Well it is morning now and I'm about to head home. It was amazing how clear and sunny it was here while it was snowing heavily back home 3 hours east. To this point I had no idea how bad the ice storm was just a bit further east. I was just figuring some ice coated trees to take pictures of. I was about to be shocked at what mother nature could do with a bit of freezing rain.
As I left I had a problem with the drivers side wiper squirter. I get out of the truck to clean it off and my feet fly out from under me. I was on my way down HARD. I reached to my side with my right hand to grab the truck. Well my hand lands right in an open area near the windshield, between it and the hood. It was just enough to grab. I just grabbed and held, about yanking my arm out of its socket. I was pleasantly surprised that my ass stopped about 2-3 inches above the pavement. I streched some tendons in my arm or something as it still feels kind of dead, half achy but not sore, 4 days later. After it happend I wasn't sure it would have been better than just hitting on my butt. It was so funny though at the time, since I was going straight down that fast and stopped that close at the last second thanks to being able to hold that one area of the truck.
There were cars EVERYWHERE east of Cozad. I finally got tired of taking picures of them. That and it was getting slicker and slicker as I moved east. At times the wind would hit and you'd feel the back end slide. This bottom right image is a car just after it spun out. I saw it go spinning, grabbed the cam and got one shot of it trying to back up.
As I got further east the scene became very amazing. You could tell it was getting thicker from the interstate, but I had no idea it was this thick till I pulled over at this rest stop just west of Kearney.You can see the turnk coated in ice and how it cracked the ice as it started to be bent over.
No worries today I don't think!
Still at the rest stop. It was rather fun walking through this tall grass.
Speaking of pets, everyone and their dog(literally) were now pulling over to go potty. I lost count of people peeing on the building(it was very closed). They were either peeing or snapping photos of the ice. Yes I do have a picture of the pee fest.
Edit: It's been pointed out to me we evidently can't spell here in NE. Look closely at the sign. I'm surprised it took this long before someone pointed this out(I never noticed it, probably because I hate spelling that word).
This was pretty interesting. I was walking on this thinking the area was filled with gravel and that was how this formed like this. Then I thought, no, surely there is grass under this. You could walk right on top of this like it was concrete. I finally kicked down through it to see. Sure enough, this was above the grass. I guess smaller pieces would fall from the trees then get coated larger, and round. There was just enough snow falling after the fact to cover up the thick ice below.
This was in Kearney. I stopped there to top off the tank and found that a bit of a challenge. I found one spot open at a gas station only to see those were out. The other pumps had lines of cars. So I go to one further in town, more long lines. I finally found a completely empty BP pay at the pump thing. It was just off the main highway. I didn't stay around Kearney very long as it was just a big mess and too many were out and about.
I pulled off at the Shelton exit and headed south towards Kenesaw. It started to be more apparent just how big of a mess this might be. I was finding poles snapped off in several locations.
The landscape was more and more strange the more one saw of it.
Classic! Note the expiration date.
"EXP. Jan. 2007
Are you StormReady!"
No matter how much I tried to understand how this was doing this to metal poles in the ground I couldn't. These were bent over in all sorts of directions.
Amazingly coated with ice.
This became rather common. That is a metal pole holding electric fencing bent over to the ground. I find roaming cattle, loose on the highway the following day.
Now when you look at this pole there is one thing you can't tell. It is just about that thick on the side facing the camerea.
This is barb wire....
Just look at the tall pieces of grass.
Every gas station I stopped at between Kearney and Grand Island was closed. This is at Grand Island. It did have power the next day. The areas south of the interstate won't be the same story.
Large transmission line down between Grand Island and I80.