Close call with the Cat the other night!

January 23, 2006, 05:52:37 AM

I was heading over to Chillicothe Illinois Friday night to help out SLamedcat when I suddenly ran into a snow drury mess!

I left Normal around 7:15 pm, it was raining here, kind of cold. Got to Peoria, 35 miles west, crossed the river and it got a little slick. The headlamps on my car suck, I could not tell if it was freezing rain or rain or ice because I could not see the highway that great. I noticed the car in front of me slowed down so I slowed down to 55 mph. All of the sudden I see snow, big flakes and accumulation on the highway and the car in front of me doing a 180, headlights shining on mine. This changed from rain to snow in about a 3 mile distance from I-474 to route 6. I was faced with slowing down from 55, starting to slide on the road, cars already in the ditch, and cars hurrying up on me. I started repeatedly tapping the brake(pumping) getting it down and dropping it into first, fighting wanting to go sideways. I saw the headlights getting closer and finally got my car under control coming to a complete stop in a 65 mph zone. It took the Taurus in front of me a couple seconds to get straightened out and back on the road again while realizing where we both would have went if I hit him. Meanwhile, throwing the Hazards on to show the yahoos behind me to slow the #@ck down, or we would all be in the ditch or worse. The snow was so bad, I pulled off the highway at a Peoria exit to go back home. I was only able to go 25 mph till the exit, could not tell where the lanes were, pulled into a Walmart where a snow plow was sitting with his lights on.
I ran into get a sandbag and believe it or not a 24 hour Walmart does not carry sandbags! I came out, snowplow still sitting there and had to brush an inch of snow off my car from 20 minutes to run into store. Took me 2 hours to make a 35 minute trip and when I got back home it was still raining. I had to battle the leaky heatercore by driving the whole way with the defrost on.
It was actually kind of a rush, I have not driven in snow like that in at least 6 years, took patience and I was very grateful to get her back into the garage in one piece!

I did not hear from Slamedcat, was told he had driven back to Peoria when I called his number in Chillicothe, so I hope he made it home alright.