KJ on the Road: Slick Winter Road Blocks

This morning I woke up to lines of semi trucks stopped in their efforts to get out of the TA truck stop I had pulled into last night. I too was stuck as I tried to back up a little hill of the spot I had parked in! I walked to the TA store to buy a bag of salt - they had none! So, I walked across the street to the Pilot Truck Stop and they also had none to buy, but the manager let me have a cupful out of their salt bag they used to salt their sidewalks. I walked back to my truck, threw two handfuls of salt at the base of my back drive wheels and started my truck and - poof! - backed right out, that was all it took. I was very happy and on my way!!

Well. sort of on my way, except the lines of semis in the aisles. I managed to maneuver my truck through the lot over behind the fuel aisles and find a nice dry spot and pulled in there.

As I looked around here is what I found: (PS I figured out - too late - I had my phone camera on incadescent!! So, thus all of the blue photos. Won't happen again, promise. =)

This truck was stuck, simply on a flat sheet of ice, all morning. He turned the corner to the TA driveway, his wheels slid out from underneath him and he jack-knifed. The wrecker first tried to pull him from the front, didn't work, went to the back, hitched to his trailer, pulled him back off the the ice patch and he was FREE! he backed into the intersection and drove away!

This guy slipped as he was driving UP the driveway, his wheels just started spinning .

The police came and said, you need to get this truck out of the way! DUH!!?? Some people can be so insightful at times!! Anyway, he got his chains out, and was able to then pull up the hill and saved himself a big Tow Truck bill!!! Yay!!

This driver was trying to drive up the exit driveway because the other truck was stuck in the entry driveway!! Well, he FORGOT the cardinal rule of driving up a hill on ice - DON'T hesitate! Keep moving! He hesitated, when he tried to get going again, he just slid and slid, banged in the front of his tanker pretty badly and was perpendicular in the driveway. When the wrecker pulled the top truck back into the road, and then another truck off another sheet of ice, then he finally came and pulled this guy out and FINALLY, many many hours later ALL of the trucks in the parking lot aisles were able to go on their way!!

This is the way the driveway looked this afternoon!! Completely clear, no ice and yet this AM this was sheer ice and the tanker truck was perpendicular to the direction of that Target truck.