I went into the office in Oshawa today. I knew a snowstorm was expected to be blowing in but there is usually only two of us in the office on Saturdays and there was two appointments booked for one of the morning time slots. Wasn’t fair to expect my colleague to try to juggle two appointments at once.

I was about midway into the one hour appointment when I looked out the window and saw the first snow starting to swirl down. I made a mental note that I’d finish the appointment, go to lunch with my colleague and head for the hills. I probably should have just headed for the hills. I headed out at just about 1pm into what was a very nasty blowing snow.

In weather like that, I don’t even consider the 401 to travel on. I’d rather focus on road conditions than have to wonder what that transport(s) is doing and if its going to hold the road. The amount of snow they blow around kills visibility even more. So, along highway #2 I headed.

One thing that always surprises me is the number of drivers who do not put on their headlights when in bad weather like that. Yeah I know, most of the more current vehicles headlights come one when you start them. Mine does too but my taillights don’t and in weather like that, I need to have the guy behind me see me and I need to be able to see the guy in front of me.

Going through towns was difficult. When I had to stop for a light the snow would melt on my warm windshield and when I ran the wipers to clear the moisture, it would freeze in a thin film obscuring my visibility. If I was able to travel a distance before stopping again it would clear. Out in the country no problem keeping my windshield clear. The problem was keeping track of the vehicle in front of me and being prepared for the whiteout conditions created by vehicles passing in the opposite direction.

From Newcastle into Port Hope, I knew there was a van about 4-5 car lengths in front of me. Occasionally I caught a glimpse of part of the outline of it and I was able to see it’s fresh tire tracks. He was maintaining a pretty steady speed which was good but he didn’t have headlights on so there was no taillights to catch view of.

That was a bit frustrating but not near as frustrating as the run from Cobourg to home. I caught up to a line of cars which appeared to be going 40km/hr… no it was going 15km/hr.. No 20km/hr … you get the picture. Up and down like a flipping toilet seat. That is frustrating enough in good weather but in bad weather like yesterday it was nerve wracking. I kept trying to ease back to create good stopping space between me and the car in front of me. Just about the time I thought I had managed to ease back a vehicle would come the other way, create a momentary whiteout and I’d come out of it to discover I was almost on the guy in front of me’s butt. The car at the front had slowed down… again.

Over and over this was repeated in that section of my trip making me extremely grateful when my house came into view. That was somewhat shortlived when I discovered my water pipes are frozen. Hopefully a few hours with a heater in the dugout below my kitchen will fix that. If not, could be a frustrating weekend.

These Articles May Be Related:

notice: The content of this post contains my opinions and my right to express them. I will respect your right to express your opinion in the comments as long as you’re not abusive and you respect my right to my opinion.

No tags for this post.

Related posts

  • No related posts.