One winter several years ago, it was mostly an unbelievably warm winter!! I think it only got to -20°F for 2 or 3 days all winter long. Most of the season we spent with no snow on the ground, which is simply unheard of!! During that season we had about 4 or 5 fairly good snowstorms, but the temps were warm enough that it all melted within a few days - again, totally bizarre!! During one of these snowstorms, we woke up one morning to pounding on the door. I was still in bed so the wife answers. At the door was this big, burly biker-looking dude with a biker-type beard and a Harley bag. Scared my wife to death until she took a closer look. He was wearing a lightweight jacket - not what one would expect for the cold temps and BIG SNOW blizzard that had just wrapped up. She noticed icicles coming out of his nose. Then she saw his feet - slip-on loafers. No gloves. No hat. When I came to the door, he explained that he was stuck in the ditch up the road. I invited him in, but he wouldn't think of it!! I'd soon find out why.
Well, he explained that he was a truck driver and he was coming to a small local town to pick up a container or something. It was dark when he got there and snow was drifted pretty deep, so he figured he.d go up the road and get turned around - try to get a better angle for the container to be loaded on his flatbed trailer. As he drove, he kept looking through all the snowflakes coming out of nowhere, but just couldn't see any place to turn his big rig around. Next thing he knows he's on this gravel road that keeps getting skinnier and skinnier. No houses. No lights. Maybe the power is out, he thought? He kept driving in the blizzard trying to find some way to get turned around and get back where he came from. Once he went around the curve just north of us, the snow was even across the road and ditches. He got over a little too far on his side and started sliding into the snow. He -- was -- stuck!!
He pulled out his cell phone, but no signal - not one bar! Soon, his engine died, as the engine draws fuel only from the right-side tank, which was now on the high side of the truck. Gravity caused the fuel to drain into the left (lower) tank. He got out in the snow and tried to siphon fuel from the lower tank, but to no avail. So he climbed back into his rig, soaking wet and cold from the snow, and just waited. The wind was ripping out of the Northwest!! Winds were so strong that many trees went down in the area, so he was hearing noises from the wind whipping through his truck and, after a while, his imagination got the better of him. He swore he saw wolves and bears, which are "possible", but not likely in that kind of weather. They would have been too well-fed from the ultra-mild season. He kept thinking all night long that he might freeze, and wondered if he should stay with the truck or go for help. ...But WHERE?!?!? There were no houses; no lights; no traffic; no tracks in the snow, save his own.
Next morning the storm had ended and the temps were dropping for a couple of days, which is normal here (only usually much longer!). As he didn't remember passing any houses the night before, he started walking in the 10" of heavy, wet snow. He went about 1/4 mile, but still, no houses; no traffic; no sounds of any kind. It was as if he had fallen off the face of the Earth and landed in some barren winter wasteland. By now it was 9am, and STILL no traffic. So he turned around after that 1/4-mile trek as he
thought he remembered seeing a yard light way off the main road. He walked in the snow for 3 1/2 miles until finally coming to our house. Here was this big, burly biker-looking dude who was frozen to the core and wreaked of diesel fuel!! No, he wouldn't come into the house, and nothing we could say would change his mind. I quickly got the truck keys and started the engine, setting the heat to HIGH. He got into the passenger side.
We normally go to town about once a month in winter, but this time it had been more than 6 weeks, and we were out of the "good" food. No milk, no bread, no eggs. The wife was even out of her soda (I drink water). However, the night before, during the blizzard, she baked some homemade bread. There was just enough lunch mean to make a sandwich, and there were some sodas that the wife didn't like (grocery store special), but our trucker friend had no complaints. She made two big sandwiches and grabbed two sodas. Meanwhile we had contacted a towing company who had the equipment to get him out. They figured they could be there within 1 1/2 hours. It took a little longer - about 3 hours! Shortly before the tow truck arrived, the county road grader came by and plowed snow. Ah, there WAS a road there!! It took the tow truck almost an hour to get his rig out of the ditch, but he was successful.
I had taken some video and photos of the truck, and made a video to send to his wife - you know, so she wouldn't think he was foolin' around!
The first pic shows how much snow we got all at once, right before the big event. We went from no snow anywhere to this overnight!
The 2nd pic shows his truck in the ditch. It doesn't look like as much snow here, as this area is in the open, and the snow was blowing across rather than staying in the road. Other parts of the road that were sheltered by trees had the full 10" of wet stuff.
Btw, this IS on-topic, as the trucker had NO food and NO drink, except for 1/4 of a soda from the night before and 1/2 small (dinky) bag of chips. Not even a candy bar. No extra clothes, nothing.
