I alluded to some “exciting” winter driving on a previous post while we were driving home from our Thanksgiving trip.

Was it truly exciting? You be the judge.

Here is what happened.

We left Des Moines, Iowa at 6:30 am, it was cold, there was snow on the ground, but the roads were dry as we headed out. It was very cold (18F), oh, I said that already. Normal conditions and if we go our usual route, we had a 10 1/2 hour drive ahead of us, back to Louisville, Colorado.

For this trip, the plan was to stop at our friend Doc’s place in Kansas for lunch. Making this detour only adds about a half hour to the total travel time. Add on the two hours we were planning to stay and visit and we were expecting to get home by 8 pm.

We stopped for breakfast (at a Happy Chef restaurant at Adair, IA - spent $25 for a very unsatisfying meal), stopped at a newly-opened branch of Cabela’s (Jack’s favorite outdoor goods store) in Omaha, ooh’ed and aah’ed at the overturned semi’s along the highway…

It had started to snow by the time we got to Doc’s farm much later than planned.  We enjoyed a “lunch” of salad (with his special berry vinaigrette), baked beans (he makes the best we’ve ever had in our lives) and ribs that were just falling off the bone. 

Feeding cats

Mary got to feed his outdoor cats, Jack was able to have a short, well-deserved nap and I got to use the bathroom a few times :) (that’s all I’m going to say about that).  About 2 hours later, we headed back out.

It was starting to get dark, snow had been falling the whole time we were at Doc’s house and about 3-5 inches of snow had accummulated by then.   For the first 25 miles, the roads we were on had hardly been plowed.  Mostly two-lane highways, hardly any road markers.  Full dark came fast, all we can see was what was illuminated by our headlights.  As it is easy to see if any car was coming up on the other side (road was flat and straight for the most part), Jack drove on the middle of the road as it was hard to see the edge of the road.  He would move carefully to his side whenever he saw oncoming traffic. 

At one point, while Mary and I were quietly enjoying watching “Curious George” on our portable DVD player in the back seat, I heard a crunching sound, looked up, saw oncoming lights pass us… and then, we were headed towards the “No Passing Zone” sign which was on the other side of the road.  I knew then, something was not right.  Next, was swirling snow and the unmistakable feeling that the car was spinning around.  I was fully confident that Jack was doing his best to get the car righted so I did not panic.  I closed my eyes, held out my left hand toward Mary and clutched her back, felt the car slide down, caught the DVD player with my right hand and FINALLY, the car came to an abrupt Stop.  This is when Mary realized something was not quite right- “What’s happening, Mom?”  All I could say was, “We’re ok, we’re ok!”

And we were ok.  The car’s engine had stopped, Jack gave it a few seconds, started the car and the engine was fine.  Jack was confident that the Volvo’s 4 Wheel Drive can get us out of the grassy sloping ditch and it did.

So, we were back on the road.  “Maybe, we should go back to Doc’s, we’re not far and maybe, just stay there for a while?”

“No, we’ll be ok.  All it means is that I have to go much slower.  It’s a good thing, we were only going 30 mph.”

Jack, Mary and I were all fine. Mary did not know what was going on, I did not panic so consequently, Mary did not panic.   So, off we went.  For the next four hours, Jack very ably drove us through increasingly worsening road conditions— packed snow, packed ice, below freezing temperatures, not-so-careful drivers overtaking haphazardly, low visibility with the falling snow and a steady headwind. Ramps toward the rest area were hard to see and slow down for, so we did not make too many stops.

About 150 miles from Denver, the snow finally stopped and by the time we got to Denver, we were travelling at the speed limit of 75 mph — roads were clear of snow or ice. We were home by 11:30 pm.

So, what do you think?  Was it exciting enough?  The story is a bit boring — absolutely no damage to the car… we were all fine.. no heroic rescues… 

Thank God.