What if it Snows?

I celebrated the snow and dropping temperatures. Took most of my warm weather clothes and swapped them out with winter clothes. Five sets of long johns, three sets of insulated leather gloves, various knitted hats, balaclavas, Yak Tracks for walking on my iced up flatbed deck or icy parking lots, and plenty of thick socks.

That winter gear came in handy. Loaded frack valves on the deck for delivery tomorrow morning at first light. The flatbed was an ice rink. Loaded in 25 mph winds below freezing. Had to beat on my winches to get them to slide into position.

Love my new side boxes with the steps to get on my catwalk. My binders stay dry, stowed with PB Blaster on the moving parts. Other drivers at the shipper were struggling trying to get their binders to function, the guys that leave them out in the elements on the headache rack. It's going to get cold enough tonight it will freeze the mud roads rock solid. That's a blessing.

 

I tried some baklava once.

It was Greek to me.

 

Meanwhile, here in Alabama......
God bless ya'll

 

Man that sounds like a pirate trying to get the working girls in line....

Now I want to go to Disney land just to ride "Pirates of the Caribbean"

 

In Senatobia Ms tonight. Projected to get down to 32 with a wind chill of 20......WHAT???????!!!!!!

 

We expect a touch of cold. You actually have a ice storm developing in the area of Asheville-Roanoke for next couple of days. Snow to east of Arkansas tomorrow.

It's cold here in central Arkansas for November, but it's all good. Not yet cold enough to deploy space heaters. I got three of them ready to go. (Electric oil filled)

 

In the last five years I have had to shut it down because of road closures twice. Once going westbound on I-40 in Winslow, AZ due to rollovers from high winds (the Flying J was a total circus and the highway patrol came out to direct traffic out of the truck stop when it reopened). The other time was in Louisiana on I-10 eastbound, due to an ice storm. That time traffic was routed off the freeway in Beaumont, TX and we snaked through residential and commercial neighborhoods, with many a trucker pealing off to park in some gawdaful mud hole. I kept going, eventually getting to an intersection with I-10. I stopped to ask the cop waving traffic if I-10 was open (at the East side of Beaumont, he was impatient and waved me vigorously the the intersection to go under the I-10 overpass). I was following a bulk pneumatic as he made the left toward the on ramp, but he kept on the frontage road.

There weren't any cones blocking entry to eastbound I-10..."Sweet!"...so I get back on the big road, easy on the throttle because of the ice.

After half an hour it dawns on me that not only has nobody overtaken my cautious ###, nobody's coming westbound...AT ALL. Uh oh. I guess they really did mean to shut I-10!

I drove another hour before finding a truck stop, getting off the big road in low range, down a hill with a stop sign before turning right and right again. I barely made that turn. I crept into the only dry place, under the fuel island, set the parking brakes, and then did a slip and slide on an inch of solid ice, walking the parking lot to find an open space. Finally I found one. It took the power divider to get into the space.

In the morning my teammate woke up to a truck that wasn't moving. "WTF!!!??" I told him I-10 was shut down (the long bridges over the swamps froze over). We waited for 30 hours for Louisiana to open, then got in a stop and crawl at the border with Florida. We did deliver that dry van load on time near Florida. The forklift driver was amazed to see all that ice still clinging to the sides and top of our tractor and trailer. He had never seen snow before.

 

Thank you kindly. It's going to get cold here in White County and we are in a still time before the morning snow (two inches maybe) and some glazed ice. Everyone east of us will get something tomorrow or next day. With a particular emphasis on the entire I-81 Shenandoah Valley being really bad in ice by Friday.