Slip Slidin' Away

Yesterday was one slippery morning. Keeping up with the weather in Michigan this year has become an hourly task. We surely must already be on record for a very blustery December compared to years gone by. So yesterday, leaving an hour before work, I ventured out with the rest of the chain gang heading to my destination. As soon as I turned out of my condo association and onto the road, I knew it would be a cautious and slow trek.

The night before we had lots of rain, snow, sleet mix and then the temperatures dropped which left a residue of patchy pavement. One minute we were clipping along on cleared, clean pavement and the next we would be hitting patches of slick ice. While we live in a fairly flat terrain, my route to work dips and curves and has some inclines that are rather fun. :) Several cars were creeping along in front of me on this two lane road and I kept my distance too.

The driver ahead seemed very apprehensive as we came across some of those icy, patchy areas. Suddenly, she began hitting her brakes for no apparent reason. Nothing was going on in front of her as the driver she was following seemed to pull away quite easily. I started tapping my brakes too and abruptly she stopped cold! Her car turned a bit into the oncoming lane, but honestly there was NOTHING ahead of her to stop for. I kept tapping, somewhat frantically, praying and swearing all in one breath (sorry, Lord). The pickup with a plow behind me swerved to the shoulder lane and passed on by this little escapade safely and spared the back end of my car, thank you very much! My car stopped within a hair's width of the car ahead of me, but as the plow truck went by, three or four SUV's behind slammed on (or "mashed on" depending on your region) their brakes and popped each other one after the other. Chain reactions happened all over the place as the oncoming traffic slowed in fear of someone crossing the line. My heart was pumping hard.

Slowly, driver one started moving forward again and I moved along carefully too. The vehicles behind me all straightened out their cars and pulled over to the side to compare damages. I'll never know what caused driver one to panic other than to see the ice and thinking what might happen next. Within a mile or so all things must have returned to normal as a large white SUV rode my behind all the way to work with a leaning driver on a cell phone! GRRRRRRR!

My guardian angels worked very hard for me yesterday and for that I was extremely grateful all day long!

*All Pics Googled*

7 comments:

Pammie said...

I'd be that girl #1-but you would be able to hear me screaming OMG all the way back to your car!
Now floods-I can drive thru that.

Wait. What? said...

Gosh just driving through the city streets of Chicago these days sounds like what you went through - there is no salting - NONE - so if ya have a four wheel drive ( I do!) you wind up getting stuck behind people who dont and are afraid of what could happen - because their tires are not gripping.

I am glad you are OK! But those poor people behind ya!

Cat

Lou said...

Oh yeah, white knuckle commute alright! ha,ha..we made it OK grrlfriend.

Michael Horvath said...

Glad your guardian angels were there for you. Mine are happy that I moved to the south so they can catch some rays now instead of deal with snow.

Syd said...

Glad that it didn't turn into a bad accident. Take care out there. I know after being slammed into.

Bedlam said...

I hate driving on snow, the dangerous part is other drivers. Be careful out there.

SharoninWonderland said...

I enjoy your blogs very much and wanted to let you know, I have passed on an award to you in my blog.

I hope you haven't already received it!

Cheers!