At three in the morning the bluff streets above the water are the coldest ground in South Moline, and that is where the plow starts. Three Stripe Land Care Inc. handles snow here — plowing drives and lots, shoveling walks and steps, salting the slick places that form where the grade tips down toward the river. Wind crosses the open Mississippi with nothing at all to slow it and packs drift against every north-facing door by dawn. The aim is to be finished before the first shift moves along John Deere Road, so the only sign anyone came through is bare pavement and a tidy windrow at the edge. Working in the dark suits the job fine; a cleared drive at daybreak says the rest.