OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
So, I'm certain everybody is familiar with the ice storm that happened about two weeks ago. Trying to get ahead of the storm, my wife, myself and family all embarked upon our trip down east to NB at about 11:00AM the day it started, as it was initially just supposed to be snow, with the ice coming later.
This is a 1,528Km drive that has taken me from 12 hours (M5 and Mustang) to 18 hours depending on how many stops we make, how fast we drive, how traffic is....etc.
This time I set a new record: 24 hours.
As we got close to Kingston, the snow (and ice) had already set in. At one point there were seven cars in the ditch all within about 250 meters. The roads were treacherous. On the other side of Kingston, there was an 18-wheeler that had gone off, taking out a van and several other cars. Upon entrance to Quebec, things weren't any better. As the plows blasted by in a staggered 3-wide pattern in the west-bound lanes, we seemed to have none of that happening in the east-bound, which were icy with significant snow ridging in the centre of the lanes and between them.
About 30 minutes past Montreal an F-150 merged onto the highway with a large enclosed trailer. I was behind him for about 10 minutes when he decided that he was going to hop into the fast lane, which was moving at about 80Km/h. He hit that lane and then a few seconds later, a patch of ice. It was also windy. His trailer caught a gust on the ice and did a partial jackknife, I was on the brakes thinking they were going to cause a pile-up, but he managed to hold onto it.
We white-knuckled it through to Quebec city and beyond. Nearing the end of 20, and it being 1:30AM, we called a Best Western in Edmundston, which we were about an hour from, to book a room. Not knowing the exact route to the hotel, we used the GPS. That was a mistake.
It instructed us to exit 20 early. We then embarked upon an adventure down some back-woods highway through rural Quebec with 8-12" of snow on the road. It had not seen a plow since the mess started. In 4HI and doing about 65-70, the hour turned into 90 minutes of enhanced white-knuckling on an unfamiliar road until we finally reached our destination.
We rested for the night and awoke to slightly overcast skies, a great deal of accumulation on the truck, but no current precipitation. "GREAT!" I thought, thinking that the worst was behind us. But that was sadly not the case.
About 30 minutes after leaving Edmundston we ran into the freezing rain. This was the beginning of what would be a VERY long day, and set the stage for what we would experience next.
500Km of ice. Cars going off the road beside us, in front of us.....etc. Every 15-20 minutes having to pull over and smash the 1/2" of ice that had accumulated off the wipers so that they would function again.
As we got closer to Fredericton, I thought we were getting ahead of it. I was wrong. We had hit some sort of lesser part of the system, which was quite brief. The full storm persisted up until we were about 10 minutes outside of Moncton. Somewhere on that leg of the trip, the road had about 2" of ice on it. Pulling over to deice was in and of itself a task, as the shoulder was a sheet of ice and so slowing and stopping while trying not to get piled into was an adventure.
We arrived at our destination unscathed however. The Expedition had accumulated a 2" sheet of ice that covered the entire top of the vehicle adding a noticeable mass to it. Getting it off a few days later when the whether cleared proved to be a challenge, as fracturing it was somewhat difficult. The new LTX M/S2's that were put on just before the trip performed admirably and I'm certain contributed significantly to the safety of the trip.
The return trip ended up being much nicer. Hearing that a snow storm was slated for today in that part of the country, we left early and so only encountered insanely cold temperatures. We made it back in about 15 hours (not including the hotel stay) in comparison.
This is a 1,528Km drive that has taken me from 12 hours (M5 and Mustang) to 18 hours depending on how many stops we make, how fast we drive, how traffic is....etc.
This time I set a new record: 24 hours.
As we got close to Kingston, the snow (and ice) had already set in. At one point there were seven cars in the ditch all within about 250 meters. The roads were treacherous. On the other side of Kingston, there was an 18-wheeler that had gone off, taking out a van and several other cars. Upon entrance to Quebec, things weren't any better. As the plows blasted by in a staggered 3-wide pattern in the west-bound lanes, we seemed to have none of that happening in the east-bound, which were icy with significant snow ridging in the centre of the lanes and between them.
About 30 minutes past Montreal an F-150 merged onto the highway with a large enclosed trailer. I was behind him for about 10 minutes when he decided that he was going to hop into the fast lane, which was moving at about 80Km/h. He hit that lane and then a few seconds later, a patch of ice. It was also windy. His trailer caught a gust on the ice and did a partial jackknife, I was on the brakes thinking they were going to cause a pile-up, but he managed to hold onto it.
We white-knuckled it through to Quebec city and beyond. Nearing the end of 20, and it being 1:30AM, we called a Best Western in Edmundston, which we were about an hour from, to book a room. Not knowing the exact route to the hotel, we used the GPS. That was a mistake.
It instructed us to exit 20 early. We then embarked upon an adventure down some back-woods highway through rural Quebec with 8-12" of snow on the road. It had not seen a plow since the mess started. In 4HI and doing about 65-70, the hour turned into 90 minutes of enhanced white-knuckling on an unfamiliar road until we finally reached our destination.
We rested for the night and awoke to slightly overcast skies, a great deal of accumulation on the truck, but no current precipitation. "GREAT!" I thought, thinking that the worst was behind us. But that was sadly not the case.
About 30 minutes after leaving Edmundston we ran into the freezing rain. This was the beginning of what would be a VERY long day, and set the stage for what we would experience next.
500Km of ice. Cars going off the road beside us, in front of us.....etc. Every 15-20 minutes having to pull over and smash the 1/2" of ice that had accumulated off the wipers so that they would function again.
As we got closer to Fredericton, I thought we were getting ahead of it. I was wrong. We had hit some sort of lesser part of the system, which was quite brief. The full storm persisted up until we were about 10 minutes outside of Moncton. Somewhere on that leg of the trip, the road had about 2" of ice on it. Pulling over to deice was in and of itself a task, as the shoulder was a sheet of ice and so slowing and stopping while trying not to get piled into was an adventure.
We arrived at our destination unscathed however. The Expedition had accumulated a 2" sheet of ice that covered the entire top of the vehicle adding a noticeable mass to it. Getting it off a few days later when the whether cleared proved to be a challenge, as fracturing it was somewhat difficult. The new LTX M/S2's that were put on just before the trip performed admirably and I'm certain contributed significantly to the safety of the trip.
The return trip ended up being much nicer. Hearing that a snow storm was slated for today in that part of the country, we left early and so only encountered insanely cold temperatures. We made it back in about 15 hours (not including the hotel stay) in comparison.
