Driving without checking the weather report

Did you miss me? I’ve been busy this week. Click on the photo to see the terrifyingly large picture of my drive through the mountains.

411: Somewhere in the Berkshires, halfway to Albany, NY.

Listening to: Whatever is playing on my iPod is being drowned out by the sound of my tires slushing through snow.

7am: I’m headed to see a new vendor today in Albany, NY. Knowing my luck with airports, and knowing I enjoy driving alone, I say to hell with it, and decide to drive the 3 1/2 hour trip.

7:05am: It’s pouring rain, but the windshield wipers are working great, and I don’t have to make a lot of turns. I basically just drive on one highway to get there.

8am: Hm, it’s snowing like a motherfucker. Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea. But I’m already an hour out, if I turn back now it’ll all be for nothing.

8:15am: I am no longer driving or steering. The car is basically ‘skiing’. I turn the wheels back and forth, constantly oscillating the car’s nose from 11 o’clock to 1 o’clock position.

8:45am: There are almost no other cars on the road. Occasionally when I’m passing, or when I’m being passed, I have to keep careful hold on the car. Should it hit a patch of unplowed snow (hell it’s all unplowed) I’ll find myself sliding back and forth into the other cars lane.

I discover than when I change lanes there’s a patch of thick unplowed snow along the dotted white line that’s higher than the snow in my lane. As I change lanes, the car skids heavily on the extra tall slushy snow.

9am: I’ve passed the halfway point and am somewhere in the Berkshires. No point going back now. I pass a cliff face where water pouring down has frozen in place, creating a beautiful frozen scene with a powerful deep blue, like the one I saw in the Hope diamond. I debate stopping and taking a photo, and think better of it. I’m certain to be struck and killed by a snowplow.

9:15am: I finally see my first snowplow. It’s a fearsome beast. It’s got two plows on the front and takes up almost both lanes. A semi and I have to drive on the shoulder to pass. I quickly grab the photo you see above.

10am: I hit NY. I’ve made it. Now to avoid getting stuck in the last 10 minutes…