I've found myself on a long high road in the dark, suddenly faced with ice. Lots of ice. In the mountains, this is a scary fact. In times like this, all time-distance calculations are thrown out the window. All bets are off. I will not be arriving at the point of my final destination in ten hours. I may not be arriving at all.
Enough situations like this cause a rethinking of how to get from here to there. I saved more for airfare. I took trains or a bus. Trapped in the mountains of West Virginia or on the Pennsylvania Turnpike or on I-80 or in Ohio, enough was enough. Forget about it.
Have you ever been caught on an icy road with your life hanging by a thread? I remember once on the way to work in North Carolina, cars spinning off the road in front, having to slowly, carefully make my way back home to call it a day. Now with cellphones, it doesn't seem quite so bleak, but it is still terror-inducing, if only for a moment, like the moment before ice melts into water.
Now, in my mind, Led Zeppelin's 1970 "Immigrant Song" pops up:
Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
Hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new land,
To fight the horde, sing and cry: Valhalla, I am coming!
Yes, I am coming, but not quite yet.
Today's Rune: Journey.
6 comments:
Here is a real life scenario: late evening, blizzard, up north Michigan. I try to outrun the blizzard, I am passing slow moving car ahead of me, I caught the dirt on the side of the road on the relatively high speed, on high speed and…. Catapulting into the air, flipping and flying. Anyway in some unimaginable time landing and finishing my trip by slighting. Next thing I try to figure out the order of the things. I see myself trapped in the car and my car is in a ditch about 15-20 feet deep. The snow is heavy and no one can see me from the road above. Cell phone, right. No antenna! Two possibilities a) freezing to death by the time someone will find me, b) always a possibility of fire and as a consequence to be torched alive before any rescue will arrive to the scene. Time to panic! I was able to kick one of the back doors and…. Took the taxi to finish my trip. My point, one could never trust those fancy gadgets when life is on line.
Love The immigrant song, both lyrics and music. I've been in the ditch more than once in ice and snow, but never in a situation where I felt I was in serious danger and couldn't walk to safety with a little effort.
Erik, Ice belongs in my cocktails or on my sore feet after 2 nights in big heels....
I inadvertently got my car stuck in snow/ice during an ice storm once. My friend & I had gone to a park to marvel at the beauty of it, as blue flashes of power lines coming down lit up all around the horizon. At one point we heard a huge CRRRRRRRRACK overhead. He dove & hugged the trunk of the tree. I dove right on top of him & a HUGE branch came crashing down just 5' away.
We had to walk home that night, watching for falling branches & power lines, better dressed for clubbing than an ice storm.
All in all, though, it's among my favorite memories!
Thanks all for the comentário! Anon (N), that's a harrowing tale, indeed. And Lana, too -- I can see why that would be a favorite memory, once the initial scene is survived. Jodi and Charles, cheer!
Thankfully I've yet to have problems with ice, rain on the other hand, especially with my sucktastic windsheild wipers, is a completely different story.
Post a Comment