To the ponderosa about an hour ago. This wild adventure done wore this hillbilly slick. Want to thank everybody for the well wishes for safe travels. Probably gonna disappoint some , including myself , for not taking photos to post of the unimaginable destruction that Mother Nature dished out to that area. Both of us were to busy looking out for obstructions in the roadways,pedestrians,on coming traffic, and other things that would ruin your day. Never in my life have I ran over that amount of power lines laying in the roadway. The ones hanging down about head high were the worst to get around,under or thru. You hoped that the transformer’s and broken hanging poles didn’t collapse on you while you scraped by underneath them. Let me say no one ever mistook me for a brain surgeon. There were so many things that went right by design or luck or sheer stupidity, that let us get to Bud and his family. I don’t think I could have got in to him a day earlier than I did. It would of taken somebody crazier than me to have tried it. The state patrol had blocked off the road 7 miles from his house, and diverting traffic to another highway that was supposedly open. There were 3 vehicles ahead of us in line that they turned around and several more behind us. When he came up to the window, he said turn around and go way around to another highway to try and get in. I asked him how to get over to it and he then asked where we were from. I told him Missouri and we were taking supplies into my cousin and his family. He then kinda smiled and asked if I knew where a certain conversation area was in Missouri. We said heck yes, it’s right North of where we live. He then motioned for the other patrolman to backup and told us to go through and be dang careful. When I started in I looked back and started turning people around again. It took us from that point 1 and half hours to go 7 miles duck, dodging,and trying to play skinny to get there. Now what we’re the odds of him asking a couple crazy looking hillbilly’s about an obscure 150 acer conservation area in my back yard where I rabbit hunt my beagles? We got unloaded at Buds and told him and his wife these supplies were from the T- man crew and We was just the messenger boys. Thought him and his wife were going to break down right then. They were very appreciative to say the least. (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) I might of got a little watery eyed too but I’m blaming that on my terrible bad allergies that I don’t have. Didn’t have time to stay and talk after unloading cause we had 45 minutes to get out of the area before 7 pm curfew. We got within 2 miles of I-55 north when the reel adventure started. Traffic backed up solid couple hundred cars, trucks, trailers, equipment. Closed the highway on us until midnight. Couple of crazy dude’s cranked their 4x4’s off through the wet 30 yard wide mediun, ditch at the bottom with standing water, up a steep incline, into oncoming traffic, and hit the road heading back where we came from. After thinking about spending half a night sitting in traffic,running low on gas anyway, I looked at my buddy and told him, hold my beer and watch this. Flipped er in 4 wheel, cranked the wheel and nailed it. We made it with truck , trailer, and a lot of swamp weeds and mud. We drove back into the seriously messed up area and found highway 1 that the patrolman said was open when he let us through the road block. We weaved are way up it and thought we were home free. Got the ON STAR GPS to redirect us towards 55 north. Got us with in 6 miles of 55 on a narrow 2 lane blacktop with hardly any shoulders on it, dropping off sharply into a swamp on both sides. Set there for 2 hours. Readout on dash said something like I only had 40 miles of gas left. Then it started thundering, close lightning strikes, and raining so hard I couldn’t hardly see the car in front of me setting in line. Half hour later still storming and we see flashing lights coming at us on the other side of the road. About 20 power and light boom trucks pass us going back the opposite direction. We set another 10-15 minutes and traffic started to move. We start inching along and the rain stops. Another half hour were heading north on 55. The only thing we could figure is the bad lighting and rain made the lineman quit working and head to cover and they opened that stretch of highway. Still had to find gas quick on 55. Hit ON-STAR and asked if they could direct me to the closest gas station that was open and had gas. They told me 10-15 miles in some town I don’t remember had 2 stations that had gas and were open till midnight. Limped into the town and found out that both stations were closed down. Told my buddy get ready to take a snooze in the truck. Said I was not gonna run out of gas after dark on the shoulder of the interstate and spend the night there. Told him I’m going down to that shopping center parking lot and camp out. Headed for it when he spots a pickup setting at a service station that was closed. The driver appeared to be checking the pumps out. I wheeled in, rolled the window down and said, let me guess, their closed and sold out of gas. He said there closed but they do have gas. You have to have a credit card and pay at the pump. I like to fell out of the truck. We filled up and headed out north again. We went until we decided we better check in to the flea bag hotel and get some sleep. Like I said earlier. There was a bunch of things that just seemed to happen to enable us to get in and out of some tight spots. THE END

You sir, are an American stud!! Thanks for doing the run and telling us about it!!

Quite the adventure y'all had. You folks did a marvelous thing going down there with such adversity staring you in the face. Thank you for doing this for Bud and his family. You are my heroes!

You are da man --- please let us (trapperman) know if your costs were not completely covered and then some. The short notice of these events didn't give me time to react (this time) - but i would much rather donate money or time to someone that i know is going to make a direct impact than to an organization that will give a portion to the cause. Lots of prayers were with you.

I think the prayers of many may have been answered. Thank you and may God continue to bless you.

Excellent job complete white trash - your the man !!!
I like the " hold my beer " part ....

You are a true man of your word! God bless you, the end, LOL

Amen

Awesome! Very great thing you did. I'm sure karma will pay you back in spades!

way to go , great job

Outstanding Sir. !!

Americans.

Mighty fine thing you did WT!

White trash for president!

Thank you , White trash.

That was an excellent write up of an astounding adventure. Thank you for what you and your buddy did and for sharing the adventure with us.

Well done think you need to change your name on here to Wildman from Waverly.

Wow, what an ordeal that was. You said you were looking for an adventure and it sounds like you found it. Thanks so much for doing this. You've definitely earned the trapperman hero title.

Glad you made it back safe

God bless you boys!