Riding along in my automobile Tundra

The ride up along state highway 12 was pleasant enough. It was getting to highway 12 that was frustrating. US Highway 6 and state highway 220 have half a dozen construction crews on each doing everything from filling cracks with tar, putting reflectors in the mid-line, and just digging up random sections of pavement where gas/water/gravel trucks have caused depressions to appear. Each job requires traffic be reduced to one lane and that means stopping at the command of a flag person if you're not lucky enough to catch it j-u-s-t right.

Even when you clear the construction zones, there are the gas/water/gravel trucks with which to contend. If they are loaded with material, they have a difficult time with some of the hills along the way.

Yeah, there is a back road I could have taken even with the utility trailer in tow. But the last two times I tried that route, there were detours due to construction. And the last time was just a week ago and since it's bridge work being done....

I figure it took me almost half hour extra to get to Route 17 in Waverly.

Route 17 is also called the Southern Tier Expressway and will become Interstate 86 as soon as they finish upgrading a stretch near Elmira, NY. This highway runs east-west from Orange County to near Erie, PA. Much of it already has a 65 mph speed limit and the truck traffic has increased as the years have passed. The Future I-86 has two things going for it:

1) it is a direct link from the west to I-81 and/or I-88. The former can take you north to Canada in the Ottawa region, while the latter can get you up to the Albany and the Northway (I-87) and, again, to Canada (Hello Montreal! and points east.) Alas, unless and until they rebuild the bridge over Lake Champlain, there's major highway connection to the rest of New England except to hop on the NYS Thruway (I-90) and go down to the Mass Turnpike (also I-90). (TOLL ALERT! On both of these roads it costs a trucker an arm and a leg. Maybe even a kidney.) Smaller vehicles can find enjoyment tooling along state highways heading east.

Which brings me to the second thing I-86 has going for it:
2) it has no tolls. The more they raise the tolls on I-90, the more traffic there will inevitably be on I-86. Just as has occurred with I-80 in PA.

I do like cruising along the highway. If I didn't love my truck, I wouldn't mind cruising in one of these.

Home again, home again, jiggity, jig!

Back in the Aerie early this morning after being in Milwaukee yesterday for breakfast. Now, if you're flying that's no big deal. Even if you travel by car via GD Chicago, it's just 13 hours. But, if you decide to head NORTH from Milwaukee and cross over the Mackinac Straits before going to Toledo to pick up I-90 and heading east to through Cleveland and Erie, PA and thence on I-86 (old Route 17) to Corning, NY...well, THAT'S another ball of wax--and a whole bunch more miles and hours.

Departed Milwaukee after breakfast at 7:45 AM (CDT) Monday. Went north past Green Bay and east through the UP. At St. Ignace we crossed over the beautiful bridge to Mackinaw City and into the mitten portion of Michigan. We headed due south through Gaylord and then over to east side of the state and had dinner at a Cracker Barrel near bay City just north of Saginaw, MI. We required an hour nap when fog and eyeweariness got the better of me at 3 AM near mile marker 101 on I-86 east of Erie, PA. A quick breakfast at McDonald's in Mansfield so we had enough strength to face the kittehs when we got home and arrived at the Aerie at 6:45 AM (EDT) Tuesday. We lost an hour to the Gods of the Time Zone when we left Wisconsin and entered Michigan so total travel time hotel-to-home was about 22 hours. (Perhaps "lost" is the wrong word as they "loaned" an hour to us as we headed west. Just say the note came due.) (If we had our passports we could have headed east from Flint, MI and cut through Canada to Buffalo. That would have saved an hour or two.)

Terry did drive two hours after dinner and got us on to the Ohio Turnpike as the sun set. (She hates driving in the dark.)

The shoreline of Lake Michigan was beautiful. Holiday traffic thin to non-existent. Sirius radio's 50's On 5 provided the entertainment. The Jeep Compass performed admirably.

The weather cooperated, too. Earlier forecasts had mentioned a chance of significant rain. We saw none. The worst conditions started after we had gotten through Cleveland and sporadic dense fog popped up along the way. From midnight on, visibility was a challenge. That lasted right up to when we turned off Route 6 to head up the hill as the sun rose. Suddenly we were ABOVE the fog and the bright red ball of sun--harbinger of a bloody hot day--could be clearly seen.

Checking the weather today, I saw that much of Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri had a chance of severe weather including tornadoes. Family members were departing Milwaukee this AM to head to Lake of the Ozarks in southern Missouri and to Kentucky. Hope they are safe!

[ED: Any typos or grammatical errors in the above should be written off as caused by exhaustion.]

Speaking of driving in the snow/ice.

Don't be afraid of the former but do be cautious. Don't travel in the latter if you can help it.

If you must travel on ice, wait for a salt/cinder spreader and latch on to it's tail like a remora on a shark. Just be sure to stay far enough back that the particles the truck is spreading hit the road in front of you and not your windshield. You can spot the vehicles of people who have tried this but misjudged their distance. The crack all across the windshield sorta gives it away. By May large numbers of vehicles from certain northern and mostly rural states sport this indicator of the combination of snow/ice/cinder/gravel.

Actually, get some studded tires and you can do pretty well on the ice. They used to run auto races on an oval track on Lake Placid in the '60s using specially studded tires.

If driving in the snow remember one thing: Never, EVER pass the snow plow if his blade is on the road. Even if the plow is going only 20 mph in a 55 mph zone. It's there for a reason and if you peek to the right of the plow you'll probably see the snow/ice/slush shooting off in a lovely curl reminiscent of those from the Maverick's surfing competition off Half Moon Bay.

Remember, too, that the brake peddle is your enemy and so is your accelerator when the roads are snow covered. Keep your foot off the brake as much as possible and if you must use it do so slowly and well in advance of where you want/need to stop. If you are IN a curve, do not use your brake. You will likely go off the edge of the curve if it is slippery as your vehicle will slide in a straight line. If you feel you're going too fast for an approaching curve, slow down using a light touch on the brake--pretend there's a raw egg between your foot and the peddle--or gravity/friction (take your foot off the gas, dummy!). Once in the curve, your accelerator can be used (again, lightly as in egg-and-peddle) to get out of the curve. This works best with front-wheel and four-wheel drive vehicles where you get pulled instead of pushed.

If your vehicle is a rear-wheel, two-wheel drive and the snow is piled up on the road way, park it in your yard, make some hot chocolate and sit in front of the fire. Okay, maybe you can't do that because you have to get home from work/school/play. Use caution as detailed above.

And if you've got an automatic transmission put it into a fixed gear (those are the numbers on the console next to the "D" and "R") or into low (that's the "L"). This is especially true when going up hill. When going up hill you want to maintain a constant velocity--not necessarily a fast one, but constant. If your auto transmission starts to shift on you when you're part way up the slope, it's going to screw up that constant part of your velocity just the tiniest bit and quite possibly cause you to lose traction and set you to spinning your wheels.

If the worst happens and you start to skid, remember that you want to steer into the skid. That is, if the rear end decides to head to the right, you steer to the right. If it heads to the left, you steer to the left. The idea is to keep the front of your vehicle--well--in front! This will allow you to maintain some control as you leave your intended path. Steer the opposite way and at best you'll set your self up to roll onto your side although more than likely you're going to be doing a 360 or worse. And be sure to keep your feet off the brake and off the accelerator! Let friction and gravity do the work until the skid stops. THEN you can lightly press the accelerator or brake as needed to get control of your vehicle.

When I was a kid, my Dad took me out driving on immediately after the first snow storm and showed me how to handle the family car under these conditions. We used the wide open spaces of the school parking lot. An acre or more of black top without concrete curb or grassy barrier between rows. The best words I heard that day were, "Okay, now put her into a skid!" I don't think you can do that sort of thing today. I know my son got a ticket at 12:30 AM for driving in a figure 8 in a vacant mall parking lot back in '00.