Grand Prairie Bound Again
Hooked onto another load of pipe bound for Grand Prairie, Alberta and headed out on the road. This time I was running with another driver who had the same load. We cut up through hwy 40 just outside of Hinton, Alberta and the road was in good shape. After unloading our pipe we decided to fuel up and go to Mama Pandas for a buffet. The food was excellent and I will go there again. Unfortunately when we came out all stuffed and tired, the weather had took a turn for the worse and there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground and forty mile an hour winds. We headed down the dreaded hwy 40 hoping we could travel the 3.5 hour drive with out much accumulation on the road. The trip was slow but we managed to make it to Hinton, Alberta where the winds were still blowing hard but the snow was a lot lighter. We slept that night and went to load cubed metal (appliances etc) for the back haul home. Well this was a painful experience as the operator of the loader had no experience and since this was our first time loading this type of freight it took over six hours to load us both and tie plastic mesh over the load as is required by law. The trip home was a nightmare as we ran into the first real snow storm of the year and only made it to Valemount, B.C. before shutting down for some sleep. The next morning wasn’t any different other than driving in daylight instead of darkness. The highway was attrocious from Valemount to Little Fort. I didn’t see any plows until Avola where we seen a grader which maybe there should of been a few more working that 300 km stretch of road. Didn’t see any accidents which was unreal considering the circumstances. When we got to Little Fort the weather changed to rain (Whew!!) and we had clear sailing home. Bye for now.