Since we're talking about this coming storm, driving, snow removal and lack of snow removal it got me thinking of my worst driving experiences in the snow and ice.
It was scary when a large chunk of ice came flying off the roof of a semi on the highway and smashed into my windshield but that was like 5 seconds of utter panic and then shaking after it happened and counting myself lucky.
My worst winter driving experience was in early January of 2014. I had to drive back from Georgia to Chicago and I was already a day or two behind schedule because of the winter weather but the weather had cleared so it was time to go. I left early in the morning and everything was smooth sailing until I got to Indiana and the highway was coated in packed snow. It wasn't too bad and I was making okay time as it was getting dark out. Now it was fully dark and the road was getting worse but still not much to worry about...
Fast forward and everything had changed as some snow started moving in and the highway was getting a lot worse. Visibility was bad and I couldn't even see the exits, I'm driving at a snail's pace and the highway seemed like it hadn't seen a plow in days but I trekked on. Next thing I know there's mounds/walls of snow taller than my car everywhere I look as I continue on but I'll make it back to Chicago as long as I can still make out the road and drive 15 mph...that's the case until I see barriers and I can barely make out a huge flashing detour highway closed sign until I'm right up on it and a wall of snow like I've never seen before...
I'm gripping my steering wheel driving slower than a street sweeper as I make my way through some unplowed surface roads in the middle of nowhere which feels like it will never end and finally get put on another highway and now it's wall to wall traffic....
We aren't moving and it's like this for a long time. I now realize I'm getting low on gas, not dangerously so but it's something to watch. It's getting pretty late at night, regular temp is well below zero with the wind whipping. I'm surrounded by semis some of which look they jacknifed a long time ago and were abandoned. Fast forward and my gas is now getting really low and I'm praying for a big town/major highway exit/small city etc.
It continues on like this for a long time and now it's really late at night and I'm getting incredibly nervous as my cell phone is about to run out of juice and I'm running out of gas. In the nick of time with my gas light on and cell phone dead I see a lot of lights ahead and there is a major rest stop with gas stations. I wait for a bit for a free pump as it seems like everyone else is in the same predicament as I'm in. I fill up and drive across the street to the McDonald's which is so crowded I can barely get through the door. I warm up and they give me directions to the town/small city basically telling me to follow the other cars and tell me there are hotels there and a Red Cross set up. I follow the line of traffic into town and start hitting up every hotel/motel and everything is booked and I make my way to the Red Cross which is slammed packed with all the cots, chairs, and floor space taken but it's 40 degrees below zero and I feel like a major crisis is averted. As luck would have it I gambled on trying one last hotel and they had one room left...
The next day the roads didn't open again until 1 in the afternoon and the roads were still a disaster. That 1 hour 40 minute highway drive was 3.5 hours and there were jacknifed semis everywhere some of them flipped over on their sides but there was still daylight, it wasn't snowing and it was the most comfortable drive ever considering what happened the night before. I made it back to my apartment in Chicago where I was greeted to a frozen pipe that burst and water gushing like Niagara Falls into my laundry room.
That was the coldest January ever in Chicago with something like 20+ days below zero with wind chills bringing it to around negative 50 a couple of times.
