Sat – 17 Dec/16

We woke up to ¼” layer of ice coating everything! Due to the unseasonable extreme cold the rain was freezing on everything. The RV wore a solid covering of ice. Transports were crawling in to get off the Interstate. They were parking until the weather cleared. Needless to say, we weren’t leaving at 7 a.m. as planned.

The parking lot that was almost full last night was now barren except for a few trucks that were pulling in along with our RV (and 2 other RV’s) that were here through the night. The weather report indicated a warm front would raise the temperature from below freezing to 50F by the afternoon. The rain stopped, as predicated, by 10 a.m.  The roadway was slushy by noon. 

This gave me time to fix a wiper blade that had a chunk tear away due to the ice. Walmart no longer sells refills. I could not by a wiper arm with a blade – none would fit. The motorhome uses a blade that has 2 screws holding it onto the arm. These are even difficult to find at an RV dealer. I was able to buy wiper blade, take it apart and replace the wiper blade portion on the RV. Then we were on our way.

There were a number of slowdowns as we passed accidents that were being cleaned up or pulled out of the ditch. Some folks tried driving before the roads were safe and paid the price. After crawling in “stop and go” for a few miles I spotted the problem in the distance. The entrance to I-95 at Fredericksburg, VA, which is slow during the best of times, was blocked.

I saw a “Numbered” (County) road that exited to the right at the stoplight. Being before the “Dead Stop” I thought that being a “Numbered” road (with a stop light) that it went somewhere (like the next town).  I was wrong!

Now this is where I “Rant” about traffic planners. My theory is that they have to take an I.Q. test before qualifying for the course. If they fail the exam they qualify to take the course. If they fail the course they become “Flaggers”.

After I turned onto the road there was a “No Exit” sign a few hundred feet down the road. Why don’t the traffic planners put the sign at the corner!!!

Problem 2: A motorhome with a car in tow cannot back up. I furiously scanned for a way to turn around otherwise I would be spending the next hour or two unhooking, backing both car and RV up individually, then reconnecting.  Due to the several tons of weight it is not advisable to try to drive through a field in the event it is too soft.  Sometime a large intersection will allow a slow and tight U-turn; but none was available.

I then spotted a dirt driveway and a paved driveway that ran to houses. They were just far enough apart that would allow a U-turn from one to the other. They were on the crest of a hillside.  I decided, due to the elevation, that the ground would be well drained and more solid than the fields at the bottom of the hill and I took a chance. 

It was tight; but the ground was solid enough and I made it!

Closer inspection of the GPS mapping indicated the road on this side of I-95 went nowhere except to a dead-end. We had to go back into the mess of traffic as the way out was to cross over the interstate drive and go through Fredericksburg to another interstate on-ramp.

We crawled along through numerous stoplights for several miles in bumper-to-bumper traffic until we were able to get onto I-95 at another exit.

There were no signs marking the detour. In Ontario there are permanent (ETR) signs that show how to get from one on-ramp to another in the event that the highway is blocked for any reason. We just followed the crowd and hoped somebody local knew where they were going.

Over an hour later we managed to get back on I-95; however, this wasn’t much better. It was 3 solid lanes of stop-and-go for the next half hour as we crawled passed construction and accidents.

Between the freezing rain, the detours and the accidents we had lost 7 hours of travel time.

We had planned on making it to our usual stop at the Walmart in Walterboro, NC; however we only managed to make it to the Flying J at Kenly, NC before dark. This was 250 miles short of what we had planned. The extremely high dew point was causing moisture to coat the windshield (and the road) even though it was not raining. We would not arrive until after 10 p.m. if we tried to reach the planned stop.  Since the Chinese Buffet we usually ate at upon arrival would be closed we felt it was better to just stay at the Kenly Flying J for the night. There was no use in driving in the slippery conditions in the dark

Supper was at the (Flying J) Denny’s. At least tonight’s sleeping would be as cold as last night.