Wed/Thurs, Jan 14/15.... We Found It!

So we found the cold!

Good thing I'm a weather freak... I have worn out weather.com and all the individual state highway condition websites....

This picture was taken on Wed, Jan 14 in somewhere, PA... the roads were a little squirrelly! I kept telling Trapper that the mountains in the distance looked really cold... and yes, they were.

Wednesday night, coming through Somerset, PA turned treacherous (I'm from the south... anything to me is treacherous!)... we were on the PA turnpike close to Somerset, PA (which is on the top of a mountain!) it was snowing, freezing, and blowing snow... there are very few "plaza's" on the turnpike so as soon as we came upon one... we stopped! Which, for me, couldn't have happened at a better time!

We were in need of fuel additive, that keeps the diesel from gelling, which we hoped to find some at the Somerset Plaza... but... no.... NONE! This lead to the decision to keep driving...

We climbed back in the truck... I buckled up, shut up, and sat very still! We had made it to the summit of this mountain and now we were headed down the mountain... our plan was to stop approximately 100 miles on down the road.

The CB chatter was reporting an accident ahead of us that involved three big rigs and some cars... the weather and road conditions did improve a little the further down the mountain we came but I was thankful when we arrived at our exit and parked!

Thursday morning rolls around and the thermometer on the truck is showing 4 degrees!

These are temperatures that I have only ever heard about.... this is the coldest weather I've experienced in my 40 something years on earth! Here I am on the morning coffee run... (look Mom... a jacket!)



Other than the cold temperatures, Thursday was going without incident until we arrived in Indiana... you could see this little "white out" situation coming for about 1/4 mile. One minute the sun was out and then all of a sudden this is what you were in! Needless to say... I sat very still again....



About ten miles later.... we were coming out of the little snow storm... but the conditions were just not optimal. I've heard people talk about getting in these "white outs" but until you experience it, you just can't understand.







This picture was taken close to Gary, IN... the roads were passable but IN doesn't do the job that OH and IL do. (NOTE to self: stay out of IN when it is snowing!)


We have seen a ton of trucks pulled on the shoulder with the hoods open, some drivers are pouring "stuff" into engine reservoirs, and we've seen two trucks in the predicament this Harley-Davidson truck found himself in...

8 degrees was the warmest we saw all day Thursday.... and as Thursday afternoon approached the temperature was 0 degrees.... it's going to be a cold night.



The last couple of days, we've heard all kinds of stories of diesel gelling in engines, a driver that broke down in Minneapolis, MN (minus 23 degrees) had to be rescued by the local police... the engine on the truck would not start... so no heat... they towed the truck and rescued him, we've seen several road side assistance vehicles and maintenance vehicles at the truck stops, and unfortunately there have been several accidents.

This cold weather is simply brutal! Getting out of the truck to go to the restroom is a chore! The sun has gone down, the wind is blowing, and the thermometer now says MINUS 5....

A young lady I ran into this morning put it like this... "It's too cold to breathe outside." And she was right....