Andrew Jorgensen
It's better than bad, it's good!

Driving in the Snow

I don't like to drive in the snow. Here's why:

Winter of early 2011, snow started coming down lightly in the evening. Much later in the evening, now snowing hard, I finally started to make my way home from my friend's house. As I entered the freeway I flipped around about 270 degrees, so that I was perpendicular, but off on the shoulder. I called highway patrol because this was just past a bend in the freeway and I couldn't see far enough to get straightened out before someone ran into me. Maybe an hour later they came and helped me know when my best chance was and I pulled away.

Utah has a lot of sections of freeway that go over smaller rural roads, so there are a lot of hills. I barely made it up many of these hills and decided there was no way I was driving all the way home so I pulled off on Provo Center Street, parked, and called my Dad to come pick me up in his little four-wheel-drive SUV. He didn't answer. I called a few more times and still no answer. I had to pee.

Eventually I decided I'd brave the streets again and make my way to my parents house. On 9th East I saw a snow plow roll past so I fell in behind it. This was not as much of an improvement as I hoped.

When I arrived I saw my brother's car, so I called his phone. No answer there either. I still had to pee so I checked all the doors to see if one was unlocked. My parents live in a very safe part of town, but no luck. I went behind the trash cans where there was some gravel. I'm not proud of this. I slept a bit, off and on, in the car while I waited for morning.

Fairly early in the morning my brother called, having finally checked his phone, which he either silenced or left in his bag, and unlocked the front door. I slept on the couch downstairs until the snow plows came through, drove home cautiously, and slept until early afternoon.

Last month I finally got new tires. They help, but I'm still shaken. I probably shouldn't own a little rear wheel drive truck anymore. It helps that nobody drives into Seattle when there's snow on the ground and I can work from home.