Remember last winter . . .

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Remember last winter when the south was the laughing stock of the country because of the ice storm and the interstates becoming one big traffic jam? Everyone had such great advice for us southerners for driving in the ice and snow.

Hmm, the pictures that I am seeing on the news of the northeast right now look eerily similar to Atlanta's massive traffic jams. I guess driving in freezing rain and ice is hard no matter where you live.

Just saying . . .

Seriously, though, I hope all of our northeast CD members are safe and warm.

~Kathy
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
There've been some terrible pile-ups in the NE with the most recent ice-storms.

Please, anyone in the affected areas, stay off the roads if at all possible.

Drive safely and carefully if you absolutely must go out.
 

Tanya M

Living with an attitude of gratitude
Staff member
I hate Ice storms!! I live in N. Illinois so we get them from time to time. I was very angry with the way people were criticizing people in the south last year. At least here where we are used to winter we have plenty of plows that also spread salt. The southern states just don't get the weather we do up here.
Driving on ice is driving on ice I don't care where in the world you are.
OK, now I'm ready for spring!
acbbdb8429865e8acd4ce73a8ef89b00.jpg
 

Kathy813

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I love your picture! Thankfully, we haven't had any of that nasty frozen stuff (ice) this year. Now I wouldn't mind a day or two of white fluffy snow.

~Kathy
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
There is no good way to drive on ice. And up here and in the NE, we are prepared with proper vehicles and equipment and experience for snow, which is much easier than ice.

I hope everyone stays safe as well. It is hard to get me on the road at all during the few ice storms we get. Snow, no problem. Ice? No. Anyone who can, please stay in!
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
We have real problems with ice up here. Not so much from ice storms, which are very rare, but from the rare thaws that are followed immediately by temps so cold that salt doesn't work.

We aren't allowed to use other chemicals due to runoff pollution, so they use sand as an alternative. It doesn't work very well.

We do get black ice in the spring and fall, and ice fogs occasionally in the winter with sudden temperature changes.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
Driving on ice is driving on ice I don't care where in the world you are.
OK, now I'm ready for spring!

Yep...If I were up to another long post tonight I'd tell you all the story of when I nearly died sliding down a hill on my belly. LOL

I freaking hate ice!
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
I think I'll tell my funny story. :D

I lived on the 2nd tier of a lake front condominium. I was the only year-round resident, so when the ice storm came, I was alone. I have to give it to the condo association, they plowed and salted until I had road to drive. I had to crawl to the car, because I couldn't stand up, but once there I would get up, hop in, and out the parking lot and up the hill I'd go.

One day I get up as always and the lot, etc., was black. I thought it was wet, so I crawled to the car as usual and hopped up, (there was plenty of salt around the car) and out the lot I went. Halfway up the hill, the car stops moving...then it starts sliding backwards...then it starts going in circles. Three 360 degree turns later, I'm now BELOW my own parking lot and on the unplowed section of drive. I never left the road, thank God, because that would have put me in the swimming pool or over a really steep bluff. The car catches on a tiny pile of sleet left by the plow (it was a little car, thankfully, or it would have gone right thru) and stops.

So...I sit there, looking directly across the road at my building. This was the days before cell phones folks. I have to get out of the car, it might slide again, so I open the door and get out.

I fall on my butt and slide UNDER the car!

After I get out, I reach in and get my keys and sit a minute and think about the situation. My only way to shelter is to go all the way across the road where I can get to the sidewalk and use the railing to get to the flat area where my door is. I can't stand up, so I go to the front of the car and start crawling.

Thank God I wore jeans that day and had a suit in the car...I was going to Court!

Halfway across the road, my butt swings downhill and I start sliding downhill, butt first! I'm sliding and think, "Drop!" so down on the belly I go.

That's the difference between and sled and a toboggan. I just sped up.:sled:

Finally I catch my fingers on a crack in the ice and stop...I'm now closer to the lake and the first tier condos than I am my house.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
So I look up the hill, and there's my car 50 feet or so above me, my house across from that. Down the hill another 50 feet or so is the lake and the other condos. I'm hanging there trying to decide what to do. I could try to get to the other condos...down is easier than up, but if I slide the wrong way I could end up in the lake. If I make it to the condos, I could break a window and get in somewhere and at least be warm, but likely the phones are off because it's a vacation area and the middle of winter. It's closer to get to my building if I get off the road and go across the landscaping, but it's a steep hill and I know that the back side of the retaining wall has big spikes that stick out of it! If I try that and slide back down??? Not good.

So...I figure up is how I go. I worked my way to the retaining wall with very little slipping down, using ice cracks as hand-holds, drape myself across it, and basically pull myself up the hill by the spikes on the other side of the wall.

Finally, I make it to the flat area, crawl to my door, fish my keys out, crawl inside...to my liquor cabinet.

After about four good pulls on the bottle of vodka, I called my office. Then I called the judge to ask for a continuance. He said, "Everyone else has made it to court, so can you!"

I told him if he wanted me at court he could damn well come get me himself!

Shockingly, I didn't go to jail and did get my continuance.

Thus endeth my story. :D
 

Tanya M

Living with an attitude of gratitude
Staff member
Oh my goodness Lil, that is crazy!!
I can see how you can laugh now but that had to be so scary!
I've done the 360 down a hill in a car and that's scary enough.

I told him if he wanted me at court he could damn well come get me himself!
PRICELESS!!!

Thanks for sharing
:snowball:
 

kattriss

Odds are forever in my favor...
As a Florida girl transplanted to the north, I can honestly say that I hate driving in any frozen precipitation. Give me a hurricane any day...very skilled in maneuvering through those.

~K
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
I guess driving in freezing rain and ice is hard no matter where you live.
As long as it's "freezing" and not "frozen", I can pretty much handle it. But... Quick fast thaw with water everywhere followed by snap freeze = perfect skating rinks everywhere that they don't belong. And trust me, even up here, we don't have skates to put on our cars.
 
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