In the early winter months, I was fortunate enough to receive a generous sponsorship from Lew’s and Strike King for the 2020 season. This meant that it was necessary to wrap my truck and boat in January. My wrapper, Ultimate Boat Wraps, of Hutchinson, Mn, had a window the week of January 13th. The ride up to Minnesota was uneventful, basically 10 hours of NFL radio, and a few hours where I sang badly to thankfully no one. I enjoyed the week in Minneapolis working on being too fat to fish. Where I live in Kentucky is an amazing place, but somewhat lacks in terms of restaurant diversity. What we have is amazing, but I find myself missing Vietnamese, Indian, and some of the other exotic dishes that can be found in the city. So after eating far too much during the week, I was looking forward to seeing the end result of planning with UltimateBoatWraps.com. Before getting to that, lets have a look at where we started.
This is my truck, a 2019 Ford F250 Lariat. I thought long and hard about this selection as I was wavering between the F150 and 250. Both suit my purpose no question, but when one considers the hard road of fishing, long hauls across country, and longevity, my personal opinion is reflected in this purchase. I believe the strong build, diesel power plant, and robust towing capability of the 250 was right for me. From there, I purchased an A.R.E truck topper in addition to a roof rack and a pair of A.R.E. rod pods.
The truck and boat were ready on the 17th. I think it came out great.
After picking up my rig, I departed Hutchinson around 2 pm ahead of a particularly virulent oncoming winter storm.
For those of you living in the north, this was Winter storm Dean, and it presented a series of conundrums from the very outset. Now the goal in getting to Kentucky was to move south as soon as possible in order to escape the snow and freezing rain. This could be accomplished two ways. The first was to go straight down 35W towards Des Moines and later turn east towards Indianapolis. The second option was to take 94W through Wisconsin, to Rockford, IL and then either proceed south to Bloomington IL, or straight east to Chicago.
Because of the rain, and rapidly falling temperatures south of Minneapolis, the direct south route was out because of the imminent danger of icy highways. Therefore, I had to move East through Wisconsin. The problem, which I realized leaving Minneapolis, was that because I was taking a route that kept me in the north far longer, I was going to run into snow. Just West of Madison WI, the full force of the storm caught me.
Alright, as the title of this post says, driving your rig through a blizzard is a bad idea…on so many levels. For the first hour, I worried about the boat. But not in terms of temperature. I had winterized the engine, and put antifreeze in both the bilge and live well. A note on the anti-freeze, I am just going to come clean, I use too much antifreeze during the winter, but if I didn’t, I am fairly certain there is no way I could sleep at night. And I admit, my worry was pretty much imagined, simply because I am the type of fisherman that worries a lot about his boat. Soon, however, my imagined boat worry was completely replaced by the increasing nervousness that I would wreck both truck and boat as the road got increasingly worse.
This was not imagined.
I was quickly losing both the sight of the individual lanes as well as general visibility as the snowfall increased and the wind began to pick up in earnest.
Handling truck and boat on slick roadways is incredibly difficult if one loses control and begins a slide. So the idea is not to begin the slide at all. Now, I am not offering anyone advice on how to drive, or suggesting when or if to drive on snowy highways. But I believe the key to safe driving in adverse conditions is strict reduction of speed. In order to prevent losing control, I cut my speed until I had solid and consistent traction. The problem is that I am most definitely a minority in this belief, because as I slow down, there are the trucks that seem to take no notice of the weather, and the inevitable mini car driver that believes 75 in blizzard conditions is just about the right speed. So here I was racing down the highway at 42 mph being leapfrogged by a bunch of motorists aching for a wreck.
Between Madison and Rockford IL, I found myself continually reducing speed until finally I was cruising well under 40 mph. But south of Rockford, things got incredibly worse.
You will notice from the picture above that the snow had dissipated and turned to a misty rain. I had entered an area where it had been snowing, and where the temperature was now wavering right at 32 degrees. But the problem was this rain was now freezing on my windshield, and that is an indicator of really dangerous conditions. If the rain is freezing on your windshield, it is likely freezing, at least to some degree, on the road. I was now driving on wet snow and, in places, ice.
Concern kept me on the edge of my seat for about a half hour. Until one slight drift and recovery caused a double fish tail that took me completely by surprise. I proceeded to white knuckle it to the nearest hotel and checked in. This was really a close one. For about 3-400 feet, I was completely out of control. The boat swung out to my right, I countered, then the boat swung out to the left. While checking in, I was told that three other people had checked into the hotel as a result of crashes on the highway.
This is where I seriously plug my new truck. I have a 2019 Ford F250 Lariat, and it performed beautifully at the worst moment. A good truck and some small amount of experience is the reason why it was possible to counter both fishtails and ultimately recover. But it was incredibly scary.
I slept for 4 hours in the hotel and upon waking, proceeded south down highway 39 towards Bloomington. The sand trucks had been out all night and while still icy in places, travel was possible though it was incredible slow going. I counted a turned over truck and a number of deserted cars on the side of the highway from the previous night.
Winter storm Dean began as a difficult snowstorm and ended in the serious danger of sliding out of control. At 57′ long, an unchecked slide on ice could have resulted extensive damage to both my truck and boat, as well as potential injury. It’s twisted that injury gets mentioned last in that sentiment. Morale of the story, don’t drive on snow and ice when you are hauling your boat. For me, it was speed control that got me through, and when things got so bad no speed was safe, acknowledging the danger and getting off the road was key.
The northern states are beautiful in the summer, but in the winter, they can be incredibly unforgiving.
