Friday, February 27, 2015

The Iceman Hath Cometh To North Texas With A Slippery Vengeance

The predicted snow arrived right at its predicted time, starting flaking around 9 this morning at my location.

The forecast I heard on the radio seemed to indicate that there would be no serious slippery issues, due to the fact the snow was falling on frozen dry ground, with only bridge crossings being possibly slippery.

So, I decided to stick with my plan to go to ALDI this morning.

On the way to ALDI I stopped at Miss Puerto Rico's to visit Bella and Stella.  And to take a picture of the snowy view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony.

Leaving Miss Puerto Rico's, heading to ALDI, the road may have looked slippery, which you can see below, but I experienced no slippage.


Crossing I-820 on the John T. White Overpass I was slightly non-plussed to experience a little bit of slipperiness, but that was what the predictors predicted I might find.

As I crossed over I-820 I saw traffic was moving very slow, as was the traffic on John T. White Road.

It was not until I got to Cooks Lane that I experienced some traction impairment. This unsettled me a bit because this was where I first experienced a slipping problem during last winter's ALDI ice debacle.

By the time I got to ALDI the road had become noticeably icier. I was getting a bit nervous, so I did ALDI at hyperspeed.

Leaving ALDI I decided I would take the freeway route home, figuring that would likely present the least aggravation.  I figured wrong.


When I-30 came into view I could see traffic was at a frozen standstill in both directions. This left returning home via John T. White Road as my most viable option.

The John T. White Road option meant I would have to make a quick decision when the road reached I-820,  because at that point there is a slight hill, which during last year's debacle became total ice wreck mayhem.

As I approached the dreaded hill I could see some vehicles ahead have some sliding problems. I slowed way up and slid around the problem vehicles, and continued slowly up the hill, hoping the light would turn green before I was forced to stop.

My green luck held out, I made it up the hill and over the overpass.

When the right turn into the Albertsons parking lot became visible I could see it was all jammed up. So, I continued on and took the next turn to the right, which had me driving behind Albertsons, with no slipping issues.

Last year it was going from the Albertsons parking lot on to Boca Raton when the worst of the nightmare began,  with me losing control as soon as I slid onto Boca Raton.

This year, no problem. I gingerly made it back to my parking location, with no serious issues.

A half hour later Boca Raton was an icy mess with multiple vehicles in trouble.

The road which fronts my abode, Bridgewood, was also a mess, with vehicles stalled as far as I could see. Bridgewood goes up a hill as it intersects with Boca Raton.

This icy mess is predicted to get worse before it gets better, the snow is expected to melt a bit, then re-freeze, creating a worse traffic nightmare on Saturday.

I will not be going to Town Talk tomorrow....

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