We are home – finally – after an unforgettable week last week.  I’m not sure where to begin.  You might want to review previous posts on St. Louis (Monday, Jan 26) and Indianapolis (Tuesday, Jan 27).  Here are my notes for the following days:

ZANESVILLE, OH – WEDNESDAY, JAN 28

We are in Zanesville, OH for the night.  After leaving Indianapolis this morning (with about 14 inches of snow on the ground), we slowly made our way east toward New Jersey.  The storm passed over us last night and the highways were not in great condition.  Several places along the way appeared as though we were the first to drive on the pavement!  Around Indianapolis, they put blades on garbage trucks to help clear the roads.

We crossed from Indiana into Ohio and the road conditions seemed to be getting better.  But, as we made our way through Columbus, the roads were treacherous!  It seemed as though not a single snowplow had dropped a blade anywhere on Interstate 70.  Once we reached the east side of the city, road started to clear again.

As we neared Zanesville, the temperatures started to drop and the roads began to ice over!  Trucks and cars were flying off the interstate and into the ditches. We had reservations in Washington, PA but there was no way I was going to drive another hour and a half in these conditions.  We cancelled the reservation and started looking for another hotel.  Long story but we ended up in Zanesville, OH at the EconoLodge – the only place with rooms and a place to park the rig.  Dinner at the local pub (food was great) and then some relaxation.

I would have updated my blog here BUT the internet was not working in this hotel.  We could “join the network” but that’s about it.  Forced relaxation since there’s no way I was going to get any work done tonight.

We were on the road for 5.5 hours today and only drove 224 miles.  It was a long day!

PRINCETON, NJ – THURSDAY, JAN 29

This was another long day of driving over rough, icy roads.  As we left Zanesville, there must have been at least an inch of ice remaining on the roads.  The interstate our of Ohio was in terrible condition, even treacherous at times, and only one lane of travel.  As we crossed into Pennsylvania, the conditions improved and soon, we were driving on great roads making good time to New Jersey.

We drove 476 miles from Zanesville to Princeton.  It was only in the last 15 miles that we hit huge traffic problems!

A horrible accident had traffic stopped for hours.  We moved 2 miles in 2 hours.  Finally the State Police detoured traffic and we made it to the hotel.

In review, our trip from Missouri to New Jersey included:

Show on Sunday with weird stalkers and crazy fans

Ice storm on Monday in Missouri

Broken ignition switch in my truck caused us to slow down traffic in St. Louis on the interstate on Monday; a trip to the local International Dealer to get it fixed

Someone stole one of my fuel caps and siphoned off my fuel

Snow storm in Indianapolis on Tuesday (record breaking amounts)

Ice storm in Ohio on Wednesday (treacherous roads and stupid people)

Major accident on Thursday that left us going nowhere for almost 3 hours once we made it to NJ.