I’m not usually one to get a head start on things, but once in a while I break out of the blocks and get out ahead of the pack.
Winter decided to get a little head start here in North Dakota. We got our first snow, a five incher, on Oct. 29. Although we’d just as soon put this off until our Thanksgiving holiday or later, it doesn’t surprise us to have a white Halloween.
I drove through the falling snow to speak to a group of ranchers in Maddock, N.D., and, on the way home, I got a head start on winter driving mishaps.
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I had just poured a Styrofoam cup full of coffee as I headed out the door of the meeting hall. I was steering with one hand, drinking coffee with the other and visiting with my passenger bride about the meeting and the people we’d met.
We discussed the five inches of cold snow on the warm road and whether or not we should put the vehicle in four-wheel drive. I was frugal with the four high and left it in two-wheel slide.
I was picking up speed as we headed out on the highway. I guess I was accelerating like it was Oct. 28 autumn instead of Oct. 29 winter. All of sudden, we were heading down the highway sideways as I gripped the steering wheel with my left hand and my coffee cup with my right.
We were still in a horizontal pitch when she slid right down the ditch. Not just any ditch, but one with a pretty muddy bottom.
We came to a standstill. I still had two wheels spinning and half a cup of coffee in my hand, but I was in no mood to drink it. You’d have thought I was raised in Florida the way I handled that skid.
The good thing was it happened close to town, an easy walk to get a pull from those left back at the meeting hall. The bad thing was it happened close to town. It was easy for everyone to see my foolish predicament.
It took a little doing to pull it out, since it was pretty icy. It felt good knowing I wasn’t the only one experiencing a lack of traction.
From then on, I slowed up, put it in four-wheel drive and kept both hands on the wheel.
My wife came up with the “look on the bright side” thought that it was nice to get our one allotted ditching out of the way early in the season. She had a point.
I’ve used the same logic when I’ve lost a calf to pneumonia early in the calving season, or had the first cow down the chute come up open at pregnancy checking, or got a flat tire on the first day of haying season. It’s kind of comforting, in a twisted sort of way, to get the bad luck out of the way right away.
I’m just not sure if one ditching will get us through the winter season of ice and snow. One of my neighbours hit the ditch two or three times one winter on her way to work in town. And her car didn’t just slide into the ditch, it would roll over onto its roof. Luckily, she always fastened her seat belt.
It got to the point where her son recommended she mount her cell phone antennae on the under belly of the car instead of the roof.
Figured it would improve her reception when she called him for help. Family can be so understanding.
Hopefully, my winter ditch quota is already filled.
