Ha, had to deal with almost that same situation today, well not really me, but my youngest daughter. She drives about an hour and a half one way each day for classes and leaves the house around five each morning. We have this agreement that she texts me the first letter of each town she goes through to provide me with waypoints of her commute. If the phone rings I know it means trouble.
As I sent her on her way this morning it was in a freezing rain and she nodded yes and mumbled "ok dad" to all my admonishments of dealing with road conditions. I could almost hear her eyes rolling. Twenty minutes later I get the first text. Everything is ok so far. Ten minutes later the phone starts to ring and I have to tell you the knot of fear in my gut was real. She's off the road but ok. I tell her I'm on my way and head out. When I get to where she is the ice on the road is so slick that when I stop the truck it starts sliding sideways across the road like the pick up in this clip.
I hit the fourways, toss some sand under the wheels to stop the truck from moving and go to take a look at what we have to deal with. This road gets a fair amount of traffic for this part of the country and I'll tell you what, most people have no idea how close to the edge they are driving. It's pitch black, the road is slicker than fresh pigeon shit and people are going by at 60+. A few went by sideways.
After almost getting clocked by a couple of rigs completely out of control I decided put out road flares a couple hundred yards on each side of where I'm parked because the emergency flashers on the truck isn't motivating them to slow down at all.
The daughter already had her car dug out almost all the way around so it was a simple matter to hook up the tow cable and get her pulled out. We limped back down the road about a mile to where the ice wasn't as bad and her mother drove her car home while I tossed her shit in the truck drove her the rest of the way to classes because as shook up as she was she was in no shape to be driving.
Now to tell you the real blessed part of this tale. When she lost control the car did about a 200 degree loop and went off the road straight backwards on an area almost level with the shoulder. On our return trip this afternoon in daylight we got a good look at the exact spot she left the road. A hundred fifty to two hundred feet either side of where she lost it and she would have rolled down a steep bank with about a fifty to sixty foot drop and lets just say the results wouldn't have been so benign.
To sum up, fuel - about fifty bucks, time - eight hours out of my day, damage to car - absolutely zero, daughter learning the old man knows what he's talking about concerning bad weather driving - priceless.
It's difficult to contemplate how much worse this day could have been and I am one thankful father right now.
On the gif of the truck you claim is Irish? He grew up in snow country so I don't think that's him and I know you know that. You're just razzin' him. I'd bet that's some one (redneck) from down south that has never seen snow. Which brings me to: back in winter 65-66 I was stationed at Norfolk Virginia attending some schools. Late January the area was hit with a freezing rain then snow then freezing rain storm. Snow was maybe 3" and it stayed cold afterwards so nothing was melting and the snow froze solid, so then the roads were skating rinks. The entire area was shut down for three days waiting for it to warm up enough for the roads to melt. They didn't even have sand trucks, never mind snow plows. On day three, before it got warm, a road grader went by the gate near the barracks I was assigned to, trying to remove the now frozen solid snow. Wasn't working.
That clip got me literally laughing out loud! I have a buddy who has a ring doorbell clip of him trying to take a large trashcan down his driveway. After ~5 feet of walking pulling the can, the can pulled his slipping ass all the way down the hill.
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5 comments:
That's when you put it in park at the bottom of the hill. Claw your way back in the house. Call the boss and say "Not Today!"
I'd move.
Ha, had to deal with almost that same situation today, well not really me, but my youngest daughter. She drives about an hour and a half one way each day for classes and leaves the house around five each morning. We have this agreement that she texts me the first letter of each town she goes through to provide me with waypoints of her commute. If the phone rings I know it means trouble.
As I sent her on her way this morning it was in a freezing rain and she nodded yes and mumbled "ok dad" to all my admonishments of dealing with road conditions. I could almost hear her eyes rolling. Twenty minutes later I get the first text. Everything is ok so far. Ten minutes later the phone starts to ring and I have to tell you the knot of fear in my gut was real. She's off the road but ok. I tell her I'm on my way and head out. When I get to where she is the ice on the road is so slick that when I stop the truck it starts sliding sideways across the road like the pick up in this clip.
I hit the fourways, toss some sand under the wheels to stop the truck from moving and go to take a look at what we have to deal with. This road gets a fair amount of traffic for this part of the country and I'll tell you what, most people have no idea how close to the edge they are driving. It's pitch black, the road is slicker than fresh pigeon shit and people are going by at 60+. A few went by sideways.
After almost getting clocked by a couple of rigs completely out of control I decided put out road flares a couple hundred yards on each side of where I'm parked because the emergency flashers on the truck isn't motivating them to slow down at all.
The daughter already had her car dug out almost all the way around so it was a simple matter to hook up the tow cable and get her pulled out. We limped back down the road about a mile to where the ice wasn't as bad and her mother drove her car home while I tossed her shit in the truck drove her the rest of the way to classes because as shook up as she was she was in no shape to be driving.
Now to tell you the real blessed part of this tale. When she lost control the car did about a 200 degree loop and went off the road straight backwards on an area almost level with the shoulder. On our return trip this afternoon in daylight we got a good look at the exact spot she left the road. A hundred fifty to two hundred feet either side of where she lost it and she would have rolled down a steep bank with about a fifty to sixty foot drop and lets just say the results wouldn't have been so benign.
To sum up, fuel - about fifty bucks, time - eight hours out of my day, damage to car - absolutely zero, daughter learning the old man knows what he's talking about concerning bad weather driving - priceless.
It's difficult to contemplate how much worse this day could have been and I am one thankful father right now.
wes
wtdb
On the gif of the truck you claim is Irish? He grew up in snow country so I don't think that's him and I know you know that. You're just razzin' him. I'd bet that's some one (redneck) from down south that has never seen snow. Which brings me to: back in winter 65-66 I was stationed at Norfolk Virginia attending some schools. Late January the area was hit with a freezing rain then snow then freezing rain storm. Snow was maybe 3" and it stayed cold afterwards so nothing was melting and the snow froze solid, so then the roads were skating rinks. The entire area was shut down for three days waiting for it to warm up enough for the roads to melt. They didn't even have sand trucks, never mind snow plows. On day three, before it got warm, a road grader went by the gate near the barracks I was assigned to, trying to remove the now frozen solid snow. Wasn't working.
Nemo
That clip got me literally laughing out loud! I have a buddy who has a ring doorbell clip of him trying to take a large trashcan down his driveway. After ~5 feet of walking pulling the can, the can pulled his slipping ass all the way down the hill.
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