". . . but I have MILES TO GO before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep." Robert Frost

WELL ! THAT didn't go as planned! Drove up to Grand Rapids with no trouble as the storm hadn't moved that far north yet. Dropped the loaded trailer in exchange for another loaded trailer to be delivered to Orlando. The normal route would be to back-track down thru Indiana the way I just came up, but I would then meet the storm head-on by 2pm near Ft. Wayne. I listened to some weather reports and called the Highway division of Indiana and confirmed that the roads south of Indianapolis were already (at 11am) covered in snow and ice. The winter storm watch only extended east to the Ohio counties that border Indiana so I checked the route, the miles, the time involved, my log book, and decided to try an end-run around the edge of the storm by going east to Ann Arbor, Michigan and then drop south past Toledo. Once on I-75 it's a straight shot through Cincinnati, Knoxville, and Atlanta into Florida.
Nice try.
By the time I was nearing Toledo I was hearing that there was snow in Cincinnati - I hadn't expected the storm to be so wide as to come over this far. Stopped and checked on-line weather at the good ol Beaverdam truckstop while I got fuel. Bad news, the maps of Kentucky show the roads to the south are in red, for dangerous driving conditions. The radar shows the snow in Cincinnati with the ice not far to the south (I had wanted to get 20 miles past Cincinnati into Kentucky today and let the storm go past as I slept). Got back on the big road, as they say, and hit snow squalls 30 miles later. 50 miles later there were news crews at the rest area, word from truckers heading north was that I-75 in Kentucky is closed and the bridges around Dayton and Cincinnati are all icing over (it's 15 degrees at 5pm). I didn't hesitate, I'm no fool and have endured worse blizzards in the wild wild west of Wyoming and Nebraska. I'm not one of those truckers who feels his manhood is threatened if he can't plow ahead in rain, snow or fog. I pulled into the rest area (the one without the news crew, DAMN!) and parked for the night. Raided the vending machines for a few candy bars, and some doughnuts for breakfast - I already was prepared with an extra sandwich from Subway, and a couple of sodas.
So it's time to camp out - they are now reporting on the CB that I-75 is closed in Cincinnati itself, there's a steep grade as you go into Kentucky and they are saying the snow plows can't get up it. I imagine the ice will hit me in a few more hours. It's 6pm now, I've got good tv reception, a couple of DVDs to watch on this laptop. and a book of writings by newspaper columnist Carl Hiaasen, a Florida favorite. The local news is loving this story - near whiteout conditions and yet the news vans are all over the place criticizing drivers for being on the road unneccessarily! I guarantee I'll witness a wreck in front of me tonite as cars continue to speed past the rest area. Stay tuned !