It got a tad bit chilly overnight! It was around 12 degrees below zero when I started out this morning. There was hardly any wind so that was good! I slept toasty warm--In fact I had to turn the heater duct by the bunk off because I was getting too warm. After driving for a brief spell, I entered into a rest stop at the bottom of a small valley. I got out to check the tires and the cold just seemed to sink into my bones. I was a bit numb after just walking around the truck! I checked the temperature and it was around 22 degrees below zero! The coldest day I ever remember working in (I was driving a local produce truck back in the early 80's in Milwaukee, WI) was 25 degrees below zero and there was some wind along with that temperature. That was a bitter cold experience!
A funny thing happened to my side view mirrors once I climbed out of the valley--they started fogging up! Within about 5-minutes (5-miles) the temperature climbed back up to 8 degrees below zero. The result was that the mirrors managed to fog-up. I never thought that mirrors (or anything for that matter) could fog-up when it's that cold.
I traveled for a few hours in the dark (I usually get up early so that when I park the truck for the evening, there is still a little light at the end of the day). There was very light traffic. Sometimes I drove for up to 10-minutes without seeing another vehicle (a bit unsettling if you paused to think about it--what brain-dead person would be driving in the early morning hours in freezing cold weather in South Dakota? A truck driver, that's who! Of course some truckers are more brain-dead than others! (as you shall see below--grin)
The roads were in very good condition. My wife said they received 8-inches of snow in Milwaukee this morning. So, the closer I got to Wisconsin, I expected the roads to deteriorate. Not so. They were fine all the way to where I parked for the evening in Tomah, WI.
My starter on the truck is going. I was going to have the Maintenance department fix it before setting out on this two-week journey. However, they called my truck into the garage right at the time I said I had to leave. So, I've been running the truck without shutting it off to prevent any start-up problems due to the starter (I've already manually started it by connecting an iron bar across the solenoid starter points at least 2-times). Well, I drained the water from the fuel filter (there's a small release valve at the bottom of the filter). A funny thing happened. The engine didn't like me doing this with the engine running. Well duh--the engine wasn't getting the fuel it needed because I drained it all out of the filter (sometimes I amaze myself with what I know after the fact!). So the laws of nature took over and the engine died. Of course not without me first frantically shutting the valve in record timing in the hopes that the engine would keep running. No such luck--it died. I immediately hopped into the cab and tried restarting it (note to all--not a good idea to hop around in ice and snow as you may take a header as I almost did). You guessed it, it wouldn't start--not even the manual way. So I called maintenance and was told place a stick of dynamite by the starter, light it, and run (just kidding!). Actually, I was to take a hard object (a hammer, etc.) and rap the starter a couple of times. The only thing I had was my anti-theft device--a long piece of metal with a lock attached to it on one end. You can either use this to make the steering assembly immovable within the cab or within the engine compartment. I hit the starter with the lock-end of the device a couple of times. Then I left the key on and tried manually starting it. This time the starter didn't even click. Great. I'm thinking that by rapping on it, I messed something up. Then after a few more attempts, the starter came to life, engaged the engine, and started it up. I about fell over (I think more from my feet being frost bit by this time rather than me being surprised that it actually started up!).
After about 20-miles down the road, my feet were thawed out and I was rolling happily along. The rest of the day passed without incident. I stopped at the TA truckstop in Albert Lea and they still don't have their Wi-Fi system up and running. Sigh.
I talked to my wife right before she left for the airport for a business trip. She had managed to start the snow blower and clear the snow without wrecking the snow blower (she did wreck another snow blower by putting regular gas into the 2-cycle (gas/oil mixture) tank. This time she mixed up the gas and oil ratio correctly! Way to go honey! Well the kids will be at a friends house tonight and hopefully I'll be home tomorrow evening to pick them up from there.
We'll see if I can deliver this load early tomorrow or not. No matter what I'm going to see if the maintenance facility in Kaukauna can fix the starter before I go on to Green Bay. Or, they might have be drop the trailer and have me deliver another local load and then take another trailer down to the Oak Creek drop yard. Or they may make me sit on this trailer until Saturday (I hope not!). Stay tuned!
Well it's warmer tonight--I think it will "only" be in the low teens or high single digits by tomorrow morning. Heat wave! I just had a thought. I wonder what truckers in southwest part of the country think when they experience their first taste of cold weather--the kind that is below zero. Hee-Hee.
miles driven = 673
7:38:24 PM
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