OK gang, it is time for STUPID STORY OF THE DAY (not vape related)...
Yesterday ended up being the monthly shopping trip. It should have been Wednesday, but it was snowing then and I didn't really want to deal with the stress of driving 250 miles while being snowed on all day. I was gonna just go Thursday, but the hay guy called and decided to deliver Thursday, so I put off shopping until Friday. Good thing the hay was put in the barn Thursday because the drifts have totally closed off the path to the barn (more on that below).
OK, I got out of here Friday morning just before 9:00 AM. It was 23F (-5C) and windy, but it wasn't snowing. The highway in front of our house didn't look too bad, so off I went. Only a few miles west and I decided that 65 mph would not be safe, so I dropped down to 50 and tightened my grip on the steering wheel. Guess I'm gonna be stressed out after all. Oh well...
Another 30 miles and I noticed there were several cars riding my bumper, but there was no place to pull off safely and I was not going to speed up on a road covered by blowing snow, which was packed down by every passing vehicle. About 7 miles east of Newell, there's a small bridge (Willow Creek) and coming down the hill, I could see it had lots of snow on it. I tapped my brakes several times and slowed to about 40 mph, with intent to go even slower, but that damn Audi behind me was crawling up my tailpipe. I kept tapping my brake and he backed off a bit. As I cleared the bridge, I hit a patch of ice and the rear end slid left. I counter steered and it straightened out, but the 40+ mph crosswind wasn't helping the situation. I turned just a touch too far and the rear end broke to the right. I over-compensated apparently, because next thing I know, the truck is making big circles down the center of the highway and there is no recovery once the rear end replaces the front end. I went ass-end first off the road into the ditch. I put it in 4WD at that point, but the truck was not moving in either direction. I opened the door and the wind blew it shut on my shin (Ouch! God damn it all to hell!!!). The Audi and another car stopped to see if I was OK (I wanted to scream at the Audi driver for pushing me when I was trying to go slower, but I kept my calm). He said, "Wow, man. I was sure that the way you were spinning that you were gonna flip over. Good save." Then he drove off. No point in him staying anyway because his stupid little sports car couldn't have pulled me out. The rear of the truck was in snow over the bumper and to the top of both rear tires. The next car driver asked if I wanted a ride into town and I told him I would stay with my truck until another truck came along that could pull me out. He said, "I'm not getting a cell signal here, but do ya want me to call 911 when I get a signal?" I told him that wouldn't hurt and thanked him for his concern. I then got the tow rope out from under the seat and hooked it to one of the front tow loops and laid the other end up near the highway. It is orange and yellow, so anyone would see that and hopefully stop. Two trucks went by and didn't even slow down. I was amazed because I have never in my life seen someone in a ditch and not stopped to offer assistance. I was in that ditch almost an hour before a huge Dodge Ram pulled over. He was headed west and due to the direction my truck was pointed, would need to turn it around, so I asked a little old lady in the car behind him if she'd drive to the top of the next hill and put on her 4-way flashers to stop traffic. She agreed. The Ram driver turned around and I hooked onto his hitch and got in my truck and spun my tires and he pulled me right out. Then he turned around again and went on his way. I turned around too and started up the hill. That little old lady was still sitting up there, so I stopped, got out, walked up to her window and thanked her. If I had just driven around her, she'd probably still be sitting there because she didn't even know it was me. What a sweet old lady...
I continued with my shopping day, but much slower and damn the traffic behind me that wanted to go faster. I did the feed store in Belle Fourche then off to Wally World in Spearfish. When I came back out, I saw that someone had stolen one of the three coolers from the back of my truck. Why would some idiot steal an empty cooler right in front of the damn store? I then went on to Rapid City for the bulk items from Sam's Club. The freeway wasn't too bad going in, but when I came back out it had started snowing. By the time I got back to Sturgis, it was a full-on blizzard (40 mph wind, heavy snow, visibility about one city block). I called Lannie and told her I wasn't gonna be home by chore time. The road was slick as snot and when you could see the highway, 45 mph was max. Most of the time the only way I could even tell I was on a road was the reflectors on both sides - you could not see anything that resembled pavement. I got sideways a couple more times, once at only 10 mph in 4WD. The 75 miles from there to home took over 2 hours and by the time I got to my driveway, I was a nervous wreck. But I'm the man and I am not supposed to show that, so I am trying to be strong for Wifey. However, I do now understand PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder).
I should let Lannie give the details of her day's ordeal (if she wants to), but the bottom line is that the damn wind filled in the path to the barn and she tried to dig through it to do the chores all alone and fell down several times, plus achy muscles from the digging, then found the hay room door frozen shut, so had to go around the long way to get the pick ax and chip it out. So, both of us were pretty much a wreck at the end of the day.
OK, all together now, let's sing:
We gotta get outta this place
If it's the last thing we ever doooooooo...
Tell Emmy I said hello.
