Today's answering machine message:
I’m in Colorado, and yes, it’s snowing like crazy. Last night I had to go over a big pass IN the heavy snow, AND it was officially closed to everybody except people with chains. I was counting on tooling over going (uphill) about 30 miles per hour to keep up a little headway, you know, so I wouldn’t spin out. Some guy ahead of me (another truck driver in a "fancy Peterbilt): 5 miles per hour! And there were 2 or 3 other guys between me and him, all tooling at about 5 miles per hour. I was hoping I wouldn’t skid. Sometimes, when you’re going that slow, the load overcomes the traction. But anyway, I made it over. Now it’s sunny and nice. OK. I love you, bye bye.
Follow-up conversation
Dad asked, "Did you get my anwering machine message about going over the pass? Oh, that was the trip from Hell!"
Apparently one of the truck drivers stuck behind the slow poke decided he'd had enough. "So he pulled out and gunned it. Now the rule is steady pressure--don't stop or speed up too fast--but he pulled out and starting getting on it too hard. Pretty soon you could see all this slushy snow shooting out from the tires and the truck starting to slide. The guy tried to get it back under control. You could see him trying, but it was too late. Once you break traction you're kind of screwed. Pretty soon the truck went into a skid, and boom, jackknife. We all just kept going, slow and steady and sort of weaved around him."
Conditions were so awful that my dad pulled off in a turn-out and thought about sleeping there for the night. He put the tractor brakes on (he says he never uses the trailer brakes in the cold weather because they can freeze), tried to park, but the whole truck started sliding backwards down the hill. "I thought, OH, Jeez, I better just try to make it through this."
Follow-up conversation
Dad asked, "Did you get my anwering machine message about going over the pass? Oh, that was the trip from Hell!"
Apparently one of the truck drivers stuck behind the slow poke decided he'd had enough. "So he pulled out and gunned it. Now the rule is steady pressure--don't stop or speed up too fast--but he pulled out and starting getting on it too hard. Pretty soon you could see all this slushy snow shooting out from the tires and the truck starting to slide. The guy tried to get it back under control. You could see him trying, but it was too late. Once you break traction you're kind of screwed. Pretty soon the truck went into a skid, and boom, jackknife. We all just kept going, slow and steady and sort of weaved around him."
Conditions were so awful that my dad pulled off in a turn-out and thought about sleeping there for the night. He put the tractor brakes on (he says he never uses the trailer brakes in the cold weather because they can freeze), tried to park, but the whole truck started sliding backwards down the hill. "I thought, OH, Jeez, I better just try to make it through this."
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