So, I'll throw mine in.
Left Chicago around 9:30 AM, headed to Ames. Illinois roads weren't great, but they weren't horrible either. They were well salted, and mostly just wet. Enter Iowa, and everything changed. My little FWD Subaru wagon was sliding all over, the tire tracks were domes of ice, and at one point my car was slipping it's tires in 5th gear at 45mph... at partial throttle. It was slick.
I ended up giving a ride to someone who was stranded at the Iowa 80 truckstop - their car had slid off the road in the process of trying to avoid someone else who went nearly sideways, and was quite stuck. They were going to DSM, so I gave them a ride (since I was headed that way anyway). It involved a lot of 40mph travel, a lot of countersteering, and a lot of prayer. It was also somewhat amusing, looking at a car going zipping by, commenting "They'll be in a ditch in 20 miles," and 15 miles later seeing them off the side of the road.
Ames was reached safely. I have no desire to repeat the driving experience. And, come the 14th, probably won't legally be able to for 6 months.
-=Russ=-
Posted by rgraves at January 6, 2005 01:11 PMyou? fashionable? :)
Posted by: erik at January 6, 2005 02:50 PMNice. I had a blast driving in that weather. I wonder if your night was worse than mine.
Posted by: Matt at January 6, 2005 03:09 PMIt wasn't so much night as it was "all day" - and it would have been a blast to drive in, had I not been trying to keep the car on the road. I would have taken the '7 out to slide around when I got back... but there was no way short of an hour's worth of shoveling that I was going to get it out of the parking lot.
-=Russ=-
Posted by: Russ at January 6, 2005 03:34 PM