Had a long week this week,driving in snow for most of it. I left last Sunday for Orville,Ohio and when I unloaded Monday morning it was snowing and the radio said the wind was gusting to 50 mph.When I took the straps off of one side of the tarp it blew off and over the trailer and was flapping like a flag,still holding on by the straps on the other side.I finally got it detatched and it blew up under a trailer parked beside me.I struggled with it for a while and decided I was never going to get it folded,so I was waiting to get unloaded so I could just get it up on the trailer somehow and get it strapped down. When the truck at the dock beside me pulled out I grabbed a corner of the tarp and dragged it up to the dock and stuffed it under the door.Then I went inside and pulled it in and got it folded and rolled up with no problem,then did the other one the same way. All this titanic struggle with my tarps probably took 30 minutes,and the tarp was winning the battle until I outsmarted it. Went from there over to Sharon,Pa. and loaded up 2 coils and back to Lynchburg.The crane was broken at N.B.Handy,so I had to take them to the shop where they unloaded them with the forklift.Then on to Dillwyn to load a Fremont,Oh. I knew they were calling for more snow in Ohio Tuesday night,so that motivated me to get all the way to Fremont,trying to beat it. It started snowing about the time I got there,around midnight. Wednesday morning it was still coming down,with about 3 inches on top of the tarps.I had to get a broom and get up on top and sweep the snow off before I could pull them off,because it was so heavy. Again,I had much difficulty trying to fold them,not because of wind this time,but the snow.I had to fold them on the ground in the snow,and when I got finished they were about the size of a Volkswagon beetle,and weighed about 1400 lbs each ( that's just a guess ) so I had to get Troy to put them on the trailer with the forklift. Then I had to go to Macedonia to load coils for Roanoke.It was still snowing,but the roads were in good shape,plenty of salt. Ohio does a good job on the roads,they were putting brine on them from the time I crossed the state line at Marietta Tuesday night,long before the snow started falling.That's key,getting an early start on them instead of waiting until they're covered and people start wrecking,like they do in West Virginia. I made it all the way to Beckley with no problems,but when I got on I-64 and headed east it looked like they had used up all the salt allotment for the year,or they forgot 64 was even there. It was completely snow covered and I was a little nervous starting down Sandstone mountain...OK,I was a LOT nervous! I mentioned Sandstone before,if you haven't been across there it's a 5 mile 7% grade,speed limit is 45 mph for trucks,and it has 2 runaway ramps on it.I was easing down in the low side until about halfway to the first runaway ramp when it appeared to have been salted and you could see the pavement again.It was clear the rest of the way down,across the flat,and about 3 quarters of the way up the other side,then it was back to completely covered. When I got to the top there was a truck jackknifed on the westbound side,a pickup in the ditch on my side,and a car in the median in a distance of about a mile. I was trying to get to exit 161 where I was planning to stop for the night anyway.The ramp is at the bottom of a hill so I was still taking it pretty easy,running about 35 mph. A car was ahead of me about half a mile,so I wanted to keep plenty of distance in case I had to stop if he decided to slam the brakes on to see if the road was slick. Right about the top of the hill a Swift truck went by in the left lane and he must have been doing 60 mph.That's fine if you're by yourself,the hill was straight down and straight back up,but if something were to happen unexpectedly in front of him,like that car spinning out on the bridge at the bottom of the hill,there's no way he could have gotten stopped. So I finally made it into the fuel stop and parked.From Beckley to there I saw just one truck salting the road. I went on to Roanoke and unloaded Thursday morning,then by the shop for fuel,and went to Petersburg and loaded some beams going to Carnegie,Pa. Got up there Friday morning,and yep,snowing like he....uh,heck,snowing like heck. Took a long time to get unloaded because the forklift was spinning in the snow and he could barely get up to the trailer. Once he got a lift of beams picked up it was all right,then he could hardly get back from where he was putting them on the ground back to the trailer to get another lift. I finally did get unloaded of course,then went over to Galv-Tech in Pittsburgh to load coils for Handy,and by the time I left there it had warmed up and the roads were just wet,so I hammered down to Lynchburg,dropped the load at N.B.Handy about 9:30 last night and bobtailed home.Got the Cumberland County Christmas Parade Sunday. It's the longest trip of the year for the mixer,about 55 miles one way. At least they're calling for nice weather,with temperatures in the 50's!