Crazy Winter Driving

Today, I did some holiday shopping at Target on Peach Street, which during the holidays, is referred to as “Peach Jam.” It had just started snowing when I got to the store and only got worse while I shopped. After I cleaned off my car, I weighed taking the Peach Street route home or taking the more rural route, which doesn’t have as much traffic, but has a huge hill that can be slippery in bad weather. I decided to take the rural route because I didn’t want to deal with traffic, and I didn’t want to risk having a car back-ending me.

When I got to the infamous Garries Road hill, it seemed to have gotten steeper since last week, when the roads were clear. Just like when I found myself on a two-lane in the Black Mountains in Arizona on my recent Route 66 trip, I considered turning around, but doing that would have been nearly as precarious.

I put the car in low gear and called upon God, Jesus, Mary, Angels, Lee, and Grandma J. to help me make it down the hill without a stop-off in a ditch. I’m not a terribly religious person, but that combination of spirits has gotten me through some pretty big driving challenges. After all, they had helped me navigate the Black Mountains. Certainly this couldn’t be that bad.

Oh, it was. I inched down the hill at about 15 mph, and could feel the car starting to slide three times. With a combination of brake taps and low gear I made it to the bottom of the hill. But I wasn’t out of the woods (literally) yet. I still had to navigate the rest of Garries Road and the rest of the route home.

I did it! I did it!