In the Snow! Ugh!

From the comfy temperatures of 40s and 50s in SC we caught a load going to Elgin, Illinois. We knew that it was snowing hard up that way and frigid temps. so we negotiated a little more money out of the deal. We geared ourselves up to head back into the cold and snow and started our trip.
We picked up in North Carolina. I was driving the first part of the trip and ran into snow while in the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. The truck traffic was driving 25 mph down the mountains which made me happy because I always drive slow in the snow and get nervous when trucks are flying past me down the mountains in the snow. It is so pretty in that area even with the snow.
Kentucky had a good bit of snow too. I was surprized. Pops talked to his brother, Buck, who lives in Manchester, KY while we were driving through there and he said that is the most snow he's seen all at once since moving there 3 years ago.
Once we got into Ohio we missed one of our exits and had to detour through Cincinnati. Most of the buildings were lit and had Christmas colors of red and green and it looked so pretty. I was texting with my son, Drew while driving through there. He told me that he had never been to Cincinnati before. I always enjoy texting and talking with my kids while on the road. I miss them terribly, more than they'll ever know until they have kids of their own.
It wasn't long until I went to the bunk. Pops drove us into the consignee and we were there by 6:30am. We had some kind of Japanese car parts that was going on a ship overseas. Cool.
After that we got another load but had some time to spare so we went to our favorite place, Walmart. Our water and drain pipes had frozen during our trip up north. I wanted to buy a drop light thinking the heat from that inside our water compartment might be enough to thaw it. But that idea didn't work out. Oh well, it was worth a try.
Then we went to pick up our next load. It was snowing hard. The rest areas and truckstops were full. We had to park far away and walk. It was single digit temperatures with wind chills. Oh my goodness!
I got to give props to the state of Ohio for their service plazas. They have rebuilt all of them and have added driver lounges and laundry services and showers for the truck drivers and the showers are free. And most importantly, they are spic and span clean.
We delivered to Stouffers/Nestle in Ohio. That was interesting. Once inside the gate, we were not allowed outside of our truck. Everyone had little hairnets and booties. It was a secured, sealed load. They are very serious, as they should be, about food tampering. And we were only hauling labels, lol.
Then we got another load picking up in Ohio and coming to Newark, NJ. So we have been busy.
We were driving across I80 in Pennsylvania. It looked like a tractor trailer graveyard. There were 14 jack-knifed trucks. A big snow storm had come through the previous evening. I was surprized they were still sitting there, but the snow was deep in some places. We only ran into snow 2 times coming across there and it wasn't too bad really.
We got to our delivery and off loaded. It was easy and a nice neighborhood. I wondered if Kelly Ripa lived nearby. I don't think she would mind company, do you? We slept in the parking  lot of the place we delivered. Then we didn't have to find a truckstop that close to NYC. I felt much better about that.
We were predispatched on another load picking up in Newark but not until 3PM AND NO EARLIER!  Orders from headquarters. lol
So we had time to kill and guess where we went? You got it, Walmart. We cleaned the truck and played games on the computer.
Then about 2 we left there and headed in to pickup. Newark is just across the line from Manhattan. It is mostly shipyards and airport and that's about it. We did see the NY skyline and it made me want to go there and shop. We could see Miss Liberty from a distance too.
Pickup was easy. It was the training building for police officers. We hauled this load before. It goes to Louisiana State University. I like this load and I like Louisiana. Maybe I'll get some more boudin. Yum.
Pops checked the weather and it was 67 degrees at 9pm. Woohoo.