STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 21342: Amarillo Aberration

December 17, 2005 on 10:04 pm | In On The Road |

I finished the drive to Stone Mountain (Atlanta) on the 15th, arriving at about 1700. I drove directly to the Consignee, but was told, as expected, that I couldn’t deliver until 0500, and that I couldn’t sleep there. I found a Sam’s Club about a mile away and went to bed after a final MMM walk. The weather was just fine.
Boy, was I wrong about the ice storm. I awoke on the 16th at 0430, walked the MMM, then drove back to the Customer. I tuned to a local AM radio station and was surprised to hear that all of the major freeways were backed up for miles, or closed due to black ice. They were even talking about school closures or delayed openings. The surface streets where I was were fine. The problem was mainly on bridges, overpasses, and shady areas, but it was a mess. According to the radio weather gurus, fog rolled in about 0300 local time, then froze just in time for the AM commute. There were, naturally, numerous fender-benders. Anyway, I did the drop/hook delivery, then drove back to Sam’s Club to wait. I wanted to drive to our Terminal in Decatur (about 15 miles away) to fuel, but I had no intention of jepardizing my life by venturing onto I-285 with all the imbeciles out there crashing into each other. I waited about an hour until the temperature rose above 32 degrees and the traffic died down, then drove to the Terminal. The traffic had thinned by then, and the roads were relatively clear. The Planner offered me a load which picked up in Ellenwood, GA and delivers in Pueblo, CO (23 miles empty and 1355 miles loaded). I accepted it and left Decatur about 0800. I did the drop/hook pick-up and left Ellenwood at about 1100. (I had to wait a couple of hours for the load to be ready). I drove to Birmingham, AL. Traffic was heavy, but not due to weather or vehicular mayhem. Just TMV (too many vehicles). I stopped at the Pilot Truckstop for lunch, then departed about 1500. About 25 miles from Birmingham on US-78, I saw a major accident at an intersection. It wasn’t effecting my lanes, but there was the usual “lookie-loo” slowdown. The police were directing traffic, and I was waved through without stopping. I try to avoid being a “lookie-loo” myself, but as I went through the intersection I saw that there were at least 3 vehicles involved, one completely demolished. There were about 7 Emergency vehices there too. I did not see enough to even speculate as to the cause. I’m glad that I wasn’t going east. Traffic was backed up for 7 miles in that direction. I drove to Memphis, TN where I stopped for the night. I worked 7.75 hours driving 410 miles in 7 hours.
On the 17th, I left Memphis at 0515. I drove completely across Arkansas and stopped in Roland, OK. I left there at 1115 and drove to our terminal in Oklahoma City. I fueled and walked the MMM here. I left at 1500 and drove to Amarillo, TX where I stopped for the night. No untoward weather except some rain, but it will probably turn to snow later. It’s cold enough. I did see another accident between Roland and OKC. For no apparant reason, a truck in the right lane was rear-ended by another truck, then the 2nd truck was rear-ended by another truck. Don’t ask me how or why!! Anyway, it caused no delays.