Earl and I drove into Chicago this afternoon to meet someone. Nothing unusual here. We’ve made the two hundred mile round-trip uncountable times. But what made this ride stressful were the weather and traffic conditions. Pounding rain, low visibility, a gazillion trucks, rush hour and accompanying slow down/speed up on the toll road.
It was ugly and got me to thinking about other times we’ve almost pulled off the road and waited things out. There was the rain storm last May when we drove to Denver. It was our first morning on the road, and we couldn’t even see the front end of our car as we navigated around Chicago toward I-80 in a rain that would have made Noah proud. Earl drove by instinct rather than skill.
Then there was the time we returned from Grand Rapids in an eerie fog. Again, it was instinct that guided us, since we couldn’t even see the fog line on the outside of the road. Earl tucked in behind a truck to follow its lights, and another car tucked in behind us. But, alas, the truck turned off and we became the leader. It was a sobering responsibility.
And the time we drove south in January to get away from winter’s clutches. Except that winter came with us; and, as we were closing in on Raleigh, North Carolina, we brought twelve inches of snow along for the ride. Miraculously, when we reached the exit we needed to take, the truck in front of us (Earl always believes in following behind trucks in cases such as this.) also exited and made grooves in the mounding snow for our car to follow. Had it not, we could still be digging out. Of course, once we left the highway and went the opposite way of the truck we were on our own to find my friends’ house. We did, but not before a variety of skids and slides and swoons.
I’m sure everyone has weather stories to tell, tales of frighteningly close calls and even accidents. For me, the worst scenario occurred about ten years ago when I lent my car to my son, so he could drive south. It was the same year the snow followed us to Raleigh. But Kevin hit a patch of black ice south of Champaign, Illinois, flipped the car, and came to rest upside-down on the road’s edge, wheels screaming at the sky. Had he not worn his seatbelt, there is no doubt that would have been the worst weather/driving day in my life. As it was, only the car needed help.
There is no moral or lesson here. Just some reminiscences that help put today in perspective. In the grand scheme, it was not the worst at all.
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