Spent last night and this morning trying to skirt a storm. Partial success, only caught the leading edge. Today, got a warning on channel 19 of black ice 2 miles ahead of me. It was the most perfect coat of ice I've ever seen. No spots, just looked like the wet pavement I'd just been on. Two trucks passed me.(they didnt get the memo, I guess.) A couple miles up, they were in the ditch and median with a few others.
At this point, I'm only going 20mph and tried to get into a parking area. Nope, that ain't happening. No steering at all. Ended up in the ditch. At least in the ditch, I had steering and drove back up to the pavement. Somehow got straightened out and parked on a wide shoulder. I waited an hour and a couple plow/salt shakers showed up. Waited 30 minutes and managed to get up into the traffic lanes. The road was good after that, but 40 mile's further and the wind kicked up to 40 sustained, gusting to 65. One truck blowed over on dry pavement. I'm pretty light, 60,000 lbs. Made it to rapid city and called it a day. Fighting eye fatigue all night with a ground blizzard, a bit of black ice, then really severe crosswinds today really kicked my patutti.
All's well that ends well, but it was a bit tense.