More Weather Experiences

#3 catching some sun

Well, we're currently sitting in Georgia, waiting on our next load - our assigned load got cancelled! That's the way that trucking goes though. Sometimes they run you so hard you barely have time to breathe, picking up loads as soon as you deliver others. And then other times you sit at a location all day because the load that was supposed to be picked up at 10am was actually scheduled for 9pm by a miscommunication - only to get cancelled at 8:30pm, leaving you high and dry.

Snow and ice on the windshield 

The past week has been interesting: we have experienced nearly every kind of inclement weather and now we have also experienced heavy snow and ice. We had a load from Dallas, Texas to Denver, Colorado. Just after crossing the Kansas/Colorado border, we hit a sudden snowstorm, completely obliterating the road in snow. We pulled over at a truck stop for about 4 hours to let the storm blow by, then managed to safely deliver the load in Denver.

View from our parking spot 

Our load back out of Denver, however, was 3 hours late on its pickup time. When we finally got the load and headed back out of town, we could tell another storm was right behind us. We tried to outrun the storm, but got caught in freezing fog, which coated everything in ice. Our mirrors, headlights, and windshield froze over, and the road became slick. Then the storm caught up, adding wind and snow to the mix. We pulled over again, but this time the storm lasted almost 24 hours! It continued to snow and the wind increased to 40 mph. Parked 100 feet away from the truck stop, we couldn't even see the building!

Snow and ice on the fields 

Thankfully, our fleet manager understood when we explained the conditions. We spent the night in a hotel, and got up the next morning to 6 degrees with a wind chill below zero. The wind had finally calmed down and highway workers had been working to partially clear the roads. A few hours later, after letting the truck warm up and scraping off the snow, the temperature had reached 12 degrees. We cautiously started out, driving slowly as the road still had patchy ice. The farther east we got, the clearer the roads became. About the time we reached the Kansas border again, the roads were clear enough to run full speed again.

Needless to say, we are pretty done with snow for now! We aren't wishing for a white Christmas this year - in fact, we've requested to be routed through Florida over Christmas. It sounds so warm and inviting after what we've been through lately!

Merry Christmas, and stay safe!