In The Navy (FT “C” School), Part 8

I grew up in Michigan and have been driving in snowy conditions many times. When I had my very first car and was in my very first snow, I went to a large empty parking lot, just to learn how a car can lose traction and go into a spin. It was fun!

So I am there on Interstate 90 (The NY State Thruway) and still making OK time, even though I am in snow. Most of the drivers are keeping a steady pace around 50MPH as we head due west towards Syracuse.

http://www.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&q=&om=1&z=7&ll=42.674359,-76.970215&spn=3.594097,6.646729

A side note here; if you like landmarks, double click Buffalo (to the left) on the map above until you see Niagara Falls (just above Buffalo). Then Double Click Niagara and then click the Satellite button and zoom in to see an aerial view of the Falls. If you are really interested, zoom out a bit and look to the left to see the canal that lets ships (and there are some big ones pictured) that make their way up and down the lakes, around the Falls. You can get all the way to Chicago and Duluth, if that is your destination. If you go the other way from here (with the flow of the river), you can head east and north through the St. Lawrence Seaway up and over Maine and Nova Scotia to the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a very historic part of the colonies.

Sorry, back to the story…

So I am tooling along, passing through Utica (which takes about a minute) and I come up on some cars going about 35MPH, that’s way too slow. The bad thing was the guy behind me got out in the left lane first and started to pass, I had to wait. Right on his heels, I drifted the car into the left lane to follow him. I think it was a combination of the lane change and the draft of the car that just passed me, that destabilized things.

My majestic white Grand Fury went careening off the road, going into a spin as I progressed. I clipped a mile marker, which snapped off easily as the car passed over its space. There was a fairly large median between the two sides of traffic, so I wasn’t worried about hitting anyone coming the other way. The spin was disturbing, because again, I had no control and just took my hands off the wheel and braced for impact. The median sloped down from both sides to a dip in the middle, a small trench. I hit the trench and the car finished its last spin and wound up facing the opposite direction I had started in.

I killed the engine and I was fine, just shaken a bit. I stepped out of the car and saw how the tires had dug in as the car came to rest. The ground under the snow was not frozen solid down in the trench. I gave the car a few minutes to recover and then started it back up (it took a few tries). I tried driving it out, but just slung mud all over the white paint and myself.

It was certainly lucky for me that a tow truck showed up almost immediately. He walked down and I found out he was off the clock, working free-lance. We agreed to $40 cash and I slapped two twenties into his palm. He hooked me up and had me up on the road’s shoulder right quick.

Looking up the road, had I wiped out a ¼ mile farther on, it would have been trees instead of the dip in the road. That would have been bad.

I had to wait for a wide opening in the traffic to get back on the road. I made it into Buffalo and then Niagara Falls fine. The snow was letting up a little. I stopped right at the bridge to the Canadian side of the falls and had to take a leak. I walked down the hill and under the Rainbow Bridge (it was dark) and took care of that. I stood there alone for a few minutes looking at the Falls, lit up in a rainbow of colors.

The ride through Ontario to Windsor went fine too. It was a short ride from that point, 4 hours to get back into the USA, Detroit and finally home. It was really early in the morning when I got in the door.