Well, folks, we’ve finally made it back to civilization, did you miss us? Back to the land of (sometimes) working internet service. I don't know what AT&T changed on their internet card software or towers, but whatever it was made it a lot worse. If you are shopping around for a cell phone provider, go with Verizon, for sure. Especially if you travel in the western part of the country.
Anyhow...........
The weather has really been working against us lately, we were shut down for bad weather more in the past week and a half than we have been all winter!
I’ve got lots of pics to try and post later, but here is an update of the last few days:
We arrived at the power plant site late Sunday afternoon. The sun was still shining and the temps are still hovering in the mid-fifties. It was a beautiful ride up, with no threat of the promised rain or snow.
The gates are closed at the site, so we park in front and watch the antics of a herd of about a dozen pronghorn and 4 deer in the fields across the road from us. I can think of worse things to do. They seem agitated and constantly on the move, probably sensing the incoming storm.
The security guard takes a ride over to our gate and gets us all checked in, she lets us know the gates will be open at 5 a.m.., and if we want to avoid waiting in a long line, to be there bright and early when they open for business.
We set the alarm and are waiting at the gates at 5 a.m., however the world has undergone a startlingly transformation over night. The blizzard has hit hard for about 2 hours and the foreman advises us that they will be shutting down operations for the day. He brings us to our unloading area, where we can leave our trailer and then bobtail to the truck stop to wait out the storm.
The truck stop lot is packed full, another bobtail calls us over the radio that we can park in front of him, his tranny is down and he isn’t going anywhere. He had been sitting there for a week. Another driver announces the manager of the Kmart across the street says we are all welcome to park in their lot. After taking showers, we head over to Perkins and Walmart, which is in the same lot as Kmart and park there for the night.
We manage to make it back to the jobsite in the morning, the roads are in pretty bad shape. Once we get through the gates, the wait isn’t too long before the crane gets us unloaded. We head back to Gillette, and the truck stop to wait for another load. Nothing worthwhile comes over the boards, our driver manager advised us to head to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. On the way there, we come to a roadblock, the interstate is shut down due to blowing snow. The weather had been clear, so we were surprised, but SD doesn’t have snow break fences along their interstate like Wyoming does.
Finally at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, they open I-90 back up. We can see why they had closed it down, parts of it are a real mess. We finally get a couple load offers and after much deliberation, decide to take one going from Rosemount, a suburb of the Twin Cities, to Frankfort, Kentucky.
We made it to the National Guard facility at about 8 a.m. this morning. Its one military truck (I believe its some type of emergency shelter on wheels), which we get loaded and chained down in less than an hour. We have to deliver this tomorrow morning, so its hammer down time.
We will be heading through Wisconsin (yipee!!) then Illinois, Indiana and finally into Kentucky.
Let’s hope the weather starts cooperating with us for a change.