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| Tuesday Evening in Downtown Buffalo |
Just as the weather all over the country was cold so was
Buffalo. But along with the cold,
Buffalo had blizzard conditions due to lake
effect snow and high winds. Riding out a blizzard in the truck is really no
different than doing it at home, with the exception of the rocking from the
wind. The best way to describe 45 mile an hour winds hitting the truck is to
say it is like a boat on choppy seas.
The rocking back and forth at times actually caused me to reach for
something to hold on to.
Thankfully, the only problem we encountered during the
blizzard conditions from Monday to Wednesday morning was the air suspension on
the tractor freezing up Monday evening. This valve is the same one that broke
last summer when Vince came to the rescue and replaced it on the side of the
road. This time it was a problem with
the air lines freezing after Vince had dropped the air for us to fit in the
dock area. When we pulled out of the
dock Monday evening, he flipped the switch but the air did not travel through
the air lines into the air bags. We had
to pull over because the air suspension is connected to the braking system. Vince
in the dangerously cold temps and winds spent three hours hammering and using a
hair dryer to try and free the clogs in the lines. While he did all of that, I
ran back and forth from the front of the truck to the back (all from inside,
mind you) yelling out numbers off of the dials on the truck and flipping the air
suspension switch off and on.
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| Making our way to the drop lot |
Sadly he could not get the clog to open up, meaning that
Gary and Linda had to take the trailer we were under back to the drop lot and
grab the next trailer while we moved under the trailer they were under. The brake lines on the trailers freeze in
these temperatures so keeping trucks under the trailers helps to keep that from
happening. We could move around just not
very far. We felt awful that they had to
go back to the lot in the terrible conditions. To add to our bad feelings the
trailer brakes on the trailer they went to retrieve were froze and needed a service
call. The air lines finally started moving by Tuesday morning and while we wish
it would have happened sooner. But we were just glad
to be back in business.
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| The drop lot as we awaited an opening to return to the theatre |
On Tuesday morning the winds were bad, but there was not much snow. That all changed by late morning when the heavy snow arrived. As our
pictures show the trip to and from the drop yard meant multiple white outs and us
guessing where the road began and ended.
Due to the closing of I-90 from the Pennsylvania border to Buffalo the trailer
carrying the decking for the show did not make it on Tuesday and work on the
trailers stopped much earlier than usual.
With the weather being so brutal, we never left the truck after returning
to the theatre from the drop lot. It was
just time to hunker down for the evening.
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| Our trip back to the theatre - experienced white out conditions on the way back |
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| Wednesday morning in Buffalo |
We awoke Wednesday morning to snow (4-7 more inches
expected) but diminished winds. The deck
trailer arrived first thing this morning. The crew is playing catch up so the
show can open on time with evening. After these three snowy and cold days,
trust me when I say, we are ready to shuffle OUT of Buffalo. But there are no balmy warm temperatures in our
future, our dispatch for this weekend: moving War Horse from Milwaukee
to Schenectady.
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