The way from Rawlins to Rock Springs, was a rough one. I was exhausted from Driving all day, and the stress from my range anxiety was really kicking in. I never regretted owning a Tesla, ever…until this little adventure I had going to Rock Springs.
When I first planned out my trip, I never intended to stop in Rock Springs. My original plan was to stop in Rawlins, sleep there and head to Salt Lake City the next day. But when I saw there was a severe storm warning, I thought I would leave early to get ahead of it.
As soon as I started from Rawlins, I noticed it started to lightly drizzle as I was unplugging my car from the supercharger. At first I thought it was kind of weird that I wasn’t seeing too many clouds around me, didn’t think anything of it, in fact I thought it was a good sign. About 5-10 miles in the rain picked up a little bit, but it was still manageable, other than the fact that these huge semi’s were doing like 85-90 mph just blowing right by, kicking up massive amounts of water and blinding me every 2 min (I get it, and I do not blame them, they have insanely tight schedules and are over worked, not blaming them!). About 15 miles into the drive the rain and the wind picked up a lot, so much so that it got nearly impossible to see. I had my wipers going full speed, and I still was hardly able to make out any lines. Auto pilot started having a lot of trouble finding the lane markings, and at that point, there was no way I would trust auto pilot, so I disabled it. Just when I thought, I can kinda of do this if I just drive a bit slower, and really focus on the lanes, the rain started to turn into snow. Initially I was so relieved, I was like “Hey! I can see something again!” which slowly turned into, “Hey…what the hell I can’t see anything!!”. The snow got thick and the wind picked up. Lane markings blended right into the snow, I had no idea if I was staying in the lane or not, out of desperation I tried to turn on autopilot, and (rightfully so) it failed to engage. I thought, man this is it…I am in an Electric Vehicle, the battery is going to get depleted since its extremely cold, and there are strong headwinds and I have the heat going. Trucks were still blowing by at like 80 MPH kicking up sleet, making it even harder to see. After a certain point, fear got to me. I started to see trucks pull over, one after another, I was shaking and scared out of my mind, and when I saw this one SUV pull over, I just pulled up behind him on the shoulder.
I was so terrified that I would not be able to make it if I just stayed there till the storm passed, because the battery would have been completely depleted and me and my dog would be left without heat. So I did one of the dumbest things I could have done. I decided to get out of my car, and talk to the person inside the SUV that was pulled over.
The snow and wind felt like tiny shards of glass being pushed against my face, it took me a second to catch my breath. I slowly approached the SUV, one hand pulling my hood forward and slightly to the right to shield my face from the snow, while the other hand was in my pocket, tightly gripping a pocket knife, just in case the person in the SUV wanted to cause trouble.
I knock on the window, and a second later the window slowly rolls down, and I see a man in the driver seat, who looked just as tired, but slightly less panicked. In the passenger seat there was a teenager, who seemed to be that mans daughter. I nervously said hello, and introduced my self, and asked him point blank, what do we do now? He told me, he didn’t know, he was in the same boat as me. He told me he wanted to head to Salt Lake City UT, before the storm hit but just like me, he got caught in the middle of it. He told me he would just see if they could wait it out, and just try and head to the next gas station when the visibility got better. I asked him if I could follow him in case he does decide to drive off. He agreed and I went back to my car.
When I got back into my car, I tried to look up gas stations or hotels, the closest one I could find was about 30 miles or so north of us, and were already too far away to turn back. About 10 minutes or so go by, and the guy turns on his hazards and slowly started to drive on. I got ready and i slowly started to follow him, both of us were going about 20 miles per hour, and it was still very hard to see. We got to the next exit in a couple of minutes, but we quickly realized there was nothing here and it was pitch black. He got out of his car and he told me he did not know what to do also since it was too hard for him to see since his headlights were not too strong. I offered to drive in front for awhile and we could switch off every now and then, till we got to the nearest hotel/gas station.
I slowly started driving again, and I pushed myself to take it a mile at a time. I tried to stay as focused as possible, and keep my eyes on the lanes. Then all of a sudden a truck rush by and kick up snow and would immediately throw me off. It would cause me to lose focus and loose the line markers. The accumulation did not help too.
Knowing that I had someone behind me, and someone was in the same boat as me, made me weirdly more at ease. I just took it a mile at a time, not going over 30 mph, and going much slower when needed.
When I got to the next hotel and open gas station, the storm backed off a lot. So much so that all the features came back live. When I got to the super charger at Rock Springs, it was nearly 2am and I was so damn relived to just be out of that blizzard.