I got Eric all dropped off and back on the road by about 5:30, texting my friend in Des Moines that I would be there by eight at the latest. Within 30 minutes, traffic on I80 was completely stopped. The weather was clear, so I had a wonderful view of how far back the traffic was stopped. Within 10 minutes, I couldn't see the end of the traffic. About 30 minutes after we first stopped, traffic began moving again. A few miles ahead of where I had been stopped, a semi was stopped in the left lane, which struck me as weird since blocking only one lane shouldn't completely stall traffic. No sooner had I turned on cruise control to set it then I had to stop again. After another five minutes, we moved forward a little, and I was by the flashing lights - two patrol cars and three or four fire trucks. I didn't see a wreck, so I think there was a fire near the interstate. I don't know for sure because Google News was no help. Once I was waved through, I took off to Des Moines, arriving right at eight, since I pad my arrival times due to stuff like this happening on the way back again.
Yesterday, I took off on a morning cold enough that the windows weren't frosted and my iPod went nuts. Before getting to Omaha I saw the car in front of me get pulled over by an unmarked police car and a rest area sign telling me it was -196. My GPS also managed to add 30 minutes to my arrival time all the way to Yankton (apparently Volin is now 40 minutes outside of town). I then proceeded to sit on the couch and read an entire book for the rest of the day.