Snow is beautiful. The sereneness of white powder covering everything can only be experienced. But nature does not like intrusion and getting out in a blizzard in a front wheel drive car with no snow tires is no joke. Even more so on a weekend when municipal snow plowing services take a weekend breather. Today was one of those days, being a Sunday there were not many vehicles out on the road, and of course the local snow plowing crew was not as efficient as they are on a weekday.
Twilight snow
I was happily at home late afternoon today, but was scheduled to head out for a meeting. When i stepped out of the house, i saw 6 inches of snow on my driveway, it was not a good sign, but i plowed on and got the car out, out into the road which was not visible. If i were not driving on this road daily, it would have been difficult for me to distinguish road from ground. It was smooth whiteness. I plowed on, if it had just been a meeting, i would have probably come back home and cancelled it. But i had been craving for chai for a couple of days now and the allure was too strong to resist. Even unplowed powder. Driving down the hill to the town, i could see what a nightmare it would be to drive back up. But i plowed on. After an hour of discussion and a cuppa later, headed out to watch a movie, worsening the snow situation on the ground. But the movie, Quantum of Solace, was a good watch, if only for the action.
Heading back at 9 pm, i got the final taste of what i had done. The ride upto Norwich Inn was uneventful, but the wind was strong and as i drove at 25MPH snow dropped off branches onto my windshield, creating a nice thumping sound. The wind blew and a white sheet of snow momentarily blinded me many times over. I drove on, past the level road onto the first climb to my house in the hills of Norwich. On fourth gear i almost reached the crest of the first hill, but had to slow down for a snow-plower whose width i couldn’t really fathom. I lost momentum and stopped feets from the top. The car had lost traction and wouldn’t move on. I decided to slowly drive down in reverse to the bottom and try again. There was a stream of headlight behind me: another car was driving up. I turned the hazard lights on to warn him and the driver easily managed to pass me. But now there was no light to guide me descent in reverse. I was going down too fast and so braked. Bad idea, as i lost control of the car, and foolishly turned my wheels so that the car skidded around and was perpendicular to the road. Thankfully there was no traffic. I used the opportunity to turn around the car and face downhill – it was an easy ride down, even though my knees were shaking. I reached the bottom, turned around and went right back up. No way i was leaving my car at the bottom and trying to trudge up. I knew i could do this climb, had done it once before under similar conditions, this time should have been no different. I speeded up, going to 40 MPH before the slimb started and steered my car to the center of the road. There was no traffic and so no reason to slow down this time and i easily crested this hill. Farther up, another snow plower was coming down the other side. I let it pass, and then moved to the wrong side of the road to take advantage of the cleaner ground. No traffic again till i crested the next hill.
This was now the worse part, i was feets away from my driveway but the connecting road had not been plowed at all. With a feet of snow and a perpendicular turn, i had the choice to either slow down or to be driven into the snow bank. The latter wouldn’t do me any good, and so i slowed down and the car stalled. I lost all traction, but this time i was stationary and there was no point in going down hill as i would lose momentum everytime i slowed for the turn. I carry a shovel in my car, and so i take it out and shovel the snow around the tires to get traction. I try again, the car moves but is still losing traction and skidding around. After several tries, rocking the car back and forth in reverse and first gear i have cleared enough path. I take out the shovel again and this time make a clear path 2 feet in front of my tires – straight ahead. Turn the wheel to point straight and move into the first gear. As i gain momentum, i quickly move to second gear. It was blissful. There was so much snow that i couldn’t feel the ground. It was like travelling on a ground of feathers. I turn into my garage and heave a sigh of relief.
The snow is beautiful spread out against the skyline. Everything is white and serene. This is a time to ski, not drive. Certainly not on a “regular” car, but of these are memories made of.
