Well, I'm embarrased to admit it, but I went into the ditch this Saturday. Luckily, there's no serious damage, so I made out ok there, but still it was quite the Fiasco.

Ok, I was heading home from work Saturday (they let us out early, which was prolly a bad idea since the roads hadn't been cleared yet, but thats a whole other story). They let us out early, because after about a quarter inch of freezing rain,we were getting lots of sleet.

Well, the roads were pretty bad, but I was cruising anywhere from 35-45 depending on the area. Luckily, a pre-emptive salt solution sprayon the road kept the freezing rain from forming ice, there was lots of thick goupy slush from the sleet. It was ok, as long as you stayed in the tracks from previous vehicles. Well, if anyone here knows much about the monte, it's a bit bigger vehicle, and has a pretty wide stance. Well I was doing allright, until the tracks veered out of the right hand lane. Apparently, despite very obvious markings, I guess some people don't know how to make a turn, so they'd take it overly wide, or too shallow, thus fanning out the tracks. It wouldn't have been so bad, but because the tracks varied, the slush got a lot thicker, and deeper. I lost traction, and thanks to a stupidly over-banking of the turn, slid into the median.

So.. for those that want to avoid my AAA rant, the moral of the story is , if 40 MPH is comfortable, drive 30... and so on and so forth.

Ok, well being one lucky enough to get a yearly membership with AAA, after a few bone-chilling attempts (it was still raining/sleeting and blowing very hard) to use my floor mats to gain traction and use my window ice scraper as a makeshift slush-shovel, I was able to move my car a few more feet in the median/ditch. So I decided to call Triple-A. This is where things got interesting, the chick basically blew me off... oh well we can't help you, Iowa State Patrol or w/e has issued a ban on towing cars...I'm like I just need to get pulled out of the ditch, no towing is necessary. She said well we could HAVE A TOW TRUCK (in her own words, seriously) come by and pick you up to move you to a safe location. At this point I'm so angry I hang up thinkng ****, if one drives by to pick me up how much moretrouble can it be to winch me back on the road to keep me on my (no so) merry way?

So a few ppl stop by (several trucks... without tow ropes D'OH!)and a couple of really awesome ppl actually try and help push me out.


....


So I'm now in the very bottom of the Median/ditch and feeling pretty hopeless. I burn a few marlboros trying to calm down to some music, and decide to cancel my AAA membership.... at least that'll help my blood pressure! So, believe it or not I get the SAME EXACT CHICK. I'm thinking oohhh, what luck. I start the usual rant, this is bs, how can you leave me stranded, when alls I need is a pull, so gimme my money back! Well apparently one half-functional brain cell wakes up and she's like oh, well is ur vehicle save to drive once you get back on the road? I'm like YES, all I need is to get pulled back on the road so I can continue. (which doesn't constitue as a "tow")

Well after some bs about there may be out of pocket expense (not true with the platinum membership) FINALLY she puts me on hold to get ahold of a place. Well, after going in the ditch at 4:30 and a couple of anti-sucessful attempts to extract myself a tow truck FINALLY stops by at 6 PM... just in time for the company Christmas party.

Now I kind of have a question... isn't it better for the car, instead of simply wrapping a tow-strap around a single wheel, to use the motor mounts? I mean, where does the acceleration forcefrom the motor go, if NOT the

 

[align=center]Hi `Mike,[/align][align=center]Glad to read that you are `ok, & that your Monte LT3[/align][align=center]did not have anymajor damage. I've never driven on `snow/ice,[/align][align=center]but the Web, & TV links me to many photo's/stories [/align][align=center]about the bad weather conditions around the country.[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center]I get cold, just look'in @ the above photo [&:][/align][align=center]If you can afford, I would invest in good winter tires,[/align][align=center]and have your front suspension/alignment checked out.[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]It was good to read that there were some good people that[/align][align=center]attempted to assist you.[/align][align=center]Cars can be replaced/people can not.[/align][align=center]Wish you safe `journey's on your highways of `life.[/align][align=center]`Space[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center][8D]Hope this visual [:-]Warms you `up [/align]

 

o wait till you get to the south and that happens.. they will break into tv programs and everything and go "Up to an inch of snow is coming to your area: steal milk, gas, bread.... if you are an elderlyAmerican, you are not goign to make it thru this storm. They will cancel school here with the threat of snow.Plus, when we clear an interstate, we pout one plow in the right lane with his blade pointed to the left. then anotehr one in the left lane with this plow pointed to the right (believe it or not, i saw this once). we just don't get it down here...

 

I feel ya Mike...

The more powerful the car, the slower I drive it in a storm... just too ease to break the tires and usually the higher the speed rating the worse they handle on snow & ice.

 

Glad to hear you're okay.
The first couple snowfalls of the season always cause a bunch of accidents. Over the summer, people seems to forget how to drive in winter.

 

Boy Mike, sounds like your first snow kinda sucked...I managed to stay in Monti and go out to play a little in the snow. Where abouts did ya go in the ditch? And for the others, here are a couple of pics of saturday morning and night.

 

yea the first snowfall here in calgary there was close to 400 non injury accidents and i think a couple fatal ones. but here in calgary, NOBODY knows how to drive in the snow

 

not even you? lol

I thought that part of Canada stayed wrapped up in snow from like early november to late april or something... seems like you would learn from experience pretty quick.

 

I feel ya . . . here in SE Texas on the coast we also had a cold front blow in, it got down to the lower 50's at night! JK - I don't know how you guys can survive in that weather, but I guess our triple digit summers would be hell on you!

 

one famous Canadian (was it William Shatner?) once said "Maybe you live in a place that doesn't have snow in April. If so, I hope you appreciate it."