April 16-24 snowstorm
Technically, it’s spring. You couldn’t tell by the 30 inches of snow at the Bar B.
Weather forecasts were posted, were revised and revised again. Many people scoffed at the notion of 30+ inches of snow from this storm. Little did we know that over the course of five days Mother Nature would fulfill her promise and deliver 42 inches of snow.
I was lucky this week – I was on vacation so I didn’t have to leave home if I didn’t want to.
Foolish me, after the plow guy came early, I ventured out onto unplowed Shadow Mountain Drive. At the “S” curves I lost control of my Subaru and I was lucky there was no traffic coming my way. I’ve been driving in Colorado for many years and know how to drive on snow. First off, don’t keep the clutch pedal down. Downshift and let it out. Let the car do the work. Steer into the slide, don’t fight it, Whatever you do, don’t force the brakes.
My Subaru has an unfortunate feature – the anti-slide controls that take over when the car is sliding. This is the worst feature I’ve ever encountered right up there with front-wheel drive. This features takes over control of the vehicle. This isn’t something I want a car to do! Fortunately, I had disabled the anti-slide feature a few weeks ago or else I wouldn’t have had time to disengage it before I ended up in the ditch.
I didn’t turn around and go home, I was almost too afraid to go back through the “S” curves so quickly after losing control only a few minutes before. I went on down to the store and ate chocolate and waited a half hour. By then, the road was almost clear from the plows and there was no sign of my skid marks.
The storm added a lot of much needed moisture to the Bar B. Anything that holds off fire season even for a few days is a welcome gift.
Glad I didn’t have to deal with going to work under such bad driving conditions. Makes me glad I have work I can do from home rather than sitting behind a horrid desk surrounded by horridness all day long. Snow is better.