We had our Christmas maneuvers carefully designed, but we all know what they say about the best-laid plans.
Leah and I had visited my father near Texarkana the previous weekend and I dropped her off at her parents’ place near Sherman, where she helped make ready for the holiday.
On Christmas Eve, according to the plan, I would return along with our daughter and her family. We would be able to leave by mid afternoon and, even accounting for traffic around Dallas and Fort Worth, figured to be ho-ho-ho’ing by that evening.
The thing about plans is one must be willing to make adjustments as elements change.
The changing element, in this case, was the weather. Forecasters said there was a chance for snow and ice across northern Texas.
We all know weather forecasters tend to accentuate the dramatic ... right? Besides, we really, really wanted to be there for Christmas morning. They all wanted us there, too, because 3-year-old Charles is the only kid in the family and he would be an integral ingredient for a perfect holiday.
I checked the latest weather reports and determined we would not get through DFW before the storm, so I decided to take a westerly route, behind the storm, staying on the Interstate because heavy traffic would help keep it clear and it would get plenty of attention from sand trucks.
I was in our pickup while Erin, Zack and Charles took our front-wheel drive car. It actually crossed my mind that it would be nice to have some weight in the back of the truck if we encountered ice, but there was no convenient solution.
We headed out about 3 p.m., not quite as early as we wanted but about as early as expected. Along the way, I continued monitoring radio traffic reports from DFW. By the time we hit the I-35 split, they were talking about accidents gumming up Fort Worth traffic while Dallas was mostly clear.
We steered onto I-35E to pass through western Dallas, still moving at a good clip.
Then, it happened.
We were at a split where two lanes followed 35E to the left and two exited to the right to join I-30. Traffic came to a stop. Eventually, we could see the problem ahead. Vehicles were slipping and sliding, trying to get up a bridge.
At the last opportunity, we bailed out onto 30 and soon tried to exit onto U.S. 75.
Same story.
“New plan,” I told my fellow travelers via walkie-talkie. “Let’s take the first non-major exit and work our way north on city streets.”
We eventually got onto 75, which I knew had no steep bridges, but as we made our way out of the Metroplex, ice grew on the roads to the point that everything was dangerous.
I have taken some pride in my abilities to drive on ice, given the limited experience available, but the pickup gave me hardly any traction and I was slipping all over the place.
Thoughts of parking it somewhere and joining the kids for the rest of the trip had already crossed my mind when the truck went out of control and banged into a guard rail, sending my nerves onto the floor boards along with the junk in the seat.
There was minimal damage to the bumper and only a dent in the rail. Fearing for our safety, we left the area as quickly as possible and I set my sights on the truck stops at Anna. After I slid the pickup onto a lot, a kind assistant manager promised me it would be safe there until I got back for it in a couple of days.
The rest of the trip was still hairy but manageable; I asked Zack to continue driving because I was totally wasted.
Bottom line ... everything worked out, though the trip took us 10 hours. It could have been much worse. We saw plenty of ambulances at wrecks along the way.
The lessons are numerous, summed up thusly: “You cannot ignore nature or its laws just because you want something badly. Sometimes, even family Christmas plans must yield to something as innocuous as a winter wonderland.”
(c) 2009 by Steve Martaindale
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