I'm proud of you

Today was the first day I drove a big truck in snow and ice.  I thought that northern and midwestern people were used to snow and just went on with their day like normal.  Not true.  I was in central Illinois heading the Denver and I heard the weather report on the radio saying it was a big winter storm advisory to start at 6pm.  Sure enough at 5:35 I started to see snow coming down.  I saw the first car on the side of the road at about 5:55.  My trainer was nice enough to say, “hey, we were going to switch over at 6:30 anyway, pull over at the next exit and I’ll take over.”  Of course I obliged.  Not long after he started driving the interstate was shut down in both directions because of accidents.  Car just littered the side of the road.  I went to bed because we had a JIT load that HAD to be delivered by 8:30 local time the next morning and I knew that I would be driving early in the morning. 

When I took over the wheel I was approximately 200 miles away from Denver.  I had 4-5 hours to get there.  I got on the interstate, only the right side was plowed and it was super dark.  It looked clear enough to me but my trainer gave me a reality check by saying “you see those crystals on the road, that’s ice.”  The left lane was pure snow and ice.  It was all I could do to go 40mph.  Every time another big truck passed me he blew snow so much that I couldn’t even see the spot mirrors on the front of my truck.  This must be similar to a white out because I honestly couldn’t see a thing for about 10-15 seconds.  I just let off the accelerator and tried to keep the steering wheel straight.  I couldn’t even see the white line on the right side of the road because it was buried in snow and ice. 

I knew that my trainer had to be sleeping when I said, “I can’t see a thing” and he didn’t say anything.  Also, I accidently left the alarm on my phone and it went off for 10 minutes and he never stirred.  I didn’t grind any gears while going through the snow and ice because I was afraid that if I missed a gear and had to use the brake I would start sliding.  A couple times I had to get into the left lane to pass a truck that was somehow stopped in the right lane in the middle of the interstate.  I thought to myself that while in the left lane I was an ice road trucker like Lisa on TV. 

Finally the sun started coming up and 100 miles from Denver the road just cleared up and I was able to go full speed again (64mph).  We arrived at our destination an hour early, which was a miracle with the weather and the fact that they were 1.5 hours late loading us the previous day.  My trainer told me the best thing that I could hear, since he is not big on compliments, he said that he was proud of me.  He told me that he said a little prayer and went to sleep, and he didn’t even think we would make the delivery on time.   I have gotten over my initial fear of winter weather driving, and I am proud of myself for making it through a Midwestern winter storm and not ending up in the ditch.