Day Thirteen

20 January, '10

With the wind howling so fiercely last night that the hotel windows rattled continuously there was little question in my mind what today would bring. And indeed the story of the day could be summed up in one word: ICE, and lots of it. A heavy freezing rain throughout the night coated all of Iowa with a thick layer of impenetrable ice: ice so thick it was impervious to anything people could throw at it. Roads were closed and even plows did not dare to brave the elements, as if they went off the road there were no tow trucks to help them out. Power lines and tree branches came down; and, by the time I could safely venture out everything was coated with thick ice. I could not even get into Ole Yeller as the ice entirely coated it and had to be chipped off bit by bit until the doors were free enough of ice to get them open. Signs and traffic signals had plump icicles drooping from them and yesterday's beautiful white flocking of rime ice was replaced by the heavy translucent fingers of frozen rain. Finally, by mid afternoon the storm had eased; troopers were back on the roads, the plows were back finding the pavement and the trucks began to roll again. Driving the 60 miles from Grinnell to Iowa City, however, I-80 looked like a wrecking yard with almost 2 dozen semis, in addition to the many cars, strewn along the roadway like so many Matchbox toys.

Tomorrow, on to the Twin Cities.

Keep on Truckin'

Jim & Ole Yeller

Picture of the Day: Ole Yeller with 2 inches of ice coating!