Crazy Weekend: part 2

As sunday drew on, and temperatures started to drop the rain that had been coming down the day before was destined to become ice. As the snow piled up, and the lack of salt became more apparent, even driving around Markham became a challenge. During the weekend, Ally and I had seen two auto collisions. For instance, as we were driving back to her home at night, we saw a black sedan in the middle of the street, no hazards on, apparently just chillin' across a four lane street. We said to each other "What the hell is that car doing?!" It was only after we had cautiously passed by, that we saw the smaller car that had T-boned it. One car buried deep into the passenger side door of the other. The timing and the way in which we realized what was going on has almost comical. The streets were icy, no doubt about it.

Monday morning came around, and the outside world had a beautiful snowy layer all over. After a trip to the mall to load up on even MORE chinese food, we set off for Guelph. Although parkinglots and side streets were slippery, the highway's were great. In terms of traffic and road conditions, the 404 and 401 were fantastic. The exit ramps...not so much.

Happily singing along to Joel Plaskett, we were almost home. In my head, I was planning heading up the Hanlon, but Ally had something else in mind. We had just passed the sign for Guelph and the Brock Road 46 exit was coming up in a few hundred meters. Ally said "This is the exit."to which I replied "Is this the exit?"

Now... this wasn't really a question, but sometimes I respond to questions with other questions or vague indirect answers, thats just how I roll.

So, I decide that any exit towards Guelph is just as good as any other exit towards Guelph, and I moved into the right lane. I started to scrub a bit of speed, coasting towards the off ramp. Right at the beginning of the turn, I needed to scrub off abit more speed, so I start to lightly hit the brake. Ends up, we were driving on a sheet of ice. This is an artistic interpretation of what followed:

There is some irony here, because the ice I really hit was closer to black ice, as opposed ice of a white-blue hue shown in the picture. After braked on the ice, the van started veering to the right and we were headed towards a large steel light pole. In my feeble attempts to get the van back under control, I oversteered and the sent the van veering to the left instead, which thankfully had no poles to crash into. There was a lot of "OMG OMG OMG OMG" being shouted as we silently slipped off the side of the road.

In the short span of about 5 seconds, the car had fish-tailed off the off ramp, flipped onto the passenger side, and had slid a good 20ft down the ditch. It was oddly quiet, with just the dull thud of the car tipping over, and a crunchy, scraping sound as we floated further away from the icy asphalt. The van came to a rest, we were both disoriented and remained strapped into our seats, the contents of the van strewn about.

It was like the really shitty fair ride had come to and end, after someone near the front of the roller coster threw up over everyone else behind them.

It seemed like we were both glad that the ride was over, but neither of us were looking forward to the huge mess that would lay ahead. We just sat quietly, looking at each other for a few seconds and then asked each other "Are you OK?" Luckily, both of us were totally fine. After we got free of out seat belts, we then climbed out of the driver side door and some bystanders helped us down, and we got a ride to safety. The rest of the story is all about cold, snow, running around, paper work, waiting and a lot less excitement.

As a funny aside, its interesting to note that when police and EMS talk about collisions, they say civic VS. focus, or corolla VS. mini and other variations. It makes traffic wrecks sound like matches of boxing or MMA.

Although we were OK, the van is worse for ware. Two flat tires, dented body panels and a broken mirror created about $600 of possible work to get it running again, not even mentioning the tow bill which came to over $400. This could be the death knell for the van, but the final verdict will be passed by friday.

Although I consider my self to be a dedicated cyclist (in heart and in practice) with a healthy aversion to automobiles, I couldn't help but start to feel some nostalgia for the other four wheeled vehicles of my past. During High school, I had the use of a wicked awesome car, a midnight blue 1991 Mercury Cougar (RIP 2009). My first memory of this car: Within the first 3 minutes of taking command of the wheel, I had spun it out and crashed into a snow bank just outside my grandparents home. My uncle had to come over in a Jeep to pull the cougar out of the icy trap....I could tell that this was going to be the beginning of something special.

So, to any readers who are headed home this holiday season, either by car or by any other means, I hope you arrive safe and sound.