Scary Driving

wendybeth · 08-03-2007, 09:56 AM

Driving through the flats of Wyoming on our way back home from Denver we noticed a rather large vortex heading directly toward us. There was literally no where to go, and we knew we couldn't outrun it. It was probably less than a minute away when I noticed a dirt side road off the other side of the freeway, so I cut through the median and took off down that road as fast as I could. We just managed to miss the worst part of the storm system, but I ended up having to drive through Jackson Hole and the Tetons instead of up through Montana as planned. Later, we found out that several people had been killed by that tornado system in Littleton, which is where we had been staying.

Oh, and I almost died of boredom driving through Texas.

Snowflake · 08-03-2007, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wendybeth

Oh, and I almost died of boredom driving through Texas.

That was me in Iowa last summer, and Wyoming and Utah and Nevada, but then I talked to NA for a while and the drive got better.

innerSpaceman · 08-03-2007, 10:24 AM

Driving to Northern Cali via the 5 one morning, through an unrelenting sand storm. Visibility was, well, zero, but I'm on the freeway ... so the slowest I deign to drive is 40mph. After about 50 miles of it not letting up, my daughter is so panicked in the back seat (and yeah, I realize we've likely used up our luck in driving that fast with no visibility for that long) - we pull over to the side of the road to ride it out.

It doesn't stop. After an hour, we imagine it's letting up a bit and start driving again, keeping the speed down to 25-30 mph.

Nothing happened to us, but driving that long at even those speeds was scary as all fu ck.

When we reached our destination, we discovered that - about 6 miles behind where we pulled over to stop - a 100+ car pile-up stopped all traffic on the 5 for the rest of the day. We missed that by less than 10 minutes.

Oh, and we had to replace our completely sand-pitted windshield.

08-03-2007, 09:56 AM	#1
wendybeth Nevermind Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 7,847	Driving through the flats of Wyoming on our way back home from Denver we noticed a rather large vortex heading directly toward us. There was literally no where to go, and we knew we couldn't outrun it. It was probably less than a minute away when I noticed a dirt side road off the other side of the freeway, so I cut through the median and took off down that road as fast as I could. We just managed to miss the worst part of the storm system, but I ended up having to drive through Jackson Hole and the Tetons instead of up through Montana as planned. Later, we found out that several people had been killed by that tornado system in Littleton, which is where we had been staying. Oh, and I almost died of boredom driving through Texas. __________________
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08-03-2007, 10:24 AM	#3
innerSpaceman Kink of Swank Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Inner Space Posts: 13,075	Driving to Northern Cali via the 5 one morning, through an unrelenting sand storm. Visibility was, well, zero, but I'm on the freeway ... so the slowest I deign to drive is 40mph. After about 50 miles of it not letting up, my daughter is so panicked in the back seat (and yeah, I realize we've likely used up our luck in driving that fast with no visibility for that long) - we pull over to the side of the road to ride it out. It doesn't stop. After an hour, we imagine it's letting up a bit and start driving again, keeping the speed down to 25-30 mph. Nothing happened to us, but driving that long at even those speeds was scary as all fu ck. When we reached our destination, we discovered that - about 6 miles behind where we pulled over to stop - a 100+ car pile-up stopped all traffic on the 5 for the rest of the day. We missed that by less than 10 minutes. Oh, and we had to replace our completely sand-pitted windshield.
	Submit to Quotes