In a word, today was terrifying. There is just no other way to put it.
We knew we had a long haul today because we wanted to make it home even though we had a little over 400 miles to go. When towing, 400 miles is a lot, at least for us.
We were up early since we had so far to go. I started getting the inside ready for travel and Walt started on the outside. In just a few minutes he was back in. He informed me that the truck and trailer were covered in ice and that it was only 22 degrees outside. This is not good. Still, he was determined we were going. I had second thoughts but kept them to myself. I won't do that again!
As we made it to the main road we hit a few patches of black ice but we could see the Interstate and it was moving fast. Great, lets hit the road!
We weren't on I-40 too long before we saw a tractor trailer overturned.. Hmmmmm,,,,this isn't good. A very few miles more and we saw another one jack knifed, We were hitting patches here and there so Walt slowed way down. Further down the road we started seeing tractor trailer after tractor trailer either jack knifed or turned over on it side. By this point I'm a nervous wreck.
At one point we pulled off the side of the road to give Walt's white knuckles a rest. It was scary just being on the side of the Interstate because we never knew if a tractor trailer would slide into us.
After awhile traffic started moving again, slowly, but moving. Walt got out and walked across the lanes of I-40 and where we were the road was dry. Just a ways down the road and it was really icy so I begged him to get us off the road. We pulled into an abandoned gas station with 15 other truckers parked all around us. When they started moving out, so did we.
About 15 miles down the road we were at a standstill. Traffic was backed up for miles but we didn't know why. Finally a tractor trailer pulled up beside us and he had his window down. I asked him if knew what was going on. Having a CB he was in touch with truckers up ahead. There was an accident involving three tractor trailers and they were turned over on the road. All I could do was sit in the passenger seat and cry. I know that didn't help Walt at all but I was scared to death. All in all we saw about 40 - 50 tractor trailers either jack knifed or turned on their sides. Several demolished their trailers and their loads were all over the place.
We kept going at a steady pace finally and watched the temperature rise slowly. Very. Slowly. Out of the ice and bitter coldness we were making headway.
The Welcome to Arizona sign never looked so good! I even got in about an hour and half of driving time....on completely dry roads of course.
We made it home after being on the road for 9 hours. It was a long day to say the least. We took only what we needed out of the trailer to get us through the night.
If felt good to be back in our bed again!
So the trip was a huge success! We had a great time, got to see family and friends and had experiences we'll never, ever forget.
We hope you enjoyed the journey.
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