Solo Cross-Country road trip [Part 3]
{Journey continues…}
Day 2: Meeting friends at Michigan (175 miles)
I had a close friend of mine who lives in Michigan, and I also had a quick business meeting to attend, so I decided to take a detour and enjoy the cold weather. Luckily, it hasn’t started snowing in Michigan yet, which is a good sign.
After a nice workout in the hotel gym, I had a good breakfast and filled my thermal flask with hot water. Went to work in the morning and met some friends in the afternoon and since it was a quick 170 miles trip for the rest of the day, I took it slow. On the way to St.Joseph, Michigan, I was soo happy to see Buffalo Wild Wings (BWW) and I was like a kid at the candy store! I took a 15-mile detour, ordered some spicy boneless wings. My appetite has already started to reduce, I was able to eat only less than half of the large wings and took the rest to the hotel.
Reached the hotel by 10 pm and it was kind of lonely, however, two miles from away lake Michigan. It was dark and did not see a sign of a human, went inside and the front desk assistant came in and said, we don’t have the King size room that you requested, so we will upgrade your room to a Suite room. It was all because of BWW🙏! It was an old hotel, so I thought it's going to be a modest Suite. I got a room, that was close to the size of my 1BR apartment! It was at least 450 Sqft with a jacuzzi and a full-size bathroom. Enjoyed the remaining buffalo wild wings and 💤…
Day 3: St. Joseph, Michigan to Sioux Falls, South Dakota (672 miles) — THE DAY!
Repeated the same drill — Gym, breakfast, and started around 9 am. I had a little headache because of the cold weather, so stopped at CVS got some Vicks vapor rub and I was fine in an hour.
Realizing 500 miles took around 12 hours, I wanted to start a little early this time since I had to cover close to 700 miles. I did not find any restaurants ahead of time, though I had enough time, because I wasn’t sure where I would be stopping and how long it was going to take. I still had half the tank on my car, so I was planning to do fueling and lunching at around the same time.
Roadtrippers gave a lot of suggestions, of which I wanted to visit — Michael Jackson’s house in Gary, Indiana which was 70 miles from the hotel in Michigan. I read from blogs that MJ’s house is kind of deserted and not a safe place to visit (You can google for nice stories ). Things like that make me even curious to visit that place, as someone mentioned I did not find many people on the road, and it definitely felt like I was in GTA Vice City. I got down still and clicked a few pictures
Since I made a stop, I also decided to fill the gas so I don’t need to stop again. I resumed at 11:00 am and kind of felt I lost my appetite already, wasn’t feeling hungry. Before I made the next big stretch, stopped at Davenport, Indiana for 45 mins to get a burger. Also, I was munching on all the home-cooked snacks and nuts. It was a clear day and I was in the middle of Iowa at around 5 pm.
I was thinking it was a productive day, I have already covered more than 440 miles and it was only 250+ miles left to reach the hotel. I stopped again to stretch a bit and fill the gas. Google maps said I will reach by 8 pm and I planned to get a good dinner as I started feeling hungry already.
Now comes the real challenge of driving alone, having a 2WD and IT STARTS TO SNOW!! What else can you expect in November in Iowa and it just started to snow, I was just 3 hours away, what else can go wrong? I was fine because it just started to snow, so it's not difficult to drive.
After driving for about 90 minutes, I heard the weather station and it mentioned, roads from Fort Dodge, Iowa were cleared up which was around 40 miles. From Virginia till here, I intensively used auto-drive (no adaptive auto-drive) and drove for more than 700 miles with ease.
I turned off the auto-drive and had full control of the steering when I felt a sudden jerk on the steering wheel. The icy snow started to work! I reduced the speed immediately, however, saw something interesting, that there were two-speed limits — Min: 40mph and max 65 mph. Decided I will just do 40mph and was on the farther right of a two-lane road. After about 10 minutes, I was about to cross a bridge @40mph, my car just drifted from right to left all the way and totally lost control for a moment, with SUV’s speeding behind. One thing to remember — Bridges get cooled much faster than the roads, so forming ice is much likely in Bridges as compared to regular roads. Luckily, it was a short bridge, however, my car started to skid even more. One more trick, while driving in the snow, if you need to make a right, you turn the steering wheel in the opposite direction to control the wheel. To put it in simple terms, if you are trying to balance on a roller and if the drag is on the right side, your reflexes automatically pull you to the left. The same concept, I definitely recommend watching a YouTube video if you are planning to drive in snow.
I was on the highway, did not find a detour in 15 miles, or don’t know if there was a detour for the next 40 miles away. I can’t stop the car for the weather to settle down, cannot slow down as there are cars and trucks that need to pass by. I further decided to go even slower than 40mph to almost 20mph. The highway will have huge trucks and trailers who still prefer the max speed and at times they don’t even change to the left lanes if you are slowing down. I had to pull to the rightmost part of the road many times for the trucks to pass by. I even thought I can simply follow the tracks of those trucks so I can go at least @40mph, none of those tricks worked. Also, the most painful part is you need to hold the steering wheel tight and very sturdy while you literally feel the wheel!
Luckily, found a detour, I did not want to drive in the heavy snow and the weather channel mentioned it slows down by 7 pm, so I decided to pull over wherever possible. Now comes the real fun, I took the detour, Google maps tell no GPS found, I’ve no clue where I’m, no vehicles around nor I don’t even see the road as it’s all covered with snow and it’s still snowing, however, I saw factories around. After driving for about 10 minutes, saw one another car, who felt lost too, followed them for a bit in the hope they will go reach some highway. Still holding the wheel tight, my hands started to pain and after about one hour around 6:45 pm, I finally reached a small Gas station. Parked my car and decided to stay here for a while, not sure when I will reach the hotel and if the restaurants will be open by the time I reach, so grabbed a quick snack in a nearby 7-Eleven store.
One might think it's insane, but to me, it was a fun ride and I still remember watching Conan’s funny shows while waiting in the gas station. After realizing that I have only made 15 miles in the past 2 hours and still had 25 miles to reach Fort Dodge. Resumed again at 7:30 pm and still driving @30 mph, I hit the highway again. This time, the traffic was a little less, however, this time there were many bigger trucks. I pulled to the right after seeing an oversized truck approaching. It was my angel truck, these are super heavy trucks carrying huge payloads like Power generation engines, wind turbine blades,..etc. The truck was moving slowly at a rate of 35 mph and it cleared the track for me. I slowly and steadily followed the truck for almost 55 miles, yes! that’s even beyond Fort Dodge and I can clearly see the intensity of the snow reducing.
Finally, after feeling comfortable and getting a grip on the road, decided to move in front of the truck, saying thank you and waving bye-bye truck. I still had almost 180 miles to cover and it’s 9 pm already. At this point, I was a little tired, hungry, and badly wanted some good rest. I wasn’t sure how the weather is going to turn on me for the rest of the trip, so decided not to stop. Interestingly, once I entered South Dakota, the speed limits were 90 mph. Vroom! Vroom! Here I come Sioux falls! Finally reached the hotel at 11:30 pm. Nearby restaurants were all closed so ate some noodles and 💤…
Childhood dreams come true in Part 4 🎰
