Them's famous last words.
It was drizzling as we pulled out of our driveway. It was snowing three miles up the road. On the way home, the snow was so bad, A. could barely see and drove about 20 miles an hour the whole way.
Driving in snow is always way worse when it's dark, of course, because then your headlights reflect off all the snow flying into the windshield, effectively blinding you. As A. was creeping our way home, I was reflecting on the worst driving conditions I had ever experienced.
I've driven in some pretty nasty snowstorms in the mountains of Arizona and through rain that was so heavy I could barely see through the waterfall on the windshield. But my absolute worst driving experience was in fog.
When I was in college I worked at a dude ranch in the mountains outside of Fort Collins, Colorado, for a couple of summers*. One very early morning--as in, around 2 a.m.--I was chauffeuring several of my fellow workers back to the ranch after a night out at a bar in Fort Collins. Everyone in the car was asleep except for me, and about halfway up the mountain, I drove straight into a bank of fog so thick, I could literally see only a few feet in front of me.
Talk about a white-knuckle drive. I thought I was going to die. I'm not kidding. I thought I was going to drive the car off the mountain and everyone in the car was going to die. This was a serious Colorado mountain road, with the sheer drops and hairpin turns and everything. It was not a road I had driven a whole lot yet either, and I couldn't see anything.
Needless to say, I did not die, nor did any of my passengers. But I did go out the next morning to find my car parked at a very odd angle and far too close to the horse barn for comfort. Yeah. The fog was so bad, I couldn't see a barn.
Now your turn, duckies! Hit me with your worst driving conditions. Fog? Snow? Ice? Sandstorm? What weather on the road made you contemplate your mortality?
* Perhaps I haven't mentioned this before. I am a woman with a mysterious and intriguing past.**
** Not really.
I drove home to my folks place from Barrie one snowy winter day..the traffic crawling..no snow plows in sight, people spinning off in all directions. I'd had my licence for about a week.
ReplyDeleteWHITE OUT! That's probably what you experienced last night. I was driving once from the Syracuse airport up to Potsdam. Around Watertown, I drove into a terrible white out. Fortunately, I could still see the tail lights of the truck in front of me. Boy, was I in trouble when the truck pulled off the road when conditions got too bad for that driver to see. I went on, mostly blind. Mary in MN
ReplyDeleteToss up between one (OK - two)of those white out blizzards and a time I drove through flood water on a US highway, that they closed right behind me. That was some scary driving. I would have gladly driven the miles and miles around alternative route had I had any idea. But alas, I truly believed that if it had been a dangerous situation they would have already closed the road. Yeah, not really putting my trust in anyone but me on those issues anymore.
ReplyDeleteMy husband, if would have been driving, would have rather climbed the mountain than driven around on it. No joke.
ReplyDeleteLana
Dude ranch? You are mysterious :). My worst driving has probably been in either a few blizzards where I was counting the light poles on the freeway trying to find my exit home or the time we drove through a tornado producing storm. Green skies are scary shit.
ReplyDeleteIt was about 10 degrees Christmas Eve on the return trip from my parent's home. Packed snow slickened roads, slow going, 1979 VW Rabbit,electrical went out , no fuel pump w/o electricity...we were driving without lights already..didn't think of the fuel pump..till the car just quit.Coasted to a driveway.This driveway and ours were both about a mile back to the houses...pulled in. Getting all bundled to walk home the about 3 miles, w/ an 8 wk. old Christmas present German Shepherd puppy to carry..the rest could stay in the car. About the time we got to the road....the folks' drive we were on came driving out....headed to their own Christmas affair... offered us a ride home(we were SO greatful).
ReplyDeleteSure changes your mood in a hurry, when help is offered for a bad problem. Beth
Phoo-D, you beat me to it. I was driving into a storm crossing the Texas panhandle. The road was under construction: no line on the left side to show where it turned into a grass ditch, no road on the right side except a 6-inch drop to gravel.
ReplyDeleteI finally parked under an overpass and went to sleep for the night. The next morning it was still storming, but I could see the road. As I drove out from under it the news came on the radio: national news, sports, crop reports, weather forecast, and "several tornadoes touched down from the storm system still going on."
Wait a minute ... There's a still active storm that has already put down multiple tornadoes and that doesn't even lead the weather report?!
Those people are insane. But then, they do voluntarily live in a place called "Tornado Alley".
Word verification: pitplac -- the yellow gunk in the bottom of small holes in your teeth
I have two, once in SLC, the fog was so thick I could barely see the tail lights in front of me on the interstate. Everyone doing at least 50 mph and not caring we couldn't see shit!!!!!! The second, the blizzard of '09 in OKC. Took me 5.3 hours to drive 6 miles and get stuck at a Walgreen's.
ReplyDeleteOh good lord, do I have a scary ass driving memory.
ReplyDeleteThe year that Bubba and I drove to Colorado for our annual ski trip, we hit the snowiest, whitest, foggiest, slickest, most WHERE THE HELL ARE WE IN THE WORLD conditions that were so atrocious, I couldn't have even imagined the terror in my mind before witnessing it firsthand.
The roads were white. The sky was white with fog. The air in between was swirling with HEAVY snow and whipping wind. The roads were slick as shit and since we were in the middle of nowheresville Nevada, we couldn't tell whether were were even still on the road what with the wind PUSHING THE TRUCK SIDEWAYS.
I've never seen Bubba drive with white knuckles (he's a very seasoned snow and shitty weather driver), but he didn't take his eyes off the "road" when he looked over at me to tell me to just close my eyes and take a nap and that it'd be "OK".
And it was. About three hours later when we FINALLY crossed into Utah and could get to our midway hotel stop. Even the walk from the truck to the hotel was dicey though what with the wind spinning us around on the icy parking lot.
GAH! Just thinking about it gives me the sweats.
Glad you made it home safe the other night AND during college. Ugh - fog is creepy!