Driving into Mom and Dad's this morning we encountered black ice.
We coasted up to the stop sign and I touched the brakes. The minivan started drifting sideways. Mrs ERJ gasped.
Off the brakes the vehicle started tracking.
I steered so the tires were outside the polished tracks from previous vehicles and feathered the brakes. Since we were only going thirty I had no problem stopping before the stop sign. Being retired, I can drive slowly and annoy the people behind me.
Just another day in the mid-West.
Perhaps I was a bit too smug.
Turning right off of Clare street onto Michigan Avenue I was stopped and waiting for traffic to clear.
I saw motion out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head left to see what it was in time to watch the red SUV that had been behind us slide sideways down the on-coming traffic lane into Michigan Avenue. He just barely stopped sliding before he hit the curb on the far side of Michigan Avenue.
Both Mrs ERJ and I have been rather cavalier about weather conditions. Front wheel drive. Killer tires. Cautious driving.
Somehow we spaced the fact that half of the drivers out there are below average and people still drive on bald tires.
Mom keeps telling us to stay home when the roads are bad. Maybe this is a case of older-and-wiser that we should listen to.
Stay safe out there. :)
ReplyDeleteListen to Mom!
ReplyDeleteOr, go in the middle of the day when all the impatient folks are already at work, or in the ditch, whichever...That's what we home care nurses do...wait for the plow boys to be able to get out and plow off the roads. And yes, it is the other drivers on the road that scare me way more than the road conditions.
I have noticed that Michigan has not yet discovered a neat invention call "sand". Liberally applied to roads in the winter provides traction so regular folks can stop at intersections, drive up hills and around curves, and not have pile-ups on expressways, since in MI, no one believes in going much less than 70.
The use of sand is one thing I miss about New York. They do lots of stuff wrong, plowing and sanding roads is not on that list. Michigan specializes in glass smooth icy roads, especially when the temp is below low 20's. Sand...it's not just for beaches!!
Ermagerd yes, stay off the roads when the weather overcomes the local infrastructure for road maintenance.
ReplyDeleteYou, like I, prepare vehicles for when the SHTF. But we cannot defend against idiots with sub par equip ent and IS.
Remember half the population is stupider than average, and BHO got elected to a second term, so now you know ho STUPID average really is.