To quote; "The scope of Saturday's storm is remarkable. Sections of 24 states were under winter storm advisories Friday night. Ice may accumulate as sleet falls, then shift to freezing rain. Supercooled droplets falling into the subfreezing air will freeze on contact with colder outdoor surfaces until temps rise above freezing late tonight."
There you have it. We’ll get sleet and icy rain which will coat the surfaces of everything, especially the road itself, making driving extremely hazardous. Then there will come the snow. I’ve been through these conditions many times - scary. It’s an 8 hour journey in regular conditions, so we could be pulling 12 hours on the road to make this Minnesota gig. I see it's an early one too...mmmm.
Brings back former tour memories, of struggling into Cripple Creek, in the Rocky Mountains, to play a cowboy bar in the area. Ended up with 3 feet of the white stuff. I have a vision of that occasion. A very sick, but single minded, Ben Granfelt trudging through the snow with his guitar and suitcase in hand, determined to walk to the hotel (against our advice). He eventually made it, much to our surprise. I thought he was going to die that night. I know Bob Skeat thought this too, since he and Ben were (unusually) sharing a room for this one and we got the full report (sorry Ben). It was, I believe, his final American tour.
On another occasion, I was driving solo across the country, over the Pocono Mountains, to meet the guys in LA. My vehicle was pulling a fully loaded trailer through this snow storm when the whole rig started to lurch alarmingly from side to side. Some strange instinct told me to speed up and not to slow down and it worked!
It was a close call.
I counted 8 tractor trailers crashed off the side of the road on that journey. I'll be mindful of all of this when we set off tomorrow. Glad I fitted snow tires, but annoyed that I left the chains at home...oh well..wish us luck. Better pick up some sleeping bags and shovels. You never know.
Oh yes, must tell you; the other day we saw a complete tractor trailer on fire. I think it was carrying tires. The smoke was incredible. 10 minutes later another one had crashed into a mini van being driven by a disabled man . Miraculously, he had been able to activate his wheelchair-lift, and extricate himself from the undamaged side of his van. Amusingly, he was heading down the freeway away from the scene. He'd been much luckier than the driver in the burning truck 10 minutes earlier.
We have tonights show to focus on first. We are currently in Schaumberg (Chicago) and I have a really good feeling about this one. There is definitely a gathering of the clans with folks from all over making the pilgimage. And I mean all over - Scotland, England, CA and other far flung USA states. If you people can make it then we will surely be doing our best to be there for you, as well.
We're gonna pump up the setlist - look for surprises.
~ A.P.
