slippery!

[low_delta]

I ran some errands this afternoon. On my way back from Milwaukee, the snow was coming down hard. I was doing about 40 on the freeway (so you know it was bad!). I saw a car in the ditch, then realized it was moving and trying to make its way back up to the pavement. It did, so I had to move over a lane (right after activating the anti-lock brakes). After that, I realized there was nobody behind me. Only a mile back, I had been in heavy traffic.

Was I the last car to make it through before some big accident? Or was everyone else just going that much slower than the cars I was with?

When I got home, pulling into the driveway, I lost all traction and plowed into the snowbank. Icebank, really. There didn't seem to be any damage to the car. And then I had to back up to get a running start to make it up the driveway. Our driveway is not that steep.

Comments

[rivendweller.livejournal.com]

Criminy, Kevin. You have snow tires, right? Are those the kind of tires you have on your car all year 'round or do you change the tires out during the winter months?

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Out here in California we don't have snow in the Central Valley, but it changes quickly to heavy snow in the Sierras. The Highway Patrol requires tire chains when that happens, and puts up checkpoints on the highways when it starts snowing in the mountains. They'll let you get away with 4-wheel drive, though. Our pickup has 4WD.

One time when I went to Thunder Bay, Canada for a business trip in March it was snowing like crazy when I disembarked the plane at 9 p.m. I went up to the car rental booth to secure my car and innocently asked the clerk if the car already had chains on it (*hand=forehead*). Er - No. She laughed at me. I fishtailed all the way to my motel. I lived through it, though!

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

No, no snow tires. And the five-year-old tires on my Mustang are pretty wide.

We don't use chains around here. As slippery as the roads get, it's not really a chains kind of problem. We don't get feet of snow, and once the plows get out there, they clean it up well - the roads aren't thick with packed snow and ice. The way to drive on this stuff is to keep your speed and direction nice and even.