Maybe I gained favor with the Load planners, maybe they just had sympathy for my months-long saga of winter conditions as a new driver. However it came to be, I finally got to go south, to Dixie!

After Bruce got his repairs, we headed out of Utah taking a load to Illinois. Then, about an hour into the trip, an notice came through to swap loads with another unit in Rawlings, Wyoming. The new load was also going to Illinois, but the the southern part of the state.

It was dark and snowing when I arrived at the designated truck stop, and finally found my colleague parked in the remote parking lot. The entire truck stop was covered in about eight inches of snow, and trucks were getting stuck in the parking lot. My new load was a load of apples, and very, very light. Light loads in the winter are a mixture of good news and bad. news Good because light loads are easier to pull up grades, easier to get up to speed when merging onto an interstate. The bad part comes in when roads are slick because heavy loads sometimes are usually to keep traction, particularly when pulling up a steep grade. Also, light loads are more susceptible to blow-over risk during high winds, a common occurrence in Wyoming in the winter. Early the next morning, we headed out into the darkness of a wintery Wyoming morning, punching a hole 13 feet six inches high through the cold wind and swirling snow flakes. The roads were good in spots, and lousy in others. Always, the roads seemed to end, just when I was beginning to worry. And so we continued along, good conditions...bad conditions...until we made it to Nebraska where the skies and the roads both became clear and most welcome.

Off to the south horizon however, I could see the obvious signs of a major Storm, and the on board computer was alive all day with notes about a major Ice Storm down south---directly in the areas I was headed to. Due to the hazardous conditions caused by the ice storm, a safety hold was put in place, so, nearly out of hours, and headed directly into the path of the ice storm, I parked in Lincoln, Nebraska and waited for the go ahead. Once the all-clear came, we continued eastbound and continued to our final destination, southern Illinois.