Well, after seeing that the forecast is calling for more ice Wed morning, I decided to see if I could make it out to our local Dollar General store, for some snack food. TJ usually does all the grocery shopping on Tues. But, looks like it may be late Fri or Sat, before the roads are thawed out.
Our little truck does not have a posi-trac rear. But, I figured if I went slow & careful I could make it safely to the store, which is probably only a mile away, as the crow flies.
Well, the early part of the trip went very well, since it was either downhill or level. Just stayed where I thought the main ruts should be. Stopped to take a pic of the little pond, which is right beside our little road thru the woods. It was still completely frozen over. We've lived here since 2004 & have not seen that happen before.
Didn't have any trouble 'til I tried to make it up the hill from our Parish gravel road, onto State hwy 810. Didn't get up enuff speed, so didn't quite make it onto the hwy. (3rd pic is one I took of this little intersection, on my way back home.)
So, I backed down the gravel road about 100' or so & got up all the speed I could, which was only about 25 mph. And I would have made it that time. But, just before pulling onto the hwy I saw that a pickup was coming, & was too close for me to make it.
So, I backed down the gravel road again & made another pass at it. This time, there was no other traffic, so I just barely made it up onto the hwy. Probably would have made it up the incline easier if I'd added a lot of weight in the truck bed. I was expecting to see a lot of asphalt showing thru the snow/ice. But, to my surprise, The road was still white & packed with snow/ice.
When I approached the intersection at our local fire station, I decided to gear down, rather than using the brake pedal. But, I hit low gear a little too soon & the rear end went to the side about 30° or a little more. So, I quickly shifted back to 2nd & didn't try that any more. Just began the stops way ahead of time, and did very light braking only when needed. Yeah, the roads were real slick.
I finally made it to the dollar store. As I figured, they were real busy. There were at least a dozen or more vehicles there(the most I've ever seen), most of which were pickups. The snow/ice in their parking lot had turned to slush because of the day's sunshine & all the traffic.
But, apparently all the traffic on the main road had packed the snow/ice so hard that it didn't melt. The extra ice that will be added Wed morn will make it a real mess. Will probably end up being several inches thick, if we get the fresh ice that is predicted.
The big brick building in the 4th pic, is the school gym. It was put into service in Jan of 1967. I played my last few home basketball games in it that year. That was before I owned a GTO. But, I wanted one.
