Passing in a white-out...........

[millerwd]

One of the advanatages of my commute is very little traffic. My daily communte takes me over Blewitt Pass here in North Central Washington. Most of the traffic is big rigs early in the morning.

This morning, 05:00, it was snowing moderatelyand the road was snow packed.

The road is two lane with sections of three lane, the right is for slower traffic.

The semi I was following was causing white-out conditons at about 45 MPH. About all I could see was the road in front of him and his rear trailer lights.

When the road widened to two lanes, one for slower traffic, I began to pass. All I could see was the trailer lights on the left side of the big rig. As I came up along side him I could see his tractor wheels then the road ahead. It was a real rush to just have faith in the driver that he was far enough right that if we met oncomming traffic there would be room for the three of us. Most likely the oncomming would be another big rig. I would be the odd man out,

On the curves my max speed was 60, at 61 I would start to slide. Braking was not an option.

 

People can make fun of the little SUVs all they want. But this Honda CRV with the studded Cooper ST2's is very predictable. Along with the manual transmission you can get just the right amount of torque to comtrol the vehicle. It doesn't have ABS which reguires the use of torgue to negociate stopping and turning.

 

God I love winter driving!