My daughter volunteers as an altar server at our church and we were headed there one cold and rainy Sunday morning.
The weather report was predicting dropping temps and freezing rain and my daughter was apprehensive about going.
I was hellbent on going because she had this obligation and we left, disregarding her protests.
I had a front-wheel drive manual shift car with snow tires and I felt unstoppable.
There was a light rain falling and I noticed the temp dropping to freezing on the car thermometer.
The route to church is along a winding hilly road.
I was driving slowly and being cautious around the turns when up ahead an SUV came rambling around a bend going too fast for the conditions.
As the driver maneuvered the curve, the SUV skidded and crossed into my oncoming lane.
With my heart in my throat, I prepared to take evasive action but at the last second the other vehicle gained some control and whipped back into their lane and flew by us.
Yikes! That was close.
I immediately downshifted and avoided hitting the brakes and slowed down considerably.
So that was black ice up ahead and the rain was turning the road to ice as it hit the ground.
I made it through the next curve and went down a hill and we decided we were not making it to church that day.
I made a right at the next intersection and turned around.
I had to decide if I was going to head back home or just wait in the car until the temperature went back up or a salt spreader came by.
I chose the latter and headed back.
The first hill was not too bad but then the next downward dip in the road was scary and we began to slide moving up the next incline.
My tires were spinning trying to gain traction but we were sliding sideways but I knew if we stopped we would be stuck in the middle of the road.
You could actually smell the rubber burning as my tires spun and my daughter was freaking out.
We ended up by someone’s driveway and I hoped we could gain some traction on the shoulder if there was some gravel or dirt on the ground.
The car continued to move forward as I worked the gears but I refused to let off the gas. We gained some traction and made it slowly up the incline, slipping and sliding along the way.
Good thing we encountered no other traffic as other people were surely wiser than me and decided not to go out in these poor conditions.
We made it home slowly but safely and I don’t think my heart rate slowed down for quite a while.
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