Snow Days

Yesterday I was exhausted when i finished driving so I didn't write much. Snow driving is bad on it's own but, when the wind comes with it, things go very bad very fast. After I left Denver yesterday and just started into Cheyenne WY the wind kicked up to 50+ MPH and brought with it the snow. Think of a truck that is 70 feet long and 13.6 feet high as a giant sail boat.

Under normal sunny 70 degree dry conditions a truck driver has to constantly make minor corrections to keep the truck going straight down the road and should be scanning the mirrors road ahead and all around in a continuous motion.

When the snow or rain or anything wet starts hitting the road the whole proses speeds up and to help this a driver normally slows down to compensate for what the driver might miss. Then factor in the wind trying its best to blow the truck into its lowest profile (on its side). That's when things get mentally frenzied. the only good point is that the heaver your truck and load are the harder it is for the wind to blow you off the road. Don't get me wrong it can still do it or blow you over but is not near as bad if the trailer was empty.

On my way through Wyoming yesterday I seen 3 trucks blown over between Cheyenne and Wamsutter. I also Watched the trucks lighter get blown all over the road. some were bad enough that I could read the name on the side of the trailer when I was following behind them. Some of them would suddenly change lanes (not on their own free will).

After a bit of time driving out in the open you can kinda judge what the wind is doing and make some sort of compensation for it but then after compensating for a while you come up to a bridge and because of the way bridges are built its like a wind break, you hit that wind break and the compensation you were doing for the wind makes you take a sudden turn in opposite direction and at 60 to 65 miles per hours your past that wind breaking bridge really fast, then the wind hits you again it the other direction. If you don't realize this is going to happen you can get in big trouble in a matter of 2 to 4 seconds. First your truck makes I violent turn right to the shoulder of the road and your natural reaction is to turn away from that, then the wind comes back while you are correcting and blows you in the direction your turning, basically helping you make a u-turn on the freeway. Trucks don't make u-turns at speeds more then 5 to 10 MPH they just roll over or jack-knife. Jack-knife is a term for when you get to see the rear half of your trailer through your windshield.

Throw a bunch of tall mountains and the Continental divide into the mix and by the end of a 11 hour day you are the mental equivalent of a eggplant and your body is exhausted from sawing on the steering wheel and your butt grabbing on to the seat when things get a bit sideways.

so now you know why i mispelled Wendover NV when i was done yesterday.

Today was a nice cruse through Nevada till i got to the California border. that's when the snow started back up. wasn't too bad tho. Not much stuck to the road and the wind wasn't blowing much although going over Donner Pass is an experience all on its own. I will go into that one another time when i haven't been as long winded as i was today.

Tonight i am in Auburn CA. I stopped here to go have dinner with my mom and dad who live about 25 minutes away. We had a nice dinner. Now I'm going to bed.