plenty of error), I've developed a pretty sound feel for how to handle the nasty roads and how not to panic when things don't go perfectly. That would be a good thing, I think. I also tend to just drive along in whatever weather comes my way, when most drivers would shut down for the day. Maybe that's a bad thing. I don't know. I can say without a doubt that I would be sleeping in Wisconsin right now if I hadn't spun so many cars in my day and subsequently learned how to keep them under control. It was a pretty rough scene up there today, and my ass end got loose more than a few times, but I simply didn't give a shit. I don't know man. I don't know.
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