NJ TO WI DAY 2

Waking up at 6, I took the Best Western hotel shuttle back to the O.C. to see what was what with my truck. Besides the P.M., I had a short list of things needing fixing that the shop had hopefully completed. I only had 200 miles to drive to Beaver Dam, WI as I had done the bulk of the drive yesterday. Upon arrival at the O.C. I saw my truck outside the shop. It looked like they had fixed everything I had asked for, which included new C.B. radio cables, broken bunk vents which were letting in cold air, a few lights out etc. As I said, the Gary shop was great. I took a quick shower in the O.C. got a coffee, and got back under my load (hooked the trailer back up to the tractor). All the talk was weather. A wintry mix was hitting the Midwest from the western Rockies and Chicago land was looking at 6' to 10" later in the day. The problem with weather reports for a trucker is that you are always moving so you have to track it. The weather channel (I have satellite radio in my truck) predicted severe weather for IA, WI, NE, KS and MI. I was driving into it. As I reached my destination, the Wal-Mart D.C. (distribution center) in Beaver Dam it was snowing very hard and cars along U.S. 41 North were in the median, in ditches etc. As I dropped loaded (not a live unload, just leaving the loaded trailer in the D.C. yard) my Qualcomm started beeping my next assignment.

My hopes to get a load South out of the storm beeped off. I was now to take an empty box from Wal-Mart, drive 32 miles North to Neenah, WI and pick up another pre-loaded box going....ready? To Gatineau, PQ; the Quebec side of the city of Ottawa, Canada, the capitol of the great white north. I was excited and a little scared. As I read the info and was trip planning this load (figuring routes, fuel stops, rest stops etc), it was snowing incredibly hard. It was a good load mileage-wise--889 miles north-east. My routing had me crossing an unusual way, instead of backtracking and going through Detroit, MI I was to go North through MI's desolate Northern Peninsula and cross into Sault-Saint Marie, ONT then drive due East on the Trans-Canadian Highway (rt. 17) through basically nothing except a few little towns and small cities like Sudbury and North Bay. I felt I could not safely use up my hours today driving and I would stop for the day at the O.C. in Green Bay for the night. My company is based in Green Bay and the O.C. there is rather comprehensive. I also had to do about 3 hours of faxing and calling the international broker to set up the crossing before arriving there. As I lot going a was almost dead-in-the-water in ice in the very parking lot I was in. The trailer was like a 27,000 lb. anchor and I was on ice--the wheels were just spinning. After barely getting out, back onto 41 N. to Green bay (32 miles), I realized I would not even make this short hop safely. Visibility was now zero, cars were stopped and abandoned in the highway etc. I got on the radio and was informed that there was a truck stop at the next exit--I got off. It was a Shell station in a vast tundra called Fox Valley, WI. Since it was Saturday, the place was empty (truck stops are at 25% capacity on weekends as most drivers go home weekends). I got out and was walking down the road in biting cold and driving snow looking for a restaurant I had seen advertised on the highway. Like an oasis in the desert I saw a sports bar/grill attached to a Best Western 200 yards away. My favorite part of driving is the end of the day when I always get to meet or at least see locals. The sports bar and grill was massively large and warm. The bright colors and volume of at least 10 huge plasma T.V.'s hit me and as my glasses fogged up I could see everyone in the place (who ALL knew each other) turn from their chosen games to marvel at this stranger walking in from out of the blizzard. "Hi hun, what can I get you?" I ordered a local beer called Leinkugel's Red and looked at a menu. "Where ya comin from driver, nasty oot there, even for up eer ay?" another trucker, referring to me the way all truckers refer to each other asked me. From his heavy Midwestern accent I knew he was local. Everyone waited for my answer as his next question was, "so were ya from driver?" "New York City...Brooklyn" I responded. Now I had every one's attention. This always happens. Everywhere I've been people respond positively, I always sense a little embarrassment from people about where THEY are from when I'm in little, remote places like Fox River, WI So I almost always comment on how beautiful it is where I am or how nice the weather is...in this case I just asked if this was normal and the guy responded "oh, hell no ay! Its blowin somethin awful oot there ay! We had a laugh and everyone turned back to their games and friends. Something to note--Green Bay, WI and its surrounding areas are football country. One other timer in Green Bay someone asked me "Jets or Giants" and I responded by saying I wasn't a football fan. The whole place burst out in laughter that time and I turned deep red.