I shared in the last post, we knew the snow storm was on its way and decided to stay put where we were and wait it out until our pickup on Monday. I think the eastern states thought that their Halloween weekend was a definite trick by mother nature where in other parts of the country she was handing out treats. Winter storms are a rarity in October. This one was anticipated and they knew it was going to be a doosy.
As we traveled through Massachusetts, there were warning signs on the road stating, "Winter storm and travel advisory in effect for Sat/Sun, take precautions." (or something like that). While we drive around the country, we pay special attention to weather so that we know what to expect on the road. So far we have had excellent weather with just a couple of exceptions, wind storm in North Dakota and cloud bursts in Maryland. Snow in the mountains is expected at this time of the year, but along the east coast, not usually. We read that normally the first significant snowfall is usually in December in Connecticut. The winter storm was calling for heavy snow within a 24 hour period and concerns were downed trees and power outages.
Friday night was pretty uneventful. We ate some supper and then caught up on some TV shows and facebook posts. By Saturday morning we began to hear the rumblings of people talking about the storm coming. Staff members were all talking and wondering if they would be able to go home early or if they would be able to get home at all. The restaurant was pretty calm and we hung out there most of the morning working on our computer. Our waitress noticed the first of the snow which kept changing from snow to rain and then back to snow again. It didn't take too long before it stayed as snow. Some of the younger staff were discussing that their parents had called to make sure they had their coats, blankets and their snow survival equipment. I heard one of them say, "I forgot all about my coat this morning, oh well." I think that she got off about mid afternoon. Definitely a good thing.
In Ohio, I've seen big snow flakes, but they don't usually last very long. The snowflakes during the storm were huge and they lasted most of the afternoon. It was probably one of the most beautiful snowfalls I have ever seen and it just kept coming and coming. The pictures below depict the snowfall in different stages. The one with the sunrise is actually the morning after the snow and let me tell you that was the beginning of a crazy day. The TA was actually pretty slow on Saturday during the storm except for the drivers who were waiting out the storm here.
We talked to a driver that was heading to St. Louis and stopped here because of the chaos on the interstate, he figured he'd just wait a while and head back out. The longer he sat and talked to us, the more horror stories we heard about the roads. His wife was a past accountant and just started driving her own truck. He was supposed to meet her in Ohio later Saturday/Sunday. The later it got, the worse it was and finally he decided he wasn't going anywhere. Truthfully we were glad because we got a chance to talk to him, swap driving and family stories and share pictures. It really helped pass the time during the storm.
While we were talking to him, we found out from another driver that they had just closed down the interstate because there were trees down across the interstate. Soon, we heard that there were thousands without power. It was pretty evident by the amount of utility trucks we saw coming through to get gas. Emergency responders were also coming in to get coffee, dinner and to fill up. Things started to look a little hectic, more drivers, more stories and the lights kept flickering. Jim decided that he probably should get some money out of the ATM just in case it would go out during the storm. We thought for sure they would wind up losing power. The gas pumps were going off and on which was a very difficult thing for the staff to deal with but they hung in.
When we finally decided to go to the truck, we really should have thought through the storm and had our boots and gloves on. We walked through inches of snow as well as huge puddles of slush about ankle deep. Once we were in the truck, we read a little more about the storm and found out that in Connecticut the governor called a state of emergency and that there were over 700,000 people without power. Maryland and New Jersey had also called state of emergencies. We began to wonder about our load on Monday, wondering if they would have power and if the load would wind up getting canceled.
We woke up pretty early wondering what the storm had brought through the night. The snow removal had started in the parking lot during the night and we were surprised to see that the parking lot had already been cleared out and trucks were on their way out. We went inside and decided to hang out in the restaurant and our same waitress was there from the day before. When we sat down about 7am, there were just a handful of people. I'm not sure how much time passed while we were sitting, except that we had finished eating and had spent some time online. The waitresses and cooks had just been discussing who was going to be able to make it into work and who was stuck at home. We had also overheard that their card readers were acting up and were not reading cards. One driver tried to pay for his meal and gave two cards and both were denied. The waitress told him that it wasn't his cards, it was the card readers. Shortly after that, the people started pouring in, so much that Jim and I decided we'd better find another place to sit because they were going to need our seats for other customers. That was just the beginning.
At this truck stop, there are also three fast food restaurants, Popeyes, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. None of them opened until 10:00 am. Jim and I just sat and watched. The restaurants at Truck stops are usually steady but they usually turn customers over pretty quickly. The line that morning for the restaurant was as long as two of the fast food restaurants. Finally workers came in for the fast food restaurants but only one was able to open because registers were not working in the other two. I have never seen anything like it. People were talking and said that this block was the only block for miles and miles that had power and the only place to get gas. The staff worked as long as they could with the card readers acting up until at last the card readers went out. One of the staff went around posting signs that read, "Cash only". The traffic light was out and traffic was a mess. People really don't know what to do when the traffic lights are on the fritz.
If you can imagine, these kinds of crisis bring out the best and the worst in people. There was so much tension in the air. There were people who were just thankful that they had a place to go and eat and then there were others who thought that they were the only ones suffering and were upset because they had to wait in line or because they had to wait for service. The day went on and on and on. I swear that I saw staff members that were here when we came in at 7 and they were working non-stop with most of them still around when we went to the truck to go to bed. I thought it was kind of humorous when one of the taco bell staff came in for second shift and saw that they weren't open and started walking away. Almost in unison, I heard the whole 1st shift say, "Get back here, you're not going anywhere." A couple of them literally came out of their stations and drug him back to help with dishes. The Taco Bell and Pizza Hut staff had been working all day assisting where needed with clean up and let me tell you with all of the people, they really needed their help.
We talked to a driver that came in and said that he had been on the interstate Saturday night for four hours. There were downed trees and powerlines and people were just spinning in the road. There was so much snow, but it became deep slush and people could not move their vehicles. The interstate wound up shutting down completely while things were cleared. All the drivers who had been out in it just shook their heads and said it was chaos. Thank goodness for the most part everyone was safe, just inconvenienced.
At one point I headed upstairs to see what was on the big screen. I walked in and there was a row of truck drivers sitting and watching the screen. I looked at the screen and one of the drivers said, "Are you here to fix the TV?" I told him "no", but I was really curious to find out why they were all watching a screen with nothing on it. He said, "Wishful thinking and what do you mean, nothing, this is the best show I've seen in ages." I went back downstairs and later saw a driver head up the stairs and I asked him if the TV was working yet and he said no. I asked if they all were sitting and still watching nothing and he said, "No, we actually figured out that good old conversation can be just as entertaining." Amazing what power outages do, people actually have conversations, who would have thought?
Jim decided that he should go out and just check on the truck. So I sat with our techie gadgets while he went out. Soon a couple of college students and their mom came in and sat at the table right beside me. It turned out that they were on their way back to school. I asked them about their power at home. Evidently they had power and didn't realize the extent of the power outages. I shared with them the numbers and suggested they might want to call someone at school and see if they still had power because if not, they might just want to go home. One of the girls called and found out that they had power but no cable. Her comment was, "No cable, what are we going to do?" She was laughing because that was the only thing that was out, so that meant classes would probably still happen on Monday. I think secretly she was hoping they didn't have any power so they wouldn't have class. They soon left, because their mom didn't realize that she couldn't use her card to purchase things and the ATMs were out too.
After a loonngg time, I decided to call Jim and see what was wrong. He had been out at the truck for a long time and I thought maybe something had happened. It turned out that he had started talking to another driver about FedEx and expediting. The driver and his wife teamed and drove a tractor and trailer for a company. Jim invited them to come in and talk to us. We gave them as much information as we could being newbies ourselves. They had actually already talked to a recruiter and were thinking about purchasing their own truck and were wanting to get into a straight truck. They had been team driving for about 7 years and really liked being out on the road together. I think we talked about everything under the sun, but mostly about what we do and our families. It is really energizing to talk to other teams about what we do. After a couple hours of talking, we exchanged numbers and email so that we could stay in touch.
We decided that we had better go out to the truck and go to bed since we had to get up at 4:30 am so that we could go pick up our load in NJ. Just before we left, we got a text from my little sister from college, so when we got out to the truck I got to talk to her. She was calling to ask how I liked driving a big rig. I shared with her that I really enjoyed it and then she told me why she was asking. Jody has a full time summer job that she really likes but she always struggles in the winter to find a job that makes ends meet. She had come across an article about moving RVs around the US and Canada and was thinking about checking into it. Of course that wasn't all we talked about, but we had a really good time talking and time flew by. I have shared on past posts about sleep and how difficult it is for me sometimes, so it isn't so smart for me to lose track of time so close to bedtime since we had to get up so early and I would be the one driving. Luckily I fell asleep right away after I got off the phone.
Jim and I woke up and were excited to be able to get back to work after the chaos of the weekend. We went inside and did our morning routine including purchasing my morning caffeine of soda. The staff at the fuel desk were using calculators to add because all of the registers were down. After we were done getting our morning caffeine, we went back out to the truck. Jim decided that he was going to do a walk around and help me check the lights. When he got back in the truck, he sat in the passenger side and looked out the windshield. He noticed right in front of him a crack in the windshield. It hadn't been there the night before. We have a theory. We think that when they plowed out the parking lot, a stone hit the windshield and dinged it and then with the mild weather in the day and then the freeze at night, the ding turned into a 10 inch crack.
One of the items on a pre and post trip inspection is the windshield. A cracked windshield is a major safety issue and it needed to get fixed before we went back on the road. We called dispatch and they put us out of service and took us off both of our loads, the one from NJ to Maryland and the one from Virginia to Ohio. Not good for the pocketbook but we both know things happen for a reason. Jim talked to the TA service people and they gave him the number of someone local and Jim called them. They said that they were so swamped that they wouldn't be able to get to us until tomorrow. We decided to call the Kenworth garage at the suggestion of our owner and found out they couldn't get us in until tomorrow either. We decided to call the local company back because they would come out to the truck and fix it and we wouldn't have to drive it anywhere. So, now we were stuck another day and without a load to look forward to.
Today TAs business is a little more reasonable but still busy. They ran out of gas yesterday, just got filled this morning and now at 5 pm are on the verge of running out of gas again. We have had such good experiences while we've been out but today something happened that just shocked me. Jim and I talk about how sheltered we have been growing up and even through our married life. We've heard about people still being racists but I have to say I've never really seen it in action until today. I had steam just running out of me. Jim caught part of it and evidently I caught the other part. Jim saw a young African American adult getting some things that he was going to purchase. The young man put some things in his pocket because he was having trouble carrying them and a caucasian guy just went off on him and said he was stealing and started yelling racist comments. Somehow another young man got involved and the yelling continued as I was coming out of the bathroom, smack dab in the middle of it. They were talking about fighting right then and there and the man kept saying racist things, that is when I started steaming. The manager came back and told them to break it up or he would call the police and the one screaming the racist comments said go ahead. Another one of the staff members took the young adult by the shoulders and walked him in another direction and said, it is not worth it. The general manager and myself walked behind him and both told him that some people are just ignorant and he wasn't worth getting himself in trouble. This just made my stomach turn, I was angry and hurt that a human being could have so much hate in his heart to talk to another human being like that. I just hope that since this was the first time I witnessed, I would not ever witness something like that again.
Sorry that I had to vent about this, but it really upset me and I don't ever want any person to have to experience that hate from anyone. As I end this post I hope that everyone who reads this will take time to love others, not degrade them in anyway because it affects everyone around. God created this world in love. Loving God is the number one commandment and the second one is love your neighbor as yourself. I really hate to think how the man who was saying racist things felt about himself because if he treated someone else so badly, he must feel pretty crappy about himself. I like my cup half full and enjoy seeing the good in people. The only thing I can think is that by watching this situation unfold, it showed others just how wrong it is to treat another person the way that he did. Thank God for the loving friends and family that I have and that racism was something I was sheltered from.
Love, peace and joy,
Judy
As we traveled through Massachusetts, there were warning signs on the road stating, "Winter storm and travel advisory in effect for Sat/Sun, take precautions." (or something like that). While we drive around the country, we pay special attention to weather so that we know what to expect on the road. So far we have had excellent weather with just a couple of exceptions, wind storm in North Dakota and cloud bursts in Maryland. Snow in the mountains is expected at this time of the year, but along the east coast, not usually. We read that normally the first significant snowfall is usually in December in Connecticut. The winter storm was calling for heavy snow within a 24 hour period and concerns were downed trees and power outages.
Friday night was pretty uneventful. We ate some supper and then caught up on some TV shows and facebook posts. By Saturday morning we began to hear the rumblings of people talking about the storm coming. Staff members were all talking and wondering if they would be able to go home early or if they would be able to get home at all. The restaurant was pretty calm and we hung out there most of the morning working on our computer. Our waitress noticed the first of the snow which kept changing from snow to rain and then back to snow again. It didn't take too long before it stayed as snow. Some of the younger staff were discussing that their parents had called to make sure they had their coats, blankets and their snow survival equipment. I heard one of them say, "I forgot all about my coat this morning, oh well." I think that she got off about mid afternoon. Definitely a good thing.
In Ohio, I've seen big snow flakes, but they don't usually last very long. The snowflakes during the storm were huge and they lasted most of the afternoon. It was probably one of the most beautiful snowfalls I have ever seen and it just kept coming and coming. The pictures below depict the snowfall in different stages. The one with the sunrise is actually the morning after the snow and let me tell you that was the beginning of a crazy day. The TA was actually pretty slow on Saturday during the storm except for the drivers who were waiting out the storm here.
We talked to a driver that was heading to St. Louis and stopped here because of the chaos on the interstate, he figured he'd just wait a while and head back out. The longer he sat and talked to us, the more horror stories we heard about the roads. His wife was a past accountant and just started driving her own truck. He was supposed to meet her in Ohio later Saturday/Sunday. The later it got, the worse it was and finally he decided he wasn't going anywhere. Truthfully we were glad because we got a chance to talk to him, swap driving and family stories and share pictures. It really helped pass the time during the storm.
While we were talking to him, we found out from another driver that they had just closed down the interstate because there were trees down across the interstate. Soon, we heard that there were thousands without power. It was pretty evident by the amount of utility trucks we saw coming through to get gas. Emergency responders were also coming in to get coffee, dinner and to fill up. Things started to look a little hectic, more drivers, more stories and the lights kept flickering. Jim decided that he probably should get some money out of the ATM just in case it would go out during the storm. We thought for sure they would wind up losing power. The gas pumps were going off and on which was a very difficult thing for the staff to deal with but they hung in.
When we finally decided to go to the truck, we really should have thought through the storm and had our boots and gloves on. We walked through inches of snow as well as huge puddles of slush about ankle deep. Once we were in the truck, we read a little more about the storm and found out that in Connecticut the governor called a state of emergency and that there were over 700,000 people without power. Maryland and New Jersey had also called state of emergencies. We began to wonder about our load on Monday, wondering if they would have power and if the load would wind up getting canceled.
We woke up pretty early wondering what the storm had brought through the night. The snow removal had started in the parking lot during the night and we were surprised to see that the parking lot had already been cleared out and trucks were on their way out. We went inside and decided to hang out in the restaurant and our same waitress was there from the day before. When we sat down about 7am, there were just a handful of people. I'm not sure how much time passed while we were sitting, except that we had finished eating and had spent some time online. The waitresses and cooks had just been discussing who was going to be able to make it into work and who was stuck at home. We had also overheard that their card readers were acting up and were not reading cards. One driver tried to pay for his meal and gave two cards and both were denied. The waitress told him that it wasn't his cards, it was the card readers. Shortly after that, the people started pouring in, so much that Jim and I decided we'd better find another place to sit because they were going to need our seats for other customers. That was just the beginning.
At this truck stop, there are also three fast food restaurants, Popeyes, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. None of them opened until 10:00 am. Jim and I just sat and watched. The restaurants at Truck stops are usually steady but they usually turn customers over pretty quickly. The line that morning for the restaurant was as long as two of the fast food restaurants. Finally workers came in for the fast food restaurants but only one was able to open because registers were not working in the other two. I have never seen anything like it. People were talking and said that this block was the only block for miles and miles that had power and the only place to get gas. The staff worked as long as they could with the card readers acting up until at last the card readers went out. One of the staff went around posting signs that read, "Cash only". The traffic light was out and traffic was a mess. People really don't know what to do when the traffic lights are on the fritz.
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| Traffic craze, no gas for miles, line is never ending October2011 snowstorm in CT |
If you can imagine, these kinds of crisis bring out the best and the worst in people. There was so much tension in the air. There were people who were just thankful that they had a place to go and eat and then there were others who thought that they were the only ones suffering and were upset because they had to wait in line or because they had to wait for service. The day went on and on and on. I swear that I saw staff members that were here when we came in at 7 and they were working non-stop with most of them still around when we went to the truck to go to bed. I thought it was kind of humorous when one of the taco bell staff came in for second shift and saw that they weren't open and started walking away. Almost in unison, I heard the whole 1st shift say, "Get back here, you're not going anywhere." A couple of them literally came out of their stations and drug him back to help with dishes. The Taco Bell and Pizza Hut staff had been working all day assisting where needed with clean up and let me tell you with all of the people, they really needed their help.
We talked to a driver that came in and said that he had been on the interstate Saturday night for four hours. There were downed trees and powerlines and people were just spinning in the road. There was so much snow, but it became deep slush and people could not move their vehicles. The interstate wound up shutting down completely while things were cleared. All the drivers who had been out in it just shook their heads and said it was chaos. Thank goodness for the most part everyone was safe, just inconvenienced.
At one point I headed upstairs to see what was on the big screen. I walked in and there was a row of truck drivers sitting and watching the screen. I looked at the screen and one of the drivers said, "Are you here to fix the TV?" I told him "no", but I was really curious to find out why they were all watching a screen with nothing on it. He said, "Wishful thinking and what do you mean, nothing, this is the best show I've seen in ages." I went back downstairs and later saw a driver head up the stairs and I asked him if the TV was working yet and he said no. I asked if they all were sitting and still watching nothing and he said, "No, we actually figured out that good old conversation can be just as entertaining." Amazing what power outages do, people actually have conversations, who would have thought?
Jim decided that he should go out and just check on the truck. So I sat with our techie gadgets while he went out. Soon a couple of college students and their mom came in and sat at the table right beside me. It turned out that they were on their way back to school. I asked them about their power at home. Evidently they had power and didn't realize the extent of the power outages. I shared with them the numbers and suggested they might want to call someone at school and see if they still had power because if not, they might just want to go home. One of the girls called and found out that they had power but no cable. Her comment was, "No cable, what are we going to do?" She was laughing because that was the only thing that was out, so that meant classes would probably still happen on Monday. I think secretly she was hoping they didn't have any power so they wouldn't have class. They soon left, because their mom didn't realize that she couldn't use her card to purchase things and the ATMs were out too.
After a loonngg time, I decided to call Jim and see what was wrong. He had been out at the truck for a long time and I thought maybe something had happened. It turned out that he had started talking to another driver about FedEx and expediting. The driver and his wife teamed and drove a tractor and trailer for a company. Jim invited them to come in and talk to us. We gave them as much information as we could being newbies ourselves. They had actually already talked to a recruiter and were thinking about purchasing their own truck and were wanting to get into a straight truck. They had been team driving for about 7 years and really liked being out on the road together. I think we talked about everything under the sun, but mostly about what we do and our families. It is really energizing to talk to other teams about what we do. After a couple hours of talking, we exchanged numbers and email so that we could stay in touch.
We decided that we had better go out to the truck and go to bed since we had to get up at 4:30 am so that we could go pick up our load in NJ. Just before we left, we got a text from my little sister from college, so when we got out to the truck I got to talk to her. She was calling to ask how I liked driving a big rig. I shared with her that I really enjoyed it and then she told me why she was asking. Jody has a full time summer job that she really likes but she always struggles in the winter to find a job that makes ends meet. She had come across an article about moving RVs around the US and Canada and was thinking about checking into it. Of course that wasn't all we talked about, but we had a really good time talking and time flew by. I have shared on past posts about sleep and how difficult it is for me sometimes, so it isn't so smart for me to lose track of time so close to bedtime since we had to get up so early and I would be the one driving. Luckily I fell asleep right away after I got off the phone.
Jim and I woke up and were excited to be able to get back to work after the chaos of the weekend. We went inside and did our morning routine including purchasing my morning caffeine of soda. The staff at the fuel desk were using calculators to add because all of the registers were down. After we were done getting our morning caffeine, we went back out to the truck. Jim decided that he was going to do a walk around and help me check the lights. When he got back in the truck, he sat in the passenger side and looked out the windshield. He noticed right in front of him a crack in the windshield. It hadn't been there the night before. We have a theory. We think that when they plowed out the parking lot, a stone hit the windshield and dinged it and then with the mild weather in the day and then the freeze at night, the ding turned into a 10 inch crack.
One of the items on a pre and post trip inspection is the windshield. A cracked windshield is a major safety issue and it needed to get fixed before we went back on the road. We called dispatch and they put us out of service and took us off both of our loads, the one from NJ to Maryland and the one from Virginia to Ohio. Not good for the pocketbook but we both know things happen for a reason. Jim talked to the TA service people and they gave him the number of someone local and Jim called them. They said that they were so swamped that they wouldn't be able to get to us until tomorrow. We decided to call the Kenworth garage at the suggestion of our owner and found out they couldn't get us in until tomorrow either. We decided to call the local company back because they would come out to the truck and fix it and we wouldn't have to drive it anywhere. So, now we were stuck another day and without a load to look forward to.
Today TAs business is a little more reasonable but still busy. They ran out of gas yesterday, just got filled this morning and now at 5 pm are on the verge of running out of gas again. We have had such good experiences while we've been out but today something happened that just shocked me. Jim and I talk about how sheltered we have been growing up and even through our married life. We've heard about people still being racists but I have to say I've never really seen it in action until today. I had steam just running out of me. Jim caught part of it and evidently I caught the other part. Jim saw a young African American adult getting some things that he was going to purchase. The young man put some things in his pocket because he was having trouble carrying them and a caucasian guy just went off on him and said he was stealing and started yelling racist comments. Somehow another young man got involved and the yelling continued as I was coming out of the bathroom, smack dab in the middle of it. They were talking about fighting right then and there and the man kept saying racist things, that is when I started steaming. The manager came back and told them to break it up or he would call the police and the one screaming the racist comments said go ahead. Another one of the staff members took the young adult by the shoulders and walked him in another direction and said, it is not worth it. The general manager and myself walked behind him and both told him that some people are just ignorant and he wasn't worth getting himself in trouble. This just made my stomach turn, I was angry and hurt that a human being could have so much hate in his heart to talk to another human being like that. I just hope that since this was the first time I witnessed, I would not ever witness something like that again.
Sorry that I had to vent about this, but it really upset me and I don't ever want any person to have to experience that hate from anyone. As I end this post I hope that everyone who reads this will take time to love others, not degrade them in anyway because it affects everyone around. God created this world in love. Loving God is the number one commandment and the second one is love your neighbor as yourself. I really hate to think how the man who was saying racist things felt about himself because if he treated someone else so badly, he must feel pretty crappy about himself. I like my cup half full and enjoy seeing the good in people. The only thing I can think is that by watching this situation unfold, it showed others just how wrong it is to treat another person the way that he did. Thank God for the loving friends and family that I have and that racism was something I was sheltered from.
Love, peace and joy,
Judy
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| And so the snow begins, Oct. 29, 2011 in Southington, Connecticut |
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