Big Time Truckin': True Trucking Stories
Dispatch 17: Winter Driving
by Kirk Gonnsen
I come flying around the bend on I 75 northbound through Toledo at 3 AM and the next thing I see is flares, lots of flares sparkling red and police lights spinning blue and red and white - and the whole highway is shut down.
Son-of-a-bitch. Hit the brakes. I mean, touch the brakes carefully cuz the whole road is nothing but slick ice and snow and I can't see much anyway with the window half fogged and half crusted over - I've been sticking my hand out the driver's side window every couple of minutes trying to flick the ice off the wiper so it will actually clear the view. Gear down, gear down again, more brakes and veer right past the flares and there are two Toledo cops waving flares and screaming at me, but I can't hear what they're saying, but I know it's something like, "slow down you idiot!" And I'm screaming back, "why didn't you put some warning flares back a mile or two so we'd know something was up?"
And then I'm off the highway, down the off-ramp and in the middle of Toledo and now what? An intersection. Everything covered with snow. Which way? Shit. I go straight and change my mind. I look right, there's a truck stuck in front of a low bridge - poor bastard. And another truck beyond him - lights flashing, looking at a map. Oh shit. Turn right, over the curb, find a highway sign.
Everybody's on the CB asking the same thing, "how do I get back on I 75 north?" Four answers come back. All of them garbled and confusing. I keep going. Find a highway sign for RTE 25.
It should be legal to take the truck on that. I follow the 25. Now what? Construction and I'm in a downtown area - good thing it's 4 AM. I brush past the orange traffic barrels.
There! A sign for I 75 north. Nope.
A cop car flashing lights, blocked. And beyond him I see the I 75 looming overhead as it rises over the buildings and factories. And there I see it. A truck overturned, and more cop cars, and an ambulance - somebody didn't make it tonight, maybe? I see another truck and follow him. A few minutes later we find the 24.
I know the 24. It parallels the 75 - truckers use it to bypass the scales. I follow it north and then there's an exit for 75 and it's open. We creep around the iced on-ramp and hit the open interstate. Speed up. Go, go.
Make up the lost time. Ignore the ice and snow. Ignore the idea of crashing. That happens to suckers. Not me. I'm king of the road. I'm too important. I've got to get this crap to Toronto before 10 AM. And I did, but winter's just begun. The real shit - the blizzards - are yet to come.
