Perpetual Ruminations

Ice and Snow

A correction is needed here, I wrote this on 03/03 but it lists as 03/4 because it was after midnight site time when I entered it. My time is an hour earlier, so it was in fact written on the third, my time.

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We, my wife and I, are back home finally. I was done shortly after eight, but she had to work till a little after nine. It started misting lightly around seven tonight, by seven thirty, it was icy and slick, with a heavy mist coming down. By the time I was done with work, the van was solid ice and the parking lot was an ice rink.

By the time my wife was done, the ice was thicker and smoother. We did fine heading out of town, we did fine heading south, but once we turned west things stopped being fine.

The roads were slick, travel was about thirty up to Highway 22, then it was twenty tops. We started out fine, but came up on another vehicle that was slowed down or stopped where a third vehicle had slid into the ditch. We also stopped, ensured the young man was alright, had help on the way, and had a phone with him, then took off with spinning wheels and little traction.

We got our speed up to about fifteen to twenty, where the van wanted to ride after shifting, and rolled on fine. We had enough speed to carry us up the hills, and was still slow enough to hold the road. On the level road, about fifteen was it. Hills we slowed to about ten, even five as we maneuvered up them, and on the downhill sides we would gain speed to about twenty. if we gained too much, I would lightly tap the brakes enough to slow us, and I would slip into neutral as well.

Fine, we would be late getting home but we would get home, none the less. Then we came up on the second vehicle I mentioned earlier. They, I don't know if male or female, one or more, so they, would get up to about fifteen on the downhill slopes, but once at the bottom, they would slow down again to about ten.

They seemed to hold speed right at the point of where our van wanted to shift, either up or down, but shift. This is bad on slick ice, as it makes the wheels break traction when it shifts.

Also, when they would come to a hill, they would slow almost to a complete stop, then crawl up the hill with great difficulty. We would of course gain on them each time, and then have to tap the brakes to slow our speed so we would not run into them. We did this time and again. I will mention also, we did slow way down to an idle for a long stretch to give them room, but withing a mile we had once again caught up to them.

Besides the hazards of braking on ice, we would be so slow that we could barely top the hills. They did better, since they had a small car and it was light enough to go up the hills at a slow - five miles per hour or less - crawl. We on the other hand, have a heavy van. We would come to a point that we would either have to apply some gas or come to a full stop on the hill.

If we did stop, there would be no going forward again; we would have to back down the hill, on ice with strong crosswinds. Not a good situation at all. But, when we applied even the slightest amount of gas, the front wheel drive would slip and the tires would spin. The wind and the grade of the road worked to ensure we would slide sideways into the ditch.

So, we would have to straddle the center of the road, on the crown so that if the tires spun, we would at least not slide sideways. Even at this, we would gain on the lead vehicle and have to slow down again before crowning the hill.

I thought a few times we would not make it up, or if we did, we would have to ditch the van to prevent hitting the lead vehicle. We did not, and after an hour, we made it the last thirteen miles and pulled/slid into the drive.

Now, we are safe and sound at home... I just hope noone calls in tomorrow morning and I do not have to drive on the icy roads again until after they are plowed, there is snow coming, and sanded. We will see.