Wyoming’s At It Again

One Safe Mile • OTR Life • Road Safety

Photo courtesy of Tiffany VanNatter

She called me yesterday.

Tiffany was running I-80 through Wyoming, somewhere near the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Monument outside Laramie, and the sky was already changing. Temperature dropping. The forecast had gone ugly — snow and freezing conditions called for the entire state.

She sent me three clips while we were still on the phone.

This morning she sent pictures. She was parked at Rawlins. The windshield was gone — buried completely under snow, nothing but a wall of white pushing against the glass from the outside. The roads were closed. She wasn’t going anywhere.

She’s still there.

That’s Wyoming in May. That’s I-80. That’s the stretch that doesn’t care what your delivery window says or how many miles you need to make. When it closes, it closes. You park, you wait, and you trust that you made the right call before the road made it for you.

Tiffany made the right call.

There’s a reason experienced drivers respect that corridor the way they do. The elevation, the wind, the way weather moves across that high desert without warning — it doesn’t negotiate. The Lincoln Monument sits at over 8,600 feet. Rawlins isn’t far behind. In May, it can go from clear to closed in less time than it takes to fuel up.

She’s safe. Truck’s where it needs to be. That’s the whole job sometimes.

Stay safe out there.

— Renae

Video footage courtesy of Tiffany VanNatter