Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

Finally dropped that load from Laredo this morning. Roads were fine until I got south of Fort Worth then it got bad. Ice was everywhere. I took it slow but saw a lot of abandoned cars, some jackknifed trucks and some 4 wheelers that shouldn't have been out driving. Couldn't make my delivery last night as I had originally planned so I shut down at a Walmart just inside Texas before the Oklahoma state line. I could barely keep from sliding in that parking lot. This morning wasn't much better for the first few miles on I-35 until I got closer to the Dollar Tree DC.

I've been waiting for 4 hours for a trailer solution. Then heading up to Kimberly Clark near Tulsa to deliver to SLC. Looks like snow north of me so this might be a show going load too.

Is it almost spring?

 

I'm going to keep that rest area in mind. I may be going right back up there.

I'm at the SLC terminal now. Are you here too?

 

Thanks for following along!

I keep it going as sort of a journal to look back on later. I might want to look back later and see how this path unfolded. I also like to throw in a lot of my personal life just because with any memories of events, things get cloudy later. I would like to remember some things as I felt them just at that moment.

Hope you continue to follow along.

 

Oh man that is a lot of money! I believe you guys do work for it. The money would justify the responsibility alone. Im pretty intrigued by this facet of life. There's not a whole lot of exposure of that profession. The only thing I can think of is maybe a scene in Airplane! the movie.

Now are these same standards and the phraseology only applied to large commercial aviation or does it apple to the local municipal airports with the Cessna's and such?

Im pretty ignorant on this subject.

 

I'm sitting at the SLC terminal right now waiting on my t call to arrive. I'm sitting in the prequal line picking up the Channel 9 WiFi waiting to find out if they are going to replace my windshield tonight so I can get rolling on this next load tomorrow morning.

My tcall is going up to a place in N. Dakota. I haven't been to N.D. in at least a year, maybe almost two and I'm a little apprehensive about the weather up there this time of year.

I had dropped that last load in Marietta, OK and picked up a Kimberly Clark in Jenks, OK coming out here to the Albertsons/SuperValu in N. SLC. Nice load mileage wise at about 1370 total but I arrived almost a day late.

And let me say Wyoming kicked my ### and my trucks ###. Those last 400+ miles took me over 2 days. Originally I was going to be delivering early only to arrive about 21 hours late.

That first night was a true pucker moment. I don't get scared that often but I admit I was actually pretty terrified for a while there. I don't want a repeat of that sensation again if I can help it.

I came up through Colorado and near Ft. Collins I took the 287 bypass up into Laramie, WY. Everything up to this point in the trip was gravy. Some winds in Eastern Colorado, as is expected, but all was fine.

At some point heading west of Laramie I saw what I though was a pattern of rain in the distance on my WeatherBug app. But it hadn't even started to drizzle so I kept rolling. I had just passed another Swiftie and I was on the left lane when in a matter of seconds all hell broke loose.

For about 1 minute I was in a heavy sleet downpour and then immediately a minute later it was all out blizzard.

I moved over to the slow lane, dropped my speed and watched as the truck in front of me either slid, was getting blown or by some other circumstance started to drive off the road to the right. He almost went off the road but brought it back and saved it. Then I experienced something that I had never encountered as either a professional driver or in my personal car.

The snow was so incredibly heavy, blowing so hard and at such a peculiar angle that my sense of speed was completely off. It was like a weird acid trip. I think the snow was blowing directly at me head on and the way it was hitting my headlights and due to it being so incredibly heavy my senses were all screwed up. I can't accurately describe it other than to say it felt like I was vaguely driving drunk.

I slowed down to about 35 mph. At least I think it was about that. Four ways flashing and reflecting more than usual off the blowing snow, I just couldn't get my senses straight. I wasnt tired or fatigued, it was an experience I couldn't imagine duplicated.

Traffic behind me backed off and I left a lot of room between me and any traffic up front. Roads went from dry to wet and another minute later as this storm hit me head on as it crossed in a narrow and violent strip of I-80 the interstate started to accumulate snow quick.

I passed the first rest area I saw. It looked full. The road at this point was slick and snow covered and as the temp dropped it looked like it was icing as fast as the snow could be melted under warm tires. I was terrified.

A couple of years ago I marked off a spot on my atlas. With a simple little black, permanent marker line I had put a small strike thru on this section of I-80 where I had discovered a nice, quiet place to park. It was the Conoco gas station at mile 255. Not quite a truck stop, it was little more than a small gas station with a gravel lot across the street for semi parking. In the Allstays app it states 10 parking spots for trucks although that estimate is pretty conservative. The gravel lot is quite accommodating, probably more like space for 25 trucks parked perpendicular to the road.

But the last time I was here was a long time ago. It was warmer back then, maybe summertime, and I had woke up that morning a long time ago with a beautiful view facing south of Elk Mountain out my side sleeper window

 

I remembered that spot facing Elk Mountain and I recognized the exit as it came up.

I pulled off and it was dark everywhere with the exception of some ambient light down below from the streetlights near the overpass down on 80. The convenience store was completely dark and there were gates closed and locked out front. I was the only truck there as I pulled into the snow covered lot across the street and tried to set myself up in such a way that I thought I would be most likely to be able to leave the next day without difficultly. I got stuck once as the lot dipped deep as it touched the paved side road that crisscrossed over 80 and ran off into the distance up a hill to the north, ambling off into some place unseen in the distance. I cursed myself for not having a shovel or the ice melt I used to carry with me before I took a leave of absence.

I parked, shut it down and felt a quiet calm as I walked out in the snow. I felt a sense if relief come over me that I haven't felt in a long time.