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To: areafiftyone
I remember driving through West Virginia when the fog was so bad you couldn't see anything in FRONT of your BUMPER! I was scared to death...(not literally, of course, or I wouldn't be writing this). It's almost as bad as driving in one of those supercell t-storms where the rain is so heavy you can't see anything, either. I hate that....living in FL, I travel up to GA alot to see my family..I always try to leave early in the morning on my way back home to beat the seabreeze t-storms. They're horrible. I got stuck last year when Tropical Storm Allison when through GA...I was going away with my husband for the weekend, and I had been up in GA for a week...I watched the Weather Channel and decided that I had better leave a day earlier to get home than I had planned, and spend the night in Valdosta. Guess what? The Weather Channel was a little off with it's prediction (wasn't their fault, the storm just moved in faster) and I hit the Valdosta city line and WHAM! I could NOT SEE ANYTHING...it was raining SO HARD that you could not see 3" in front of you, you couldn't see tailights, nothing. I was shaking like a leaf...thank goodness I had just filled up my Suburban, because I would have been slipping and sliding all over the roads...I finally got on the CB and told those truckers I needed some help...one told me he was in front of me, and one got in back of me, and they both guided me off an exit ramp...and I spent the night in Valdosta ...sans the truck drivers, LOL! Well, the area that I had chosen got the ABSOLUTE WORST WEATHER from the storm...I was in the shower, and the lights went out! Talk about freaking out! All I could think of was the movie "Pycho"....as soon as the feeder band moved out, and I waited for the next one, I jumped in the 'Burb, headed right down the street to the closest gas station, bought myself a 6pack and drank the whole dang thing, all the while praying that lightning would not strike the gas pumps outside the hotel. What a night.
15 posted on 03/14/2002 7:26:09 AM PST by DJ88
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To: DJ88
DJ, only you can turn a simple road trip into a "made for tv" movie.

But, the funny thing is....I remember when you made that trip. LOL

19 posted on 03/14/2002 7:28:50 AM PST by CFW
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To: DJ88
and WHAM! I could NOT SEE ANYTHING...it was raining SO HARD that you could not see 3" in front of you, you couldn't see tailights, nothing.

My worst driving story was when I was caught in a huge snowstorm while trying to drive back to college (after visiting my folks) through the farmland of Ohio/Indiana.

Flat, flat, *flat* land, no crops (it was winter, after all), and enough snow to make the entire world turn into one gigantic white plain. Road, what road? The only way I could remain on the highway was to keep a constant distance between my car and the line of telephone poles that were running alongside the road. And each time the telephone poles curved away to the right, I had to assume (and pray) that the road actually did likewise.

Visibility due to the falling snow was only a few hundred yards, tops, so using distant landmarks to confirm the path of the road was impossible as well. So three cars on the road (including myself) clustered together for safety and without being able to communicate, we nonetheless ended up "taking turns" being the lead car forging a new path in the smooth snow, allowing the other drivers to relax a bit and play follow-the-leader, letting them take a break from the nerve-wracking game of "where in the hell is the road and am I about to drive off it?" At least if the lead car caromed into a snow-filled ditch, the cars behind would see it and be able to avoid the same fate.

Just pull over, you say? *Where?* This is midwest farmland -- outside of the far-and-few-between towns, it's mile upon mile of empty fields. And just pulling over and parking at the side of the road was not an option. People freeze to death that way. And this was long before cell phones.

We finally crawled back home *hours* later.

75 posted on 03/15/2002 12:47:54 AM PST by Dan Day
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