Fri... Jan 29.... Into the Storm!

This week has been crazy... nights, nights, and more nights. There's nothing like picking up a load at 11 p.m. driving/riding 400 miles and delivering at 8 a.m. You fall asleep at the dock while you're being unloaded and then wake-up to find a truck stop or parking area. Once your there, you go back to sleep for a few hours, get up, eat, and wait to get beeped... or not sometimes. If not, you're just up all night. This has been our week, until Thursday night....

We left MS on Thursday morning and drove to West Memphis, TN to relay a load. Our relay arrived and we headed to Joplin, MO. I was skeptical because of the winter storm that was brewing! Our trip to Joplin was uneventful and I was sure that we'd get shut-down there because the weather was suppose to turn bad. I was making plans to sit in the truck until at least Saturday and the Joplin terminal. It's a nice place so I was content.

However; Trapper asked me where I wanted to go, if we were given a choice, and I quickly said, "North!We can anywhere but OK, AR, or TN." I had studied the weather maps and wanted no part of Oklahoma or all the snow that was being forcast.

Well 7:00 a.m. Friday morning we are dispatched to Coffeyville, KS and then to Dallas, TX! That's right.... due west and then due south.... right through Oklahoma!

We left Joplin, MO around 7:30 a.m. on our 444 total mile trip. Conditions weren't all that bad, but I prefer dry. We drove 70 miles west to Coffeyville, KS and I was ready to shut-down... I'm such a passenger!
Here we are approaching Coffeyville.

We made it to our pick-up and within a little while we were headed toward Oklahoma. Here we are on a 4-lane state hiway that runs through OK... I was ready to call it a day! Due to all the bad weather this month, etc. the company would say, "If conditions are too bad to drive in, find a secure place, and stop. Communicate with us." My question to you... as you look out our front windshield.... do you see a place to stop???

South of Tulsa, OK our pilot car finally showed up! We fell in behind a snow plow and we stayed behind the snow plow!!!!



A little futher south, as we crossed into TX, the snow stopped and the roads were much better. We made our delivery (a little late) and headed to the terminal.

The majority of today was spent at 30-35 mph. We averaged our drive time and I think it was 41 mph. It was a long day!