freaking winter roads............................

[rattler]

...........cost me a few years oof my life this morning.

i was driving the 50 miles to Glasgow to go get our newspaper printed. had great roads, dry with no snow pack so im cruising along at 55-60 cause the wind is gusting pretty good. about 10 miles from Glasgow, in the space of about 200 feet i go from dry roads to glare ice......sphincter pucker factor goes up a notch. bout the time i get 50 feet into the ice one heck of a gust of wind comes and the front end slips and a spinning i go, sphincter pucker factor climbs fast. managed to do almost 3 complete turns before slipping rear first into the ditch on the opposite side of the road. thank god its 6 a.m. and there is almost zero traffic. so i get out inspect the truck and decide this will be easy and put it in 4wd and im out of the ditch and on my way down the road again in 2 minutes or less. and on my way to Glasgow at 35-40 mph in 4wd.

so i get to the print shop, and notice that only one of the two printers is there. the missing guy lives 25 miles north of Glasgow and called to say he was snowed in and going back to bed. the head printer says oh no ill send someone up after you. so after awhile a guy ive never seen before stops in and says the missing printer is nowhere to be found. about 10 minutes later he comes through the door cursing up a storm saying that it was a bunch of BS that he had to drive through 2 foot drifts in his car to get to work, where are the snow plows. i laugh and say i ALWAYS beat the snow plows out, they dont start till about 8 am. he says what do you do? i said i just drive through, no big deal. he than said i was full of crap. and its all i and the head printer could do not to laugh at him. i had hit the ditch and wasnt tweaking out at all and hes complaining about a few drifts? i come to find out this guy is a fairly recent import from Seattle and cant deal with snow. some ppl.................

 

[Dimka]

I had similar incidents constanty back when living in upstate New York. Almost rolled over once on an icy road

maybe thats where a couple of gray hairs came from.... (I was 14-15 at the time, and driving

)
But now that I think about it... its no big deal, kinda fun really. Do you have the same feeling?

 

[rattler]

been in scarrier situations. kinda scarry while i was spinning but when i slid into the ditch, well given the way i slid into the ditch i knew i was going to be fine and just became worried about getting out without having to call some one to pull me out. basically a lil shaken up but nothing serious, i was laughing about it whill talking to some of the ppl at the print shop. its a fact of life up here. if yah drive on the winter roads often enough your going to hit the ditch at some point and 99.9% of the time its not going to be any more serious than trying to find someone to pull you out. but the way that guy was going on about how aweful the drifts were had me laughing.

 

[herenorthere]

I'm far more unnerved by winter driving here in CT than I ever was in Maine. A spin that just puckers the sphincter on a lightly travelled road can be a killer on a road full of cars.

 

[rattler]

very true Bruce. had it happened at 8:30 when i was headed back home i more than likely would have been hit. course bout anytime in your neck of the woods would be bad news

 

[nrbelex]

Last winter I took a winter driving course (3 min. video) which was more of a have fun skidding and learn how to stop course. Three days ago I went to an unplowed lot in my Camry and tried to spin out in a 1/2 foot of snow but the darn traction control stopped me from doing anything major and it's a front wheel drive. God do I love winter!

~ Brett

 

[rattler]

lol cant beat my Jeep Cherokee for flipping cookies. rear wheel drive AND a hand break. works real slick. if it had an automatic tranny it would be a bit easier but i can make do with the manual

 

[Dimka]

I'm with you herenorthere... Back in the upstate, the snow plows were going back and forth like every 10 or so minutes, even on the most forsaken country roads (which is where I lived

), but here in NYC... dude... 2 inches of snow = accident every 30 seconds... just like last winter... WOW.

 

[*Barracuda_45*]

Bad roads in winter i do say those are the days, i remember when we had to do a exotic animal rescue run in the dead of a super awful blizzard had to drive 150 miles to the rescue and it was black ice everywhere on the roads got to this one huge bridge we had to cross and that was it JR kept the car, we had a car at the time, under control but we spun several times and finaly coming to a stop against the gaurd rail at the other end of the bridge and we watched in horror as all kinds cars spun out of control one went right off the bridge. JR and i both felt like our hearts had jumped out of our chests and the poor kids was just freaking out so bad. Black ice is very commin up here on the roads, you cant see whats under the snow..

Or the road looks dry but in all its nothing but a solid sheet of ice.. Thank god we always have 4x4 trucks now, cant live in the great white north without one.. LOL!!

 

[schloaty]

Try living near NYC, where half the residents are imports from places where it rarely or never snows. Then they either drive 5mph in a flurry or (the other extreem), treat it like a rain shower.

They all learn eventually!

 

[Gawd_oOo]

Lol, good not just me today then.

I made it all of 2 blocks, till I ended up in the ditch today. The first curve in the road, and there I went head first into a 4 foot deep ditch 1.5:1 slope (over:up). Even with 4 I couldn't back straight out, I had to drive parellel to the road, for about 30 ft. Throw it into reverse and push the back end up on to the road.
I was going super slow around the corner as it was, but geez.. Made me worry alot about the next 60ish miles I had to go.

 

[PlantAKiss]

We are due for "something" tonite or tomorrow morning. Its been pretty cold but I think they are calling for freezing rain turning into rain. We are all waiting to see what tomorrow will be like. If its icy, they will delay the office opening for a little while.

 

[rattler]

lol schloaty, my sister in law lives in Memphis, TN. and gets frustrated everytime they get a dusting of snow cause everyone drives 15-20mph on the roads. she says she could drive faster in the ditch

 

[chloroplast]

Quote[/b] ]Then they either drive 5mph in a flurry or (the other extreem), treat it like a rain shower.

Something similar happens around here during/after the first snowfall.  Everyone forgets how to drive in the snow and either drives 1mph or 90mph through it.  

When it snows, I usually keep pace with traffic (whatever speed that may be) and give a good amount of space between my car and the one in front of me.

 

[rattler]

Quote[/b] ]When it snows, I usually keep pace with traffic (whatever speed that may be) and give a good amount of space between my car and the one in front of me

what do you do about the idiot that insists on tailgating yah?

 

[*Barracuda_45*]

Hehehehe, JR Get out the snow blower, tomarrow is another day.. LOL!! We are getting blasted right now have had over 3 inches since this afternoon and can get up to another additional 4 to 6 inches, the winds are super crazy and snow is commin down verticaly and blowing. Me im fine and dandy with my heating blanket on wraped around me while im in the office..

We have UPS, Fedex and priority mail commin in for the next week and a half, would be cool to get packages one each day..

Gota keep that looooooooooooooooooooooooong driveway cleared or they wont come in it..

Who else on here is getting slammed with this storm right now??

 

[Gawd_oOo]

Storm is supposed to be over here in the next few hours, but by the end we are to have 5-10" of new snow. I think I am close to 8" here.

 

[chloroplast]

Quote[/b] ]When it snows, I usually keep pace with traffic (whatever speed that may be) and give a good amount of space between my car and the one in front of me

Quote[/b] ]what do you do about the idiot that insists on tailgating yah?

That drives me CRAZY! Normally, I just get out of the way of someone who wants to go faster--I'm normally not a slow-poke on the highway so I'm rarely tailgated. But when it's snowing hard and the highway's aren't plowed, moving from one lane to another can be hazardous, so I just continue driving in the lane in that case. If I end up getting hit from behind, that person is almost automatically "at fault" in my state.....that's the only consolation I have!

 

[schloaty]

Quote[/b] ]what do you do about the idiot that insists on tailgating yah?

Heh heh....that drives me nuts, too. I usually tap the brakes as a "reminder" to them to back off. And I mean tap - just enough to flash my brake lights. No sense in making myself go into a skid to spite the idiot behind me. And Chlor is right....If they hit me, well I'll see dollar signs spinning around my head instead of stars.

 

[herenorthere]

I hit my brakes as hard as I can so the tailgater hits me. We both spin through several lanes of traffic and crash into the trees. After I regain consciousness, I crawl from my car over to the tailgater's car and say, "Dr. Turi predicted this would happen today."