Dealing With The Elements

I left out of Delhi on Saturday night with a load headed for Connecticut.  Normally I would drive all night Both Saturday and Sunday nights and be in Connecticut in time for an early Tuesday morning delivery.  Tonight (Monday night) I have only made it as far as Lexington, Virginia.  There's a bad winter storm I'm dealing with, and all the other consequences that come along with a storm also.  Things like the fact that I got caught in a heavy squall of wind that was bad enough to tear one of my tarps open on the back end of my load.  So, I had to get to a truck stop and work out in the freezing rain to add another tarp on to that section of my load in an attempt to keep my materials dry.  Talk about freezing cold, even my insulated coveralls were soaked through after I got that accomplished.  It's all part of the pleasure of flat-bed trucking - I don't know why I enjoy it so much, but I do.

The weather is so bad that there are a lot of accidents along my route, and that just makes everything go really slow.  I lost track counting vehicles in the ditches and medians today after fifty something.  There was a fifteen car pile-up on I-81 in Northeastern Tennessee yesterday, and today there was a cattle truck that slid off the road and then overturned in Virginia, releasing all it's disoriented cattle out on the interstate!  What a mess!  The interstate is still closed tonight.  It looks like I will be three days late in getting there at this rate - today I averaged about 30 miles per hour, and was only able to drive for about five hours.  I was sending my dispatcher an email informing him of the delays and my lack of progress, and I received this back from him:

"That is completely fine.  I trust your judgement 100%.  I'll put you down for getting empty on Thursday, just let me know if that changes.  Thanks for making solid decisions, and communicating those things with me."

It is really nice that he has such confidence in me since we are not allowed to be late on these dedicated loads.  I've worked hard to be dependable and reliable, and they know that I will do whatever it takes to get things done, but safety has to trump all that customer service stuff or else we won't be here to serve the customer tomorrow.

The roads are really slushy, and with the dropping temperatures tonight there will be ice developing - every state ahead of me on this trip is advising people not to travel unless absolutely necessary.  I stopped today at about four in the afternoon, and I probably won't get started tomorrow until well after the sun comes up.  I don't want to be in this mess in the dark, and besides I need it to warm up a little tomorrow to begin the thaw before I get back out in this mess.

It's really been remarkable how little bad weather I've had to face this winter.  I've been very fortunate.  It won't be long until Spring begins to wrench this part of the country free from Winter's harsh grip - it's a struggle that goes on every year up here, a testament of the power of an indestructible life.