CRETE - A Year in Review

Hello All!

Well this has been one very interesting day. I was under a load out of NJ after dropping off my load of penny blanks to the Mint. I made it to the Pilot at MM173 on I-80 last night under clear (well at least no snow or rain) skies. The weather channel was warning of a bad storm on its way. This storm had already wreaked havoc on a good portion of the country and it was headed my way.

Sure enough, I awoke at 3am this morning to a healthy coat of snow and I had a good 300+ miles of it ahead of me. Most of day was spent driving on snow packed roads that seemed to have had very little effort put into clearing them. By the time I made it close to the OH line the snow had given way to freezing rain (may I have the snow back please).

It didn't take long to find the snow again. I was headed to Fostoria, OH which meant a solid 100 miles on 2lanes. Anyone wanna guess what that was like. For those of you lacking the necessary imaginary skills here are a few shots.

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I spent hours crawling around at a snails pace in many places. I finally made my delivery a little more than one hour late and ended up with a choice of 3 loads. I have the feeling a number of drivers may have sat the day out, leaving me with a nice selection. I zeroed in on a load going to Louisiana. I've escaped the North East and I will be putting this horrid snow and ice behind me.

Only one problem left. That particular load doesn't pickup until 2mrw at Noon. That was fine with me after this day. By the time I get down to the truckstop close to the pickup point around 2:30pm today I'll be ready to call it quits.

Just one more obstacle. Driving 45 miles on these roads with an empty trailer. It was a thrill ride to say the least. That stupid trailer was all over the place. I was relieved to finally get to I-75. It was the first pavement that I had seen in over 6hrs. It may have looked like a safe haven, but I made it a grand total of maybe 2 miles and came across this disaster (Note Dart truck laying down in the ditch, there was supose to be a USA truck laid over too, but I couldn't see that one.



As bad as that looked, this is what was one mile behind that.

;

And two miles later:


I couldn't wait to get to the truckstop and shut this thing down. There may have been pavement visible, but it was like driving on a sheet of ice and the wind hit me hard enough (wasn't really that windy, I was just empty) to break my traction twice and had me wiggling around pretty good.

I eventually made it to the Pilot and have been sitting here watching guys get stuck in the parking lot. They are even having problems with drivers with empty trailers getting stuck in the fuel islands because the snow is so deep and Pilot hasn't gotten around to making any attempt at clearing it away.

Oh, the joys of truckdriving!