North Woods & Icy Ponds

After delivering my load Monday morning in Camp Hill, PA I went down to Carlisle, PA to pick up a load of tires going to Brainerd, MN. This is about 60 miles north of St. Cloud, MN, sort of dead center of Minnesota. Had a few snow showers across northern Indiana and up in Wisconsin, but for the most part it was a good trip.

Spent the first night on the Ohio toll way south west of Cleveland. The next night I made it over near Eau Claire, WI. Cold front came through that night and dropped the temperatures from a nice sunny 38 degrees to -6 degrees Wednesday morning.

I got up at 4am and headed over into Minnesota, got through the Twin Cities before rush hour and was up at St. Cloud by sunrise. The winds had died down over night with the passage of the cold front so the negative temperatures were not nearly so bad. Have to take care to treat my diesel fuel in these temperatures to keep it from gelling on me. The truck stops will treat their fuel for the cold temperatures, but I will add my own additive when the temperatures get into the low single digits and lower. Feel safer that way. Never been stuck on the side of the road with jelly in my fuel tanks and don't care to start.

After delivery in Brainerd, MN this morning, they sent me over to Wahpeton, ND, which is 40 miles or so south of Fargo, and I picked up a load of particle board material going to northern Indiana. It was a beautiful trip over the 2 lane roads to North Dakota. Frozen lakes and woods, farm land (it was frozen too) all snow covered. The roads were completely dry and had a bright sunny sky. Easy to see how snow blindness could be a problem. Drive for miles and go through a small farming town ever so often with a population of about 75 people. Who the heck lives up here!!! High temperature for the day is 3 degrees.

When I arrived they had one of our trailers already in the dock and almost had it loaded. I was hooked up and gone within the hour. Drove back over into Minnesota and hopped on I-94 headed back east to the Twin Cities again. I got just over into Wisconsin, got fuel at my fuel stop and shut down for the night. It will be back down to a low of about 5 degrees tonight, not quite so cold. At least I'm not over in eastern Pennsylvania again, nor'easter went through there today, another one.