Noted In Passing: When driving into a storm on Nightmare Road

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• Casey Klahn September 18, 2022, 5:17 PM

  Flashing Flashbacks, Batman!

  When my now just barely adult-aged kids were still in baby seats, I was traveling home in the full sized Chevy van on a slate gray winter’s day, and an ice storm started to buckle the power poles right in front of me. In an otherwise monochrome gray scene came a bright white and orange explosion as a transformer blew, and the weight of the ice on the lines snapped the nearest pole to us in three sections. My life would’ve passed before my eyes but instead I had my 2 kidlettes in the van and everything was about whether they’d get hurt or not.

  It turns out that the high tension lines fall in a straight course right along the line, and lines were not in front of us. I did get out (which you don’t do) because a neighbor was approaching in her car and would be turning into the T where the line was down. Unbeknownst to me, about 20-something poles had gone down behind us. But, I’ll never forget that silent explosion in the gray and snow – ice storms are the worst thing.

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• Jeffersonian September 18, 2022, 7:48 PM

  That biker would have surely appreciated a warm dry car ride about then. I’ve ridden through those storms. Scary as hell. I still ride.

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• Jack September 19, 2022, 6:39 AM

  So, is anyone interested in a nice road trip to Mesico or Chilly? And, for God’s sake, what kind of civilian drives their car into an area experiencing a fire like that Mammy-Jamma?

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  • azlibertarian September 19, 2022, 7:58 AM

    “So, is anyone interested in a nice road trip to Mesico or Chilly?….”

    Yeah, that Mexican cartel roadblock was pretty creative. I don’t think I’d have had the presence of mind to a) recognize that quickly what was going on, and b) do something about it. You’re right…..the best way to avoid it is to avoid Mexico all together. [My brother makes frequent trips to Mexico for his work, and I hate every minute of it.]

    “…And, for God’s sake, what kind of civilian drives their car into an area experiencing a fire like that Mammy-Jamma?”

    If memory serves, our kind host here endured something very similar. If not him, there were plenty of other civilians who did. I watched it from the distance of the internet, and it scared me to death.

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• james wilson September 21, 2022, 3:30 PM

  In different years I was zipping through the interstates on Utah in one case and Nebraska in the other, when, for no apparent reason, the natives in in Utah slowed way down, and in Nebraska they were pulling over to the side of the road. I found out why pretty quickly both times and almost not quickly enough. Pay attention to the natives.

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