What if it Snows?

Let it snow let it snow oh how I love the snow! Oh how I love to drive in the snow! When the snow comes the freight must move on.

 

Hey weird old dude, I see myself in the same way. Wow! I thought I was the only weirdo who thought that way.

Your post has me laughin' and kind of crying. But what is important is that you bought your hill.

I hope (no I pray) that I am never a burden to anyone.

I have this lawn mower that....

 

The next time you are all alone (perhaps in the snow) remember this little poem by Robert Frost. It has haunted me since I was a child and if you love driving in the snow (or not) this little poem might ease your mind.

By Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

 

Though I'm not afraid to drive in snow, as this still from my dashcam proves... I generally park at the first opportunity.



However, you can't always predict how fast conditions will change. I've been through lake effect coming around Erie, crossed Donner in January, Snoqualmie in December, been blasted by Helena across UT/NV/CA and chased by Calie from WA to WI. Left Post Falls ID once at 4 am to find about thirty miles of solid ice awaited me.

Coming and going, I saw a dozen jackknifes and rollovers in that stretch of I-90, but I didn't have a problem. Freezing fog embedded in the pavement caused a skid descending Parley's eastbound. Somehow avoided a five-car pileup in Sparks by mere inches when some idiot four-wheeler spun out on ice at 65. That being said, I stand by my belief that driving in the snow is 25% skill, and 75% knowing when not to. Some might say I'm a chicken-####, but I'm a *LIVE* chicken-####.

 

I had to crank up the heat this morning. Temperatures dipped below 70°F going from Rapid City, SD to Dickinson, ND. Taking a LOOONNNGGG 10 at the Tiger Discount truck stop. I have an appointment with a crane at 8:00 am about an hour north, at an oil well.

I'm embarrassed to have "Oversized Load" banners and flags. It's only 8'11" wide and legal height, fer gawds sake. It was funny seeing oncoming traffic diving for the ditch on US-85.

I'm sorry.

It's just an itty bitty oversize.

Just stay calm. I shall pass thee quickly.

 

No offense, just making a joke here, but here's a little something I whipped up after seeing dashcam video of an oversize roof truss load take out a disabled truck because they couldn't/ wouldn't move over...

​

 

I dabble in fiction, and have a debut e-book published on Kindle. I borrowed part of this passage to title my current work-in-progress, which is a crime/mystery genre loosely based on my escapades as a rookie. I also used to write music and wrote a song by the same title about trucking. Never finished recording it though.

 

Well, that poem has inspired me and comforted me in many situations. Perhaps one day you'll finish the song and it will be a hit. Was it inspired by the poem?

 

Yes and no. During the months I spent preparing myself to more easily pass the tests for my CDL, I was walking away from a long, drawn-out personal situation that I had to distance myself from for my own good. I remembered this poem from reading it as a child and "I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep" sounded like a great ending to a chorus, and so I sort of borrowed it.

Before I finished writing my own lyrics, I realized that this would be the title. I can post the lyrics in their own thread if anyone would like to see them. It's a heavy hard rock power ballad for those of us who take to the open road to leave a bad situation, but find that leaving it behind is easier said than done.

As I stated earlier, this also became the title of my six-years-in-the-making fiction work that I had newly started at the time. As a side note, I find that "The Road Not Taken", also by Robert Frost, seems true to the trucking lifestyle as well.

 

That is amazing and I'm glad to hear how the poem has helped you (as it did me) in bad times.

Interestingly, I recently found his his home (historically preserved) in Shaftsbury Vermont. I pass right by it now and then and I wonder if it was in that area (imagining it in it's rural setting) that he wrote the poem. One day soon, I hope to stop and see the home and hopefully answer my question.

Keep writing my friend.