Ice Strike - Quad Cities, IL Area

Cold evening in January, about 6pm. I's just driving along, E/B I-280 passing the Jumer's Resort, about MM14, at 65 mph. Suddenly, something about as long as my arm comes spinning out of the dark from right to left, headed right for the tractor windshield. As the thing impacts the windshield, I can see that it's about 4" or so around and looks kind of oval shaped. I thought the driver of the 4-wheeler I was passing tossed a board out the window, but other driver's on the CB network began warning about a large chunk of ice on the roadway. All I can say is thank God (Buddah, The Great Tree, Moradin, Allah, or Insert Your Source of Inspiration Here) for old fashioned Freightliner split windshields. I'm convinced that if the steel frame piece hadn't been there, the ice chunk would have come through the windshield. The right side was significantly deformed, inner layer of glass was caved inward about 1/16" to 1/8", with inner layer glass breakage. The left side was only fractured on the outside of the tractor, no deformation inward. Where the strike happened was directly in line with the runway at Quad Cities International Airport. The link below should take you to the album I created with the pictures, if I did it right. Drive safely, brothers and sisters, and keep a weather eye to the skies!