Winter Driving OTR ~

 Butch's last few dispatches kept him out of the snow & most of the bad weather.  He was in OR, UT & ID.  He drove out of OR on Monday & made a delivery in UT that evening.  The snow moving down the face of the mountains, gave a fair warning of the day to come.

2-21 Bear River Valley, Corrine, UT

Tuesday, he was dispatched to pick up two loads of potatoes at two different locations in - you guessed it - Idaho!  From the first pickup in Newdale, he then dropped south again.  His final load was in American Falls.  

2-21 - Walters Produce, Newdale, ID

From the above photo, you can see the snow was piling up in Newdale!  By 7 p.m. last night when he stopped for the night, he'd traveled just over 450-miles.  He said in the last few miles he counted at least 18 cars off the road.

7:00 p.m. - Flying J, Willard, UT

Both of us were more than happy when he was done for the day.  He & Nika had parked here before & she had always enjoyed the walk to see the cattle pastured nearby.  We both still feel her loss every day & will for a very, very, long time to come... 

2-22 7 a.m.  Scary view~ 

This morning, Butch texted me with the photo above & said he wasn't going to be able to leave until the truck in front of him got moved.  He'd been just ready to get out of Traveler & go in for a cup of coffee when he saw the white truck come sliding at Traveler! 

Where Butch was parked~

He took instant evasive action & put Traveler in reverse!  Thankfully, he had room to do that!  You can see from the bare spot in the snow, where he had been parked & the tire marks of where the white truck would have hit him.  The flat bed trailer the white semi was pulling, narrowly clipped the front of the black semi on the far right.  No chains, no load & going too fast to stop...

2-22 I-15 Southbound, near Salt Lake City, UT

I was relieved when he texted he had left the Flying J & was out on the road - until he sent the photo above!  The storm was moving fast & dumping lots of snow all the way down I-15.  He had decided on I-70 rather than I-80, which has been closed for days now.

2-22 Chains required for the pass, nowhere for the drivers to chain-up!

By noon today he'd reached Spanish Fork, UT - south of Provo where a large sign told the truck drivers to chain-up.  That would have been fine, but there was no place to chain up!  Trucks were lined up for miles along the edge of the interstate with nowhere to go.  Eventually there were so many, the interstate was completely blocked.  (Butch had taken a detour through part of town to try to find a safe spot, but nothing large enough had been plowed out.)

The State Patrol appeared & told Butch & the other drivers to go ahead & chain up right where they were.  Far from a safe place, but the pass was ahead of them & another semi was jack-knifed up on top.  Drivers coming from the south said they were able to get around it.  

1:50 p.m. southbound~

Our last conversation, he was moving again, about 15-mph, everyone chained up...  Miles of partly dry road & chains, before the climb up the pass...