Tuesday, February 12, 2008

180 + 180 = 360

Today was the first time I got to drive during a snow storm and oh boy, what an experience it was!

In the early stages it was just like "white dust" blowing heavily across and it was not tough to negotiate it. I continued my drive on I-84 and it was still okay and pretty much easily manageable until I got off the highway. By then, the roads were just nasty and full of tire marks and dirty snow. The marks took whatever grip that remained on the road and all that was there was hydroplaning. Or should I call it iceplaning/snowplaning etc?!?

Anticipating the need to brake often, courtesy a plethora of traffic lights I took a detour through a country road and that was it! A suave 180 degree spin at the entrance. That country road was hiddeous! Luckily the other road with all those signals was just a stone's throw away. So, left turn, detour again and boy, another 180 degree spin - this time even worse and wobbly. All these when driving at 5-10 mph.

Some presence of mind and absence of any cars around saved the day and I reached home safe. Malai had a 360 + 360 experience driving in sleet. Jeezaloo!

And, where is the guy who honked hard twice at me from an SUV? Why don't you drive a compact size car and honk from inside? Driving in snow ain't fun dude!

2 comments:

Malaikannan Sankarasubbu said...

hehehehe welcome to the club machi...
snow driving ain't easy...trust me i have 2 years exp driving in snow :). This sunday there was a snow squall( heavy gust of wind with snow) reduced visibility to mere 20 meters and i was driving to Ruby Tuesday then for my lunch. I dont know i always have a luck of ending up in these freak cannot be driven conditions often.

Anand K said...

sounds like u had fun :)

In any case, I guess we need bigger cars with the proper set of tyres for real snow-driving.

Best of luck for the next month or so - hope this situation doesnt repeat itself..