We Got Out On The Road, But Florida Had Closed The I-10

We were leaving our spot at 8:30am taking Highway 20 west for so to take the short Hwy 293 W. to Hwy 85 finally connecting to the I-10. Hwy 85 had still long patches and bridges covered in sheer ice and vehicles were crawling along. Was it a mistake to take off today? It seemed like it was. When reaching Crestview on the I-10 we discovered that the ramp onto the Interstate was closed – due to icy conditions and the closure of the Escambia Bay Bridge. The only possible detour was Hwy 90 which runs a few miles farther north parallel to the I-10. Hwy 90 was mostly clear, but had an incredible amount of traffic on it, all due to all vehicles that came off the I-10. We made 9-10mph and didn’t reach Pensacola before 4 1/2hr later, a 3hr. delay. There were hundreds of trucks in the oncoming traffic, all re-directed from the I-10.   Icy bridges - some sanded some not. You can tell where exactly the bridge begins by looking at the ice. Trees…seemingly out of glass Battleship USS Alabama as seen from the highway We followed Hwy 90 until where it connects with the I-10 in Alabama. From that point the I-10 was open and we picked up speed. BUT what was going on in the oncoming traffic?. The line-up of trucks and cars wasn’t even moving anymore. They were parked along the Interstate with truck drivers having meetings on the pavement. It is our guess that the line was somewhere between 15-20 miles long. And more trucks were coming by the minute. Every bit of Interstate traffic coming out of Alabama got stopped then re-routed. The main reason for Florida closing the I-10 was the 3mile long bridge/causeway across the Escambia Bay. The bridge was solidly frozen and Florida authorities deemed traffic across that bridge for too dangerous. We could see the long bridge from Hwy 90 and there was not a single vehicle on it. It was the worst lineup I have ever seen. But now we made good speed towards Mississippi finally reaching Louisiana. But due to our slow start, we stopped driving at around 4:30 and parked at the Covington, LA Wally World. Just south of us we have Lake Ponchartrain and New Orleans. I-12 leads north along the lake, bypassing the big city. Huge wetlands - a paradise for birds in Louisiana Just now we learned that the Florida I-10 was re-opened around 3pm. People waiting at the bridge were furious against the police guarding the bridge. Temperature here is gonna stay around 42F – a lot warmer than in Freeport where it will go down to 37F tonight. Texas tomorrow! Thanks for coming by!