The Hidden Cameras Day 4, Drive to Sackville...
Or so we thought. No way that was going to happen today. when we got up in Montreal, the entire city was covered in some 20+cm of snow. It was really incredible. The van had to get dug out, it was totally buried.
After we picked up our gear at the club, we slowly started making our way out of town, and it quickly became obvious that it was going to be a long day. Nothing was moving. The weather was brutal. At one point, the road we needed to take to get to the highway was closed, so I had to make a hairpin turn around a construction barrier to go down a hill. Once I got the front end around, I was face to face with a line of 6 cars, and the van wasn't stopping. It looked like we were going to slide right in to the line and take everyone down the hill with us. Somehow the brakes kicked in at the last possible second, so I held it there and for the next few seconds I thought up every single driving trick I knew to try and get us down the hill. Somehow a combination of brake pumping and erratic steering did the trick. If only that were the wildest part of the day...
There was no other feeling of impending doom, but the highways were about 80% covered in snow, on average, and in some parts visibility was about 10 feet. It was pretty sketchy. I don't think I pushed it past 70kph at any point. After 5 hours, we finally got to Quebec City, and we stopped near there for food and to evaluate our situation. It was still kind of early, and we were in snow driving mode, so we decided to press on. After another few hours, we stopped for the night in Riviere-du-loup. 10 hr total drive time for a route that usually takes about 4.5 hrs. It was pretty crazy, and it felt extraordinary to get out of the van at the end of the day. It was easily a top 5 worst drive ever, but we survived and everyone and everything was still undamaged. Hopefully tomorrow won't be so bad...
After we picked up our gear at the club, we slowly started making our way out of town, and it quickly became obvious that it was going to be a long day. Nothing was moving. The weather was brutal. At one point, the road we needed to take to get to the highway was closed, so I had to make a hairpin turn around a construction barrier to go down a hill. Once I got the front end around, I was face to face with a line of 6 cars, and the van wasn't stopping. It looked like we were going to slide right in to the line and take everyone down the hill with us. Somehow the brakes kicked in at the last possible second, so I held it there and for the next few seconds I thought up every single driving trick I knew to try and get us down the hill. Somehow a combination of brake pumping and erratic steering did the trick. If only that were the wildest part of the day...
There was no other feeling of impending doom, but the highways were about 80% covered in snow, on average, and in some parts visibility was about 10 feet. It was pretty sketchy. I don't think I pushed it past 70kph at any point. After 5 hours, we finally got to Quebec City, and we stopped near there for food and to evaluate our situation. It was still kind of early, and we were in snow driving mode, so we decided to press on. After another few hours, we stopped for the night in Riviere-du-loup. 10 hr total drive time for a route that usually takes about 4.5 hrs. It was pretty crazy, and it felt extraordinary to get out of the van at the end of the day. It was easily a top 5 worst drive ever, but we survived and everyone and everything was still undamaged. Hopefully tomorrow won't be so bad...
posted by t. at 1:45 AM
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