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Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Wednesday, December 23rd
Portions of today was spent driving on solid ice.

The day started OK. As I approached Austin, it started raining. As I approached Dallas, the temperature dropped. As I left Dallas snow began falling. Upper Texas and lower Oklahoma were a driving nightmare. The previous days of cold weather caused the snow to turn to ice the further north I headed (There were stretches of road where both lanes had one-quarter inch of ice covering them completely--especially bridges and overpasses). In Wisconsin, they mix-up a chemical concoction to melt the snow. Down here, they are clueless (or they just don't want to spend the money). The results of today's snowy/icy storm was numerous 4-wheelers in the ditch (I saw at least 75-100 vehicles in the ditch). I also had 3-different tractors-trailers start to jack-knife right next to me (they all recovered). One driver I thought for sure was going to jack-knife into the ditch. The trailer was at a 45-degree angle with the trailer wheels beginning to drag into the shallow ditch. At the last second, he managed to straighten it out and avoid swinging the other way and hitting me (I of course was trying to slow down without stompin' on the brakes which of course would have sent me into the ditch). What helped me today was the weight of my vehicle. My load weighs around 79,500-pounds. So, as long as I'm going straight and don't brake hard, I'll be OK. That being said, you can never drive too carefully (including not driving at all!) in icy conditions.

The storm's effects ended after crossing over the mid-section of Oklahoma and I ended the day just over the border into Missouri.

Haven't seen the forecast, but I've had enough snow and ice for a few days!

miles driven = 599

9:53:20 PM comment [] back to top