[Zeke]

Kevin probably figured most of it by now. I've hit black ice 2wice in my life. That stuff is so treacherous that there isn't any word for it. Once I slowed down pretty slow to enter a rest area in AZ not too far west bound out of Flagstaff. I just let the engine slow me down to 20 to 30, who knows. 2WD 1/2 truck lightly loaded. I touched the brakes and realized that was not going to work. I let go and gently steered towards the entry back on to I-40. I just held my pee until I reached Williams.

The highway was good given the big rigs never stop rolling.


Speaking of which, I left central TX that morning before dawn. I had lightly snowed and everything was white. No curbs, streets, lines, nothing but stop lights and road signage. I was 2 blocks off the interstate so between seeing the lights of the trucks rolling and figuring there wasn't a road sign in the middle of the street. Not a tire track in those 2 blocks, so I felt my way to the on ramp a 5 MPH and got in the grooves the trucks maintained all night. The left lane was a blank.

Just about daybreak and me in the grooves, the cowboys started coming by to go to work. Out in the left lane where there was no visible road and they were blowing by at 70. They didn't even leave tracks, just swirls. Maybe a half hour later enough of them had gone by that I could make out the lane. I might have gingerly passed a couple of rigs not being able to see a damn thing in their wake until even with them. Then I'd tuck back in the right lane when it was safe or get my ass run over by a coboy. All their trucks looked the same, flatbed with a huge headache bar/grille ass'y and plenty of lights.

No brodozers out there. Skinny tires rule.