You think you had a bad day on Monday? You think your drive to work was lousy? Consider how it went for Chris Hubble. He had to call his dad and say “I slid into the ditch.” Ah, you are not sympathetic. Many of us slid into the ditch on Monday. Of course, most of us were not driving a milk hauler with 62,000 pounds of milk sloshing around in the trailer.
The full story will be in this week’s Elk Rapids News, but I thought you might like to see more pictures, particularly if you are a firefighter’s mom (or dad, or wife, or husband, or son, or daughter – or even, and if so bless you, a firefighter yourself). Besides, I stood around in snow up to my knees for hours to get these pictures! I froze my toes! I lost my YakTrax! (Not to worry – I went back the next day and found them. But I never did find the notebook I dropped – the one filled with terrific quotes. I had to call people today before I could finish the ERN story, and trust me, people are not nearly so quotable the day after.)
Enjoy the pictures. Be glad your Monday was, at the very least, not as bad as Chris Hubble’s. And send a good thought to tow truck drivers and firefighters and milk haulers everywhere who get out there on the worst days and do what needs to be done.
Torch Lake Views 
La Mirada Bob
March 5, 2008
Reminds me of ditching the old Ford in Wisconsin. Father-in-law grimaced but kept his cool as he pulled me out.
I tried to look at the other truck photos with three different browsers and just got the page w/ no pics. Same holds true for Babs Young’s other photos. I’ll try again when you let me know you have fixed the problem. I really like seeing all that snow and the barn was great!
uphilldowndale
March 5, 2008
Wow your milk tankers are bigger than ours in the UK, well the ones that collect from the farms at any rate; they would never make it through the narrow lanes if they were that big.
The drivers do have reputation for going fast; We have seen them taking corners with one set of wheels off the ground!
Early one morning I came across a milk tanker crashed into a ditch, there was no one in the cab and no one else around for miles, fearing the driver may have been injured and wandered off on too the moors I rang the local police to be told ‘Its all right love, we’ve got him here, he’s having a mug of tea, before his boss comes to pick up and he has to explain how he got it in the ditch!’
Same the world over!
Gerry Sell
March 5, 2008
Hmm – LaMirada Bob, I just tried the link to Babs’ archive and it worked OK. Try pasting this into your browser:
http://web.mac.com/byoung1/Site/Mich._Pic_3.html.
As for the milk tanker photos, um, I forgot to “publish” the page they’re on. I’m adding more now, and it should all work later this morning. Sorry . . .
Gerry Sell
March 5, 2008
Good morning Mrs. UHDD!
I love the image of the driver drowning his sorrows in tea. Life can be such a challenge.
In Chris Hubble’s defense, the roads here on Monday were an absolute blister. They’d been snow-covered, then melted a bit, then rained on a bit, changing to snow as temperatures plummeted . . . your typical Michigan March, in fact. So what Chris drove up was pretty much the equivalent of an ice sculpture. (At least that’s his story, and he’s stickin’ to it!)