Traveling Adventures

Yesterday, Jess and I left Indiana after a wonderful time with our families. Seeing as Jess had to work this morning, we set out from my parents' house at 5:15 am, with the hope of arriving here soon after 8:00 pm. These expectations are reasonable provided there are no weather or traffic problems. You could say that we had both yesterday.

The 36 hours before we left were filled with snow and wind. We were hoping that both would have ended before we left, but neither had. So we took off, driving into a headwind from the west, driving about 30-40 miles an hour on a state highway. Upon reaching the interstate, the roads were pretty fully cleared, and the speed of traffic increased to 50-60 miles an hour, but now the wind was blowing from the passenger side, with the gusts trying to push the poor Civic. After being on the interstate for about 20 miles, while it was still dark out, I hit a patch of ice, coupled with a gust of wind, and started to fishtail. Thankfully there were no other cars nearby, as after a valiant attempt, the car still went into the ditch.

Both of us were not injured in the least, and I hadn't hit anything with the car. I got out to examine the situation to see if there was any way to get the car out without calling a tow truck. I tried to push while Jess put it in reverse, but no such luck. Someone stopped and then we had two of us pushing, but still no luck. We were in too far by about a foot, so our back tires couldn't get any traction. I was fortunate enough to get both of my feet absolutely drenched, as well as mud on my pants. We waited about 45 minutes for the tow truck to arrive, and when he did arrive, it was about 5 minutes (and $75) until we were on the road again.

By that point, people realized that the roads may have looked clear, but were not really clear, as no one was driving over 55 (and I was keeping it around 40, just for good measure). Thankfully, the sun started to come out and it stopped snowing, and we got far enough south (and started going west again into the wind) that the snow wouldn't have really bothered anything. We were able to stop and get some dry socks for me and I changed into them and my dry pair of shoes. We were a bit concerned when things picked up and the car started to shimmy around 60. However, I think we just had some snow mashed up in the car somewhere because over the next 1000 miles, the shimmy disappeared, and everything ran fine.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, and we arrived in our apartment about 10:30 pm, 18 1/2 hours after we left (as we gain an hour coming back). For the first time, I don't miss snow. I will definitely be enjoying the 75 degree weather this weekend.