Layover in the Snow

We are fasting today. We decided to try to do it at least one day a week. I really concentrated on specific prayers today. I prayed for just about everybody that popped into my head. I hope you felt the prayers that I prayed for you. It didn’t seem as hard to get by without thinking about food as it did the last time. But we didn’t sit all day this time and we didn’t have anyone eating breakfast buffet right in front of us either.

We had an appointment at Camping World to get our tv repaired at 1:00pm. We left the truck stop and was not far from Camping World when we got a dispatch. Isn’t the way it always happens? So our tv will wait.

Oh, I don’t like to drive in snow. We left South Carolina around 1:00pm on Monday. We were picking up in North Carolina and delivering in Binghamton, NY. We were hauling de-icer for planes. I was really hoping for Texas again after hearing everyone up home complain about the snow.

I started the drive and it wasn’t long into North Carolina before I started to see some snow on the ground. There wasn’t anything on the roads just off to the sides. I saw a few deer that looked like they were looking for a place to keep warm.

We had snow until we got into the Shenandoah Valley in VA. There wasn’t any there. Pops started to drive soon after passing through there. He ran into snow again about Harrisburg, PA.

I was sleeping in the bunk although not too well. Our load was liquid and it was sloshing back in forth in the containers which caused our truck to move all over the place. I had a terrible time when I was driving and sleeping wasn’t  any easier. Pops hadn’t slept either, but he never does so I thought I might be able to, but no way.

I did doze off at one point and when we stopped at a rest area, I woke up to about 4 inches of snow and it was snowing hard. Oh boy, this is miserable. Pops was driving cautiously. Other people were not. We saw a tractor trailer that had jack knifed. It was laying on it’s side almost completely blocking the highway. There was no help there yet, but we saw the driver out walking around the mess taking pictures. The police came flying up past us as we were passing by. You would think seeing something like that would scare others into driving slower, but it didn’t.

We had a few hours to spare so we tried to get a little sleep. I fell asleep immediately and woke up gasping for breath and flinging my arms all around. I realized that I had been dreaming and didn’t want to wake Pops up. Wow, what a dream. I dreamed that I was walking on a country road on the left side of the road. I was walking past a steep sloped yard on the left that had a house and pond at the bottom. Just ahead of me coming up from the left was a dirt road with a piece of big equipment like a mower for a tractor sitting along the roadway. Suddenly a tractor pulling a different piece of equipment came up out of the dirt road and drove past me. I stopped right beside the mower but the thing the tractor was pulling caught hold of the mower and jerked it into me. It shoved me down the hill onto an old bulldozer that was sitting in front of the pond. Then the mower caught the bulldozer and pushed it and it slid backward into the pond with me on it. We were sinking fast and I looked around realizing that I was going to be trapped by the machinery on me. Oh my, I was scared. I was gasping and flinging and trying to get away from the machine. And then I woke up, nice and warm in my bed. Thank goodness.

I heard Pops’ alarm clock not long after that and heard him call our destination. They told us to come on up but that they were clearing planes and runways and they might not get to us right away. By this time there was about 7-8 inches of snow everywhere and still snowing hard. They had snow plows plowing the runways and big machines spraying the planes with de-icer.  We only had to wait maybe 45 minutes and then they escorted us to where they wanted the shipment.

We were told by FedEx that we would need our liftgate but no other requirements. Well, we also needed our pallet jack and it was up front of the box behind the load. Figures! It weighs about 125 pounds and was very awkward to maneuver. And of course we both had to climb up over the load and lift the pallet jack back over the load to get it to the rear.

Our de-icer came in square plastic containers called totes with metal cages around them for protection. We had 5 of them  each weighing about 2400 pounds. Once we had the pallet jack where we needed it we realized we had a very small working space and not only that but our lift gate was icing up quickly. Pops and I managed to get one of the totes on the jack and then wiggled back and forth and around until we got it toward the liftgate. Pops was in front of the jack and tote out the liftgate and suddenly it started to roll fast. All I could think was that it was going to push him off the gate and then come down on top of him, crushing him like a spider on the ground. Thank goodness it stopped. Two airport workers saw what almost happened and came to help us. They helped us get the pallet jack in behind the tote and push it onto the liftgate and then I lowered the gate with Pops, the tote and the pallet jack to the ground. They wheeled it to where they wanted it and Pops and the pallet jack got back on the gate and I brought them up. One by one we unloaded those things in the freezing, icy, cold. I was so glad to get back into the truck and make a cup of hot tea.

Once we were ready we were escorted back through the gate of the airport. We were no sooner through the gate and needed to make a right turn. We ended up getting stuck. It hadn’t been plowed wide enough. Of course they don’t run big vehicles around there, just little gator type things. Pops lifted our drop axle and soon after we were moving again. Oh, I sure hope they dispatch us to Louisiana or Texas, please.

We are on layover at a Love’s Truckstop. It is still snowing and I just heard them say on their local weather that they are calling for 7 more inches today. I am cold just watching it. Oh how I love the lone star state.