This weekend, my Dak, my girlfriend and I nearly became one with a
guardrail - or an oncoming Jeep.
Saturday afternoon, I was driving from Syracuse, NY to Canandaigua with
my girlfriend for a holiday party with her family. Now, as some of you
may remember, we had that little storm up here in the Northeast this
past weekend. However, I checked the local radar online and things
looked clear. Stupid me, I never looked at the timestamp on the
upper-left corner; I was looking at a cached version. While there was
still some snow out here at my place, it got lighter (according to the
radar) as you moved West (which is the direction we were going). In
reality, before the Nor'Easter even cleared town, the lake-effect kicked
into overdrive, bringing snow in over I90 and all over the Rochester to
Utica corridor.
So, we packed up, prepared to spend the night in Canandaigua, as the
Thruway (I90) can get nasty in the winter with the lake effect (Mike S.
and Doug F. can attest to this). Stopped in Syracuse to get to an ATM,
and the weather was worse than here at my apartment. We figured "well,
the radar looked better once you get to the Thruway, we'll be fine."
Besides, it was city streets, and those always get sloppier than the
main highways, right?
Well, I690 (road out of the city to 90) was even worse. Less than 1/2
mile visibility, snow blowing all over the road. Once we got on 90, it
got EVEN WORSE. So, I gave up at exit 40 (just one exit down the road
after I got on at the 690/90 junction). It just wasn't worth the risk.
The exit lane was completely covered in snow, so I slowed down and
pulled the 4WD before the lane change. That went fine. The exit ramp
is one of those big, sweeping ones that curves right, then cuts back to
the left and crosses over the highway. One on lane, one off lane, very
wide shoulders and center (no grassy median, divider or rail), rails on
each side of the roadway. I approached at what I felt was a prudent
speed for the conditions - well under 35MPH. As I started my turn to
the left, I felt the Dak get a little loose, but controllable. Or so I
thought. As soon as I brought it back under control, it swung to the
other side. And back and forth and back and forth. My mind was racing,
my heart stopped. The swings kept getting wider, no matter how small I
tried to make my corrections, then I saw...a Jeep Grand Cherokee coming
toward me on the ramp! I was trying everything I could think of to
reign 'er in, and nothing was working!
At which point I uttered but 2 words - "oh shit."
Then my girlfriend grabbed my arm for some strange reason, which
certainly did nothing to calm me down. I had forgotten she was there -
I was too busy concentrating primarily on not hitting that Jeep, and
secondly on not destroying my truck (which I value higher than my own
life).
Then, by some miracle - I don't know if I hit the right combo of gas,
brake, and steering, or if I hit a dry patch, or maybe someone was just
smiling on me, I put it back together just before getting to the bridge
section. Once I was stabilized, I downshifted and just crawled to the
tollbooth. The attendant said the storm was state-wide. We took the
back roads home (Rts. 5 & 20). Took close to 3 hours to make the full
trip - should have been one hour under normal conditions. Once parked,
I just slumped over the steering wheel.
I do not EVER want to go through that again. I wonder how much my tires
contributed to it. Surely "perfect" tires would have slid in this snow
anyway, but I'm sure I would have regained control much more easily. I
saw so many people that day driving WAY too fast (60+) because they had
4WD and thought they were invincible just because of it. I'd like to
give them a videotape of the hell I went through to scare them straight.
-- -andyhttp://home.twcny.rr.com/andylevy/ --- andylevy@bigfoot.com ------------------------------------------------------------- modesty, n.: Being comfortable that others will discover your greatness -------------------------------------------------------------
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