Eighteen Wheels North to Alaska by Cliff Bishop

Author:Cliff Bishop
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Publication Consultants

Chapter Fourteen

Drivers' Stories

What is known as the Glory Hole, located on the Richardson Highway between Paxson and Delta Junction, is an area of legendary winds. Trucks have been stranded there for days at a time with travel through there being impossible during the high winds and drifting snow.

Vic Unfer had gone to Hawaii and got married and spent a couple of weeks on the Hawaiian Islands on his honeymoon. Upon returning he went to Valdez, picked up a load of fuel on his first trip back, and headed toward Fairbanks. Upon reaching the Glory Hole area, it caught him up in one of these ferocious storms and he was caught there for over two days before road equipment was able to reach his truck. Vic didn't have any food whatsoever on this trip and he said that never again would he be caught with no emergency rations after this experience.

I have had my hood blown over and up in front of my face going down the road at 30 or 40 miles an hour in the same direction the winds were blowing, and had the wind blow hard enough to break or pull loose the rubber hold-down straps that hold the hood down, and tip it up in the air so I couldn't see the road. What a hell of a time I had getting it tipped back down and secure enough to go on down the road. There was also a state road grader working in this area one winter and he had a native Indian boy with him when one of the big winds came up and they were stuck for many hours waiting for the storm to stop. After they had sat there for hours on end, it was getting pretty critical, and the boy asked the operator what they could do. “Pray,” he replied. So the kid, who had been tutored by missionaries in the area, dropped to his knees, and said, “Please God, come and get us. You come yourself, don't send your kid. We're in big trouble.” The grader operator said it absolutely worked because soon after the wind died and road equipment came and rescued them.

I recall going to Anchorage from Glennallen one morning, and several spots in the road had some heavy-duty frost heaves—that meant if you hit a bump it would propel you to the roof of the truck if you weren't careful. I hit one down by Mendeltna Creek and the air ride seat went up in the air. I went up in the air with it and came back down and all of a sudden the whole cab disappeared in front of my eyes. What had happened is that I had come down on a fire extinguisher that was underneath the seat of the truck. It activated the fire extinguisher and almost immediately filled the cab with a thick white cloud. I rolled the window down as fast as I could and stuck my head out, all the while getting on the brakes.

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