The Day

The thing about Wyoming is it is absolutely beautiful. If you haven't seen it in the winter or summer, or anytime you need to at least once. It is exactly what you should picture as the old west, because it is just that - the old west.

According to land size it is in the range of 10 land area in the USA and territories. Woah, right? Well, it's also the least populated state in the country as well. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 600,000 or so. Anyways, yeah, that tells you a lot. The town I was staying at, Douglas, had no affordable grocery stores or really any shopping. The closest town that did? Roughly 1 hour on the interstate going to Casper. What was between them? A small town that had nothing. So you drove and didn't really have much to do but go straight. When it snows, forget about it.

Back to the subject at hand...

Around August and September I was desperate. I knew winter was coming (I hate snow now, fyi) and I wanted no part of it. Finally I got a call from a company that wanted to bring me on board. I was ecstatic. I remember at the end of the call, they asked how much I made so they could compare. I told them there was no way they could but I was willing to move back for a "hometown discount". I gave my employer a 2 week notice, because that's what you're supposed to do (oops, sorry Walmart).

Then it happened...

About 3 days after I gave my notice a blizzard came in. My job had me going about 2.5 hours to a location in BFE. On good days I left at 3:30 to get there at 7. This day I left at about 2:15 and called to see if I was still needed. It was dangerous I knew. My supervisor told me yes and to not be late - this was the beginning of the worst day of my working life.

I drove, drove, and drove some more. About 30 minutes from the pad, I ran up on a crash scene that had roughly 6 trucks off the road in a ditch. I got to my lease road and drove about 5 mph. Going over the hill I noticed my truck sliding. I let got of the gas and kept going at the same speeds. I tried everything and wasn't stopping when finally I went right off the hill into a ditch about 30 feet from the road in whiteout conditions. I had no service or anything, was in a white truck, and it was around -10. I waved and yelled at trucks and equipment going by but no one saw me. About 20-30 minutes I made it onto the hill and called for help.

About 30 minutes later my supervisor and a couple others came in that same equipment I saw drive by. I was numb, tired, and hungry. After getting me out they pulled me to the entrance of the lease road and told me to get to the town about 30 miles away and stay. The roads weren't safe for vehicle traffic to the pad. I went.

Stupidest thing I've ever done and I regret it to this day. Probably forever. I got about 10 maybe 15 miles in whiteout conditions when I ran into a snow drift. This wasn't a normal one. I was in a 4x4 pickup with a lift kit. The snow was over my hood. I got out and threw one of the floor mats over my muffler so I wouldn't get carbon monoxide poisoning. I hopped back in and waited. About 10 minutes later I tried to get out and the doors were frozen shut. I was trapped!

Another 2 hours later my truck died. No eat, lights, anything. Thankfully it was around noon. I saw people who were also stuck. They tried to get me out but couldn't.

This was the first time ever I thought I was going to die. My feet were freezing, my vision was getting blurry and my throat was sore. I was covered in a blanket and had 3 layers of clothes on but nothing worked. The ONLY thing that kept me going was my daughter. I used my phone to look at pictures and videos of her and I knew I couldn't go out like this. She was 1.5 at the time and I was not going to let her grow up not being to teach her things I'd learned. She was my angel and this day she truly was.

When my phone died I just kept thing of things that would happen as she grew up. It may sound corny but I truly do love her unconditionally. About 6 hours after getting stuck originally some rescue workers showed up. They got me out by using a big sledgehammer on my door. What. A. Relief. We all got out and then the rescuers told us that they'd cleared a patch to the lease road again, but towards town was too dangerous.

We formed a line and went back, worked as a team, and got to the pad site just in time for night time to come.