I took these pics on the way home from work two days ago. Keep in mind that it was about 5:20 at night, and it wasn’t raining or particularly overcast.
See that titch of blue at the top? Dark blue, albeit, but I didn’t edit these pics at all. Straight off the iPhone, they is. That blue is my proof that it wasn’t fully dark yet. I rarely miss living in America but damn, it’s hard to see here and the US roads are faaaabulous in comparison. I’ll take the potholes in exchange, as long as I can see the damn things!
The left edge of the asphalt is a less than a foot from that yellow line. Wednesday, on the way into work in the morning (when it is substantially brighter), I moved over to give room to a big truck coming the other way and ran off the side of the road. Both left tires went off the asphalt and there was a bit of a drop off, what with the mud and all. The tires got caught in the muck, and the sound of mud splattering into my wheel-wells was like someone vomiting copiously and impressively under my Mini. I gave a nudge to the steering wheel to get out of the rut I was creating, but it didn’t work. So I gave it a bit more effort, and ended up in a (thankfully short) ‘whee!’ ‘whee!’ cycle of swerving madly from one lane to the other in very rapid and quite nearly catastrophic arcs. Thank fuck no one was coming the other way, or hubby’d be doing a post to tell you why I wasn’t around anymore.
Note to hubby: you have to post on my blog if I die suddenly. If my iPad dies with me, you know where my password list is.
heretherebespiders 
Not funny giving space to monster trucks in Europe and mud gobbling is heart wrenching. Hope you stopped and regained some composure. Do take care!
It certainly woke me up! I think I just had a bad-driving day. I couldn’t back into my own drive when I got home, either. I’ve only ever done the crazy out of control swooping once before, and that was when I was having road rage and sort of lost control a bit.
I don’t even need a monster truck to give way here, though! I daily traverse one blind curve at the top of a hill with stone farm buildings on either side, and that might kill me if a BIG truck is coming the other way and forgets he has to stay in his lane, narrow as it is. Had one very close call already.
Hi Spiders,
Have you ever drove in Québec, during the winter? I believe we have the worst road conditions of the civilized world. However, if the road really looked like what it looks on these pictures, I can tell you have had a somewhat bad condition there. But at least, you can see the lines clearly, we don’t always see them here.
I liked how you describe the incident you had. That’s about how I describe my own errors and incidents on the road, with a lot of details and words chosen for dramatic effect.
Your note about dying suddenly stroke me. It never occurred to me what would happen if I died suddenly. My computer is quite protected, and absolutely nobody has a slight clue as to my passwords. I don’t think my net friends would be told if anything happened to me. I think I should make a plan for that possibility.
And please, stop using imperial measurements, you’re not in the US anymore lol 🙂
Okay I have to laugh at the measurements part first off! They did try to teach us metric back in the early 70’s but they didn’t keep it up. So anything over a couple of centimetres, in my brain, can only be measured in inches or feet! Until you get up to a metre when I can think metric again. I’d love to talk horse and say about a hand and a half, but I don’t have many horsey readers!
The password thing is a bit of a concern, isn’t it? I don’t do the banking, so all the passwords he uses are pretty important but I still have no idea what they are, if hubby dies suddenly. I’ve been writing mine down in a notebook for a while, despite the fact nothing I do is important. Not just because I forget them, but for the big ‘just in case.’
I’ve never been to Quebec, but I lived in Cleveland Ohio for a good while and really only had two scary moments in the snow/ice. The lines on the road show up better in pictures than by the eye! If someone is coming the other way I can only see about five metres ahead, at 100kph. Good thing we don’t have any deer or other large animals here. Well, there is the occasional escapee cow…
In Québec, we use the metric system for everything, but the height and weight of a person. But because of proximity with the US and the rest of Canada, we are usually familiar with both systems. I frequently use imperial references in speech, but I avoid using it in any measurement.
I once encountered a young moose on the road and at night. He flee in time, but when I became aware of his existence it would have been too late for me to do anything to avoid him. I’m sure it was a terrifying moment for him as much as it was for me!
What about the 3-second rule? You’re supposed to slow down until you can see about 3 seconds ahead of your car. You are not supposed to drive at 100 km/h in the night on a rural road. We don’t really want to test if your password system works, we want you alive 🙂
I checked the three-second thing, I’m still within tolerances 🙂 I’d never heard that before, actually. Glad you missed your moose! Did you see what my friend in Alaska said about them? Do you have anything similar, or just less moose?
I suppose they teach different things in different places. They teach us a 3-second rule for everything, such as the distance between two cars, etc. It’s not a hard rule, obviously nobody expects you to count 3 seconds all the time, but it’s a reference to ensure that you will have time enough to react to any situation which might happen.
Adult mooses are huge animals, and in most cases hitting one is lethal… for the people in the car. They are more common in the north, where there is less population, and quite rare in the south where most people live, though we have a lot of deers in rural areas in the south instead (which are less often lethal, but nevertheless quite dangerous). I don’t think our kill counter is that high as 400/year though, but they don’t post signs to tell us.
Dark and scary.
(I hate rural back roads here – which also have animals on occasion and no lights, no markings on side of road – and wild drivers who know the roads by heart because they live there and drive ‘way too fast)
take care out there…the days are bound to start getting longer pretty soon!
I’m totally one of those drive too fast people. Every day, twice a day, for a year – I know that road! And still I went off the side.
Driving fast and sliding around is part of rural road driving…but mud, rain, fog or night means added game points – especially for teenagers who just got a permit!
(prefer to be the one not in the ruts! got a chuckle out of your post)
I love that I can say “been there done that” to riding on those WTF roads of Ireland. Basically they threw some asphalt or some such over sheep paths and called it good. It’s amazing that anyone lives to a decent age over there.
With that said…ROFL at the ending. “if my iPad dies with me you know where my password is”
Usually it ends with “if I die, wipe my browser history” 😉
I love your adventures.
I would probably piss my pants if I had to drive in the dark like that. 😦
Especially if I came roaring up behind ye 🙂
egad!
You had light of any sort at 5:30? Braggart! It’s about 2:30 and the sun falling fast. Many of our roads look like this, dark and barely paved… if you’re lucky. I actually prefer the lack of street lights 90% of the time. I like that we aren’t tossing a lot of pointless light into the dark. Because of that when I look up at the sky at night I see more stars than my life up until now has known. Not to mention the northern lights.
Having said that, it is extremely terrifying knowing that at any moment a gigantic moose can just jump onto the road. We actually have sign posts keeping track of how many moose have been killed on the road. This year we are at about 100, last near was bad, we neared 400. The only good thing about that is our food banks regularly have more meat than they need. The rest goes to whomever on the road kill list answer the phones.
Yes. We in AK eat road kill.
As for the passwords, I keep a list so if I go Kwix has it all, including my copywrite codes. He has yet to do the same… which pisses me off, but a girl can only do so much brow beating.
I would totally eat roadkill if I knew it was fresh. Seems a shame that if you are ON the list, you don’t get to eat the moose that totalled your car. I’d want some revenge. Have you had it? If so, what’s it like?
Yes, seeing the stars is a nice benefit, isn’t it!
I have had it. It’s a bit gamey, but you can soak/rinse it in water for a while and it pretty much tastes just like cow. I have friends who couldn’t afford meat if they didn’t get it off the road kill list.
We also have a “trapper” list for animals not safe to eat. So at least the meat goes to something.
It seems uncool that you can’t eat the moose you kill, but I think that’s to keep the occasional idiot from doing it on purpose. You wouldn’t think someone would do that… But you never know.
Strangly, we rarely hear about people being killed in a moose accident here. Hell I saw one happen right in front of me and other than being irritated, the asshole in the truck (he really was) was perfectly fine. So were all his passengers. I’m thinking vehicle size could have a lot to do with it. Trucks are the defacto vehicle here, and although I don’t want to hit a moose period, I’d rather do it in a truck.
Sadly a lot of people drive as if we don’t live in a dark, moose filled area.
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