Drew Wutka
DWUTKA at marlow.com
Fri Feb 28 19:54:00 CST 2003
I live in Mckinney, and work in Dallas, so I know what you are talking about. I drove home Monday night at around 1 am. It took over 2 hours to get home, however, at least most of the road was 'ice chunks', it hadn't glazed over yet. However, one thing is for sure, Texans don't know how to drive in rain, snow, or ice. Especially ice. Somehow, a texan in a 4WD vehicle thinks they have more traction by having four wheel drive. Not quite, you just have a vehicle that has 4 powered wheels with no traction! <VBG> I even heard a newsperson tell people that they better use front wheel drive vehicles. Why? Have you even seen a snow mobile with it's 'skis' in the back? No, the tread is in the back, and the skis are up front steering. When you have slippery terrain, the last thing you want is the 'turning' mechanism trying to 'pull' your vehicle. That just causes your back wheels to spin out behind you. You need a rear wheel drive vehicle, that is pushing your front wheels/skis. Just my observation. I stayed home Tuesday, spending most of the day badgering my DSL company...hehehehe Then Wednesday I had to find a doctor who was open, so I could get a sinus infection cleared up. Hot cold hot cold...means Drew is gonna have his teeth hurting from a sinus infection! <VBG> I must say, I will treasure Tuesday for some time to come. My 4 year old daughter and I went to check our mail (which is up a pretty big hill....) on Tuesday, and she just had the time of her life slipping and sliding all over the ice (none of her shoes have 'rugged' soles, they're all pretty 'flat', I have a good pair of hiking sneakers with almost cleat like tread.). Not too mention I ice skated a lot as a kid, and my late teens (bet none of you knew I got 2 silver medals for figure skating in the junior olympics (I think it was in Calgary...but I was between 8 and 10, so geography wasn't my strong point then.....)). Personally, I think the snow storm was a plot to keep me from getting my flat screen monitor this weekend. (It is now 'marked' for Monday). It was probably sitting on I-35 since Tuesday......it better not have cracked in the cold! <VBG> Drew -----Original Message----- From: Elam, Debbie [mailto:DElam at jenkens.com] Sent: Friday, February 28, 2003 6:05 PM To: 'accessd at databaseadvisors.com' Subject: [AccessD] OT Friday: Ice Adventure! Since it is Friday, I thought all of you might be entertained by my ice storm mishaps. As many of you probably heard, Monday night the DFW area was hit with a winter mix storm. This one was almost entirely sleet, but enough freezing rain to weld it together and give it a slick crust. I have a VBA training class this week. The trainer came into town for this week only so there was no way to make the class up. I was determined then to make it in to work despite the ice. Tuesday morning was not bad in spite of the layer of ice on the streets. Only a few spots were so slippery that driving slow was not enough to compensate. I drove to the park and ride and got on the bus and made it in just about double normal driving time. Coming home was a different story. First, I arrived at the bus stop around 5:00. Another woman had been waiting since 4:00, but no busses had come by. She called Dart (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) and discovered there were fewer than normal busses due to driver absences and the first bus had gotten stuck on another street. Eventually the bus after showed up. We got stuck with the wheels spinning a couple of times in downtown, but the driver managed to get us started again in a few minutes. On the freeway home, 3 18 wheelers had slid slightly sideways and one after the other blocking the entire freeway. Forced to exit we got stuck on the service road. A roving band of helpful men were walking the area with shovels and broke the ice under the wheels of our bus and other stuck vehicles. We were on the way again. We stopped again when the driver realized the side street she had chosen ran through a large gully. The bus would never had made it up the other side. Turning around was hampered by drivers going ahead of the bus then behind it, then ahead. Because of this we were stuck across several lanes or traffic when letting us go would have gotten us out of everyone's way in 5 minutes if traffic had stopped for us. Once turned around we make good progress for awhile. Then about 2 miles from the park and ride we come upon a handicap bus stuck near the top of a low incline. Breaking our momentum was deadly we got stuck at the bottom. I considered walking to the park and ride, but did not get desperate enough to do it until we had been there for nearly 2 hours. At this point my normally less than 1 hour bus ride had taken over 5 hours. I bailed from the bus, intending to walk to the park and ride and get my truck. It was slippery enough I chose to walk in the grass. It was harder and I had to stomp a little to break through the ice crust, but I only fell down twice. On the walk I encountered cars that had either slid into drainage ditches, or were unable to get enough traction to move every 200 yards or so. This was demoralizing enough that I decided, if I tried to drive home, I would end up abandoning the truck or sleeping in it. The park and ride was a much better place to abandon and I decided to try to walk the rest of the way home. Unfortunately this is another 5 miles. Do-able, but tough. I called Hunter to tell him of my decision. He talked about coming to get me, but we discarded that idea since he would likely just end up abandoning or wrecking our other car too. Then he realized we have an ATV that could make the short trip if anything could. We agreed to meet partway. He had one bad spot getting to me. He yielded to a truck coming the other direction (it needed the momentum a lot more than the ATV) and ended up sliding into a ditch that was deep enough to have liquid water in it. So Hunter, rather wet and cold by that time, finds me at the agreed meeting place. I get on the back of the ATV, hold on tight and see a blur because my helmet visor fogs up. we make it home with no more incident, just a few slightly slippery corners. We made it home about 1:00 AM. To top all of this off, I had lost my voice due to the crud going around, and I was hacking up some really disgusting stuff. Everyone was very concerned that I had gotten too cold while walking, but actually I was too hot. The stomping gait was so energetic that I was sweating for much of the walk. The only really cold part was on the ATV. For the most part, the drive just cooled me down to normal. There was ice on the back of the seat from the storm and my rear melted it during the drive. Needless to say this got my rear soaked and THAT was cold. I did not even attempt to leave the house until 5:00 PM the next day when we could finally see the road where the 34 degree temperatures and a little traffic had melted it. The driveway still nearly trapped us though. I found out yesterday that the bus never made it to the park and ride. They got out of the spot where they were stuck, but had to turn around and only got a little closer before they gave up at 11:00. A few brave souls gave the others rides the rest of the way to the park and ride. everyone I spoke to had not made it home in their cars. They had to abandon them along the way as they got stuck too. One woman nearly slid into a creek, and abandoned the car rather than take the chance of sliding off the bridge while she tried to get unstuck. She had a tow-truck pull it to a melted spot late Wednesday and drove it home then. Debbie - JENKENS & GILCHRIST E-MAIL NOTICE - This transmission may be: (1) subject to the Attorney-Client Privilege, (2) an attorney work product, or (3) strictly confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you may not disclose, print, copy or disseminate this information. If you have received this in error, please reply and notify the sender (only) and delete the message. Unauthorized interception of this e-mail is a violation of federal criminal law. This communication does not reflect an intention by the sender or the sender's client or principal to conduct a transaction or make any agreement by electronic means. 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