Michigan

That I remember that particular blizzard well. I was hauling a load of potatoes from Idaho to the Detroit produce market. An epic task once I descended from running north of the storm to the tail end of it as I approached Lake Michigan from South Dakota. Most of the Dakota/Minnesota/upper Wisconsin stretch was clear, very cold and blowing snow. I remember blasting through small drifts at every overpass. Once I got to Portage, Wisconsin the snow was deep and only a few trucks were heading the other way and I started seeing rigs laid over in the median and off the road and it was snowing pretty hard. The drivers heading out were warning me to just keep going without trying to exit beyond where I was because I would get stuck.

Sure enough, by the time I got to north end of Madison, there was a WSP cruiser in every turn around in the median, more trucks laid over than I could count, every exit and entrance ramp was packed with swamped vehicles with snow drifted up beyond the wheel wells and so much chatter on the CB that I just turned it off. I would have blasted all the way through but I had to get fuel and just barely made it to the pumps when I got to Illinois where they had had a chance to do some plowing. All the while it was windy and at least -30F. It was kind of like that all the way to Detroit, took an extra day to get there.

It was a run around the lakes I'll never forget.