The Most Terrifying Drive Of My Life

Back in 2009, Shae and I had what was – up until that point – the most terrifying drive of our lives. We were moving from Virginia to California and the first leg of our road trip across the country took us through West Virginia.

Fog rolled in on the mountains and strong winds battered our car, increasing in strength as we drove across bridges over gorges.

That was nothing compared to my recent experience though.

After completing the Underground Mine Run in Hutchinson last weekend, Shae and I left Kansas and headed back east. We left immediately after the race, but we went our separate ways. That’s because Shae flew back that afternoon for her best friend’s baby shower the following day and it was a surprise. She got stuck in Charlotte overnight, but made it back in time and had a lot of fun.

That left me and Truffles to make the drive back across the country alone. The first few days of driving were OK, then I stayed a couple of nights in West Virginia as I had to work from the hotel room on the Tuesday. I was due to leave Wednesday morning, but a winter storm hit overnight. When I went out to the car in the morning, the entire vehicle was covered in almost half an inch of ice due to the ice rain.

Clearing off the ice from the car was the easy part though. It was the drive that was terrifying. It didn’t start off great as I had to drive uphill leaving the hotel. I had to stop at the top as another car was coming but our car, loaded down with everything we own, couldn’t start moving again once they’d passed as we were still on a slope.

That meant I had to reverse slowly back down the hill (thankfully it didn’t slide into the snowbank at the end of the road behind me), before gunning it back uphill. Luckily there were no other cars that time, so I was able to pull out and get on my way.

I had to stop shortly after to fill up with gas, so I slid into a gas station as the roads around it still hadn’t been completely cleared.

That was nothing compared to what happened about an hour later though. Driving through the mountains in West Virginia was bad enough, but suddenly there was a steep uphill section covered in snow, slush and ice. Our car was wheel-spinning at times due to the ice, then all of a sudden I was driving through a cloud teeming with ice rain.

The windshield was immediately covered and, because it was ice, the windshield wipers didn’t clear anything. So I was driving along the highway, not able to see anything due to the foggy cloud and iced-over windshield, with trucks to my right, a cliff edge to the left and a car that’s struggling to make it uphill.

Despite not being able to see anything, I couldn’t pull over as the shoulder had snow piled up along the side. There was a small section in the bottom center of the windshield which was sort of clear though, so crouching down and leaning over I could just about see a few feet ahead of me. I cranked up the heat to full blast on the windshield and, after the longest minute of my life, it had heated it enough to have melted the ice for the wipers to work.

I think I must’ve held my breath that entire time, so I had the longest exhalation in the history of exhalations when the ice was wiped clear from the windshield. It was still a nervy drive after that due to the slippery road. Truffles seemed incredibly nervous too due to the buffeting winds and slight sliding about, so she kept searching for a new safe spot in the car.

The adventure didn’t end there though thanks to Google Maps. To be fair, that was probably my fault for not considering the route before setting off. I have Google Maps set to avoid tolls, so it didn’t take me on the route that was mainly on I-68 and I-70. That was a mistake.

Instead, it took me on a less busy route that included some back roads heading through West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia.

Taking that route meant I ended up on several roads that hadn’t been fully cleared yet which was an issue for a couple of reasons.

First, some roads had a partially-cleared section, but down the middle of the road. That meant driving down the middle of the road in poor visibility, hoping no one else was driving too quickly in the opposite direction. If anyone had been, we’d both have likely spun off when trying to avoid each other.

The other issue was the terrain as much of the journey was up and down hills. Our car struggled to make it uphill at times, with one particularly steep area being especially troublesome. The car started wheel-spinning as it couldn’t get any grip and started drastically slowing. Once again, there wasn’t really anywhere to pull off on the side of the road, so if it stopped moving forward, we’d be moving backwards. That wasn’t such an issue when leaving the hotel that morning as I was in control when driving backwards, but this time around we’d be sliding backwards downhill for a mile or more, completely out of control.

Thankfully we soon reached a section of the road where there wasn’t so much ice and slush. The tires regained a little grip and we picked up speed again. Cue another large exhalation.

The rest of the drive after that wasn’t too eventful, so it was a relief to finally arrive at our hotel after about four hours.

The longest four hours of my life.

And the most terrifying drive of my life.