The Hot Rod Power Tour — hands down — was the hardest event I ever completed in my life. It was 5 stops in 5 days! I am very thankful that I somehow convinced my friend Stacey to come on this journey with me.
Five stops in 5 days was 7am setup and 6pm tear down and then drive to the next stop and do it all over again. The first 3 days, we didn’t even eat because by the time we got to the next stop, everything was shut down. I asked her to bring snacks with her — she brought gluten free veggie sticks…. I thought we were going to starve to death — hahahaha.
Finally, we are at the last day — we are tired… dirty… hot … all of the above! We are just ready to get to the last stop! And then this happens….
We left Gateway AKA World-Wide Motorsports Technology Raceway and got about 80 miles away on what is supposed to be the easiest part of this trip… and all hell broke lose.
The wind was blowing the rig all over the place. To the point that, Stacey in the “Chase Car” pulled up next to me to make sure I was okay. I got on the phone to let her know what was happening. You are pretty much driving a HUGE shoebox into the wind and are almost floating. I dropped down my speed from 70 to 40 at one point.
The sky was nothing like I had ever seen before — lightning is shooting down in multiple points at the same time. It reminded me of that War of the Worlds movie with Tom Cruise. At this point, there is only a light rain…
I assured her that if it got really bad, that I would pull off the freeway and we would just wait it out.
Well — 10 minutes later…
It was BAD! Crazy wind and sideways rain. The lightening was even more intense. I turned my blinker on to get off at the next exit while looking at my radar — right then, a lightning strike hit behind the gas station I planned on stopping at. I looked at the radar and was like “F* that! We are just going to hit the tip.. we will be good”.
I passed the exit and keep going. At this moment, I heard my conscious say — “YOU’RE GOING TO REGRET THAT…”
Right afterwards, we past a Rest Stop — both sides of the interstate are overflowing with Semi’s… it’s 6pm. That is not normal. That is a bad sign.
Just as we past the rest stop, God must have took the wheel because all of a sudden, it blacked out in front of the windshield and I lost control of the rig. It was only for a second, but it felt like an eternity! ….I think we drove through a tornado.
See the video below — SORRY FOR THE LANGUAGE!
This is when the video kicks in — everyone came to a complete stop on the freeway. We were the smallest rig in the convoy of semis heading to the next stop.
…but we made it… and got the Long Hauler Award at the final stop the next day. So I guess it was all worth it — HAHAHAHA!
