Running with JCT

If the company wants to pay me to drop down to 40 so be it otherwise I run across 80 to 15 which the company guarantees to pay every winter. Nothing worse than swallowing extra miles only to get stick somewhere due to the weather and not be paid those extra miles.

 

Thanks for the advice guys. We are still here waiting for the other driver to show up, he should be here soon. Our main concern right now is the weather. I suggested that we go 80 to 15 but Tim is concerned about mountains, having never driven that route before. He is back sleeping right now, so I am asking for him. Is it a lot of mountainous driving to take 80 to 15? He doesn't want to be in the mountains in bad weather.


actually, I think it was 15 that he was most concerned about.

 

The other driver just showed up in a brand-new evolution. Forget the trailer let's just swap trucks!

 

OK, we are driving up to Salt Lake on 80. Just passed Sydney NE. Going to fuel in Cheyenne, they had good prices yesterday when we were there. Then going to try to make it to Laramie tonight. Roads are dry so far.

 

Fueled in Cheyenne, (with anti-gel for ambient -2deg!), made it to the Petro in Laramie, knocked the rest of the trip down to 1083mi in two days, deliver tuesday morn, not bad so far... managed to do a 90-deg back-in between 2 trucks in one shot, no pull-ups! Anne was amazed, so was I! How did that happen? Like y'all said, pick any open dock, forget it, but nail that one last empty one, I guess...

 

The ride from Cheyenne to Laramie WY is way more exciting than I ever expected.

It's 0° outside. It's dark. Around midnight Mountain Time, or 2am Florida time. Yellow flasher lights every few miles alongside I 80 warn us about slick spots, saying to turn off your cruise control. The right lane is dry but there is snow and shiny ice on the left lane. Then a sign warning about high winds for the next 5 miles add to the mix.

All of a sudden we come upon a stopped police cruiser in the left lane sitting on a huge icy spot that is large enough for a skating rink and in front of his cruiser, about 30 feet away, is a bloody carcass. Gross. We drive slowly by.

More yellow flasher lights and signs telling us about slick spots and to use caution and slow down from 75mph to 65mph. As if we were going that fast!

Then we see a sign saying we are at 8600 something feet elevation, and there's President Lincoln's head on a huge monument!

And then the real fun begins. We see more yellow flasher lights warning about slick spots, saying to slow down, alongside another sign that says we are now going downhill at a 5% grade, use lower gear!

If I hadn't been white-knuckling hard enough already, I was now. 5% grade at night with added slick spots? Oh, great. I prayed. I held my breath and prayed. Two hours later, or so it seemed, we were almost to the bottom of the mountain, we sailed through the center of a big rock and beheld the twinkling lights of Laramie in the valley! I could exhale.

Had I known all this beforehand, maybe I would have suggested we drive south through Kansas after all. But.... Look what we would have missed!

 

That rest area with the big Lincoln head is pretty neat inside. They have like a mini stuffed animal zoo in there. It was neat to read about all the different animals. Stop in some time if you have a little extra time.

 

As we drove by I saw the truck lights and told Tim there were trucks up there! We didn't know you could stop there, if we ever go that way again and have time, I would love to stop and take pictures! Bet there is a good view from up there!

 

It was night time so you couldn't see them but the Vedauwoo rock formations, just east of the Lincoln Monument, are really cool! They're like giant marbles.....and I mean GIANT.