In 1989 we had a big snowstorm starting the day before Thanksgiving. We were a made-up crew: Bob was a crew chief, Kenny from Blackduck was the operator, and myself, Gene, and Kenny D. were the helpers! We were near the East Grand Forks area. We got up that morning and looked out the hotel windows and it was a near white out!

Kenny from Blackduck, who had driven his own truck to work, said, “I’m heading home.”

We went to a gas station and filled everything we could with gas, including our truck and 4 gas cans. We put our crew cab in 4-wheel drive and headed for home (Brainerd and the Twin Cities)! Just before noon we had made it to the small town of Hitterdal in the middle of farm country. When we arrived, there were two semis in the middle of the highway in front of the only cafe in town. They were parked nose to nose with a tarp over their hoods sharing heat, running. The snow was up to the top of their fuel tanks!

The snow was over our knees as we went into the restaurant. There were two waitresses there, but the cook had gone home! All we could get was coffee and cold sandwiches. The girls asked us if we wanted to stay – we could put the booths together to sleep on and we would have access to a restroom and food!

A couple guys wanted to stay and two wanted to leave. Since we couldn’t agree, we ended up leaving? Big Gene drove us out of town and a couple miles down the road we started seeing cars and trucks abandoned. There were snowmobile tracks, so we knew they had been rescued! 

We started hitting snowdrifts in the road and knew the truck wheels were momentarily off the road, but we kept going. Finally, we could see a railroad track over the highway ahead. As we got closer, we saw there was a drift just before the bridge, but we didn’t know how big it was. We told Gene to give it all it had!

We sort of came to a stop midair, “UH OH!”

We got out and saw we were two feet off the highway! We went to get the snow shovel, but it had been borrowed by someone? Well, it didn’t matter now! We managed to find a no.2 round nose shovel but you might just as well use a hard hat!

The wind was blowing hard, snow was moving horizontally, and the windows were vibrating. We sure were hoping the truck didn’t die? What we had to eat was an open box of Wheaties and 1 black frozen banana, Yummy!

I don’t remember who put the first can of gas in, but I know when they came back they were soaking wet right to the skin. The wind was so strong it drove the snow right through our clothing’s Carhart material. We had never seen this before! We were sitting in our undergarments by morning since all of us had taken turns getting soaked putting fuel in the truck. We were rationing cigarettes to make it till we could get back to town!

Some time during the night I must have dozed off in the back seat of the truck. I awoke to Gene saying, “Hey, Hey, HEY watch that hand!”

I must have brushed his leg in my sleep. Well, it was a welcome sight to finally see daylight peeking in the windows! We got dressed since our clothes had dried and we took turns shoveling the truck out. The truck had melted down to the highway, so we attempted to use our winch on the front to help us out. We hooked the cable to the guard rail, but it was a struggle. By the time we got out, the cable had many knots in it because it kept breaking!

When we were free, we pulled ahead a few feet to get under the railroad bridge where there was bare roadway. Someone walked up the road to see how bad it was ahead of us, and they came back and said they thought we could make it? 

Off we went. We made it out to Highway 10 just as a huge snowblower truck was passing our road. On the back of the truck was a car bumper and numerous mailboxes! There were still spots with snow as high as a car.

Finally we made it into Detroit Lakes, and we hit the first truck stop we came to! Everyone ordered double burgers and fries. It was almost noon on Thanksgiving Day!

One table behind us commented, “BOY those guys are hungry.”

If they only knew! We finally made it home to find out that our wives and families had been scared to death! The motel said we had checked out and that was the last anyone had heard. My wife had called our office, and they hadn’t also heard a word?

Eventually we made it home for the holiday and I think we all wished we’d have stayed overnight at that restaurant in Hitterdal.