Icy / Snowy Roads
One of my first #audittraveladventures was in Reno, NV. At the time my brother was living there so I took advantage of the opportunity to spend time together in the evenings, having dinner. The 2nd night there it snowed…according to my client the next day, it was the type of storm they don’t get often, or even every year. As a So Cal resident, it was a bit exciting as the flakes began to fall. At dinner that night my brother offered up some words of wisdom for driving in it the next day. Drive slow, give yourself lots of space from the other cars, etc. That night before going to bed I looked out the window and saw a snow plow working on the roads; was a little nervous about the drive the next day…in my Toyota Corolla rental car, with no 4-wheel drive or snow tires, but it was also a little exciting.
Going in to this trip, I was a little naive on navigating on snowy/icy roads. I came out of this trip a little less so. That next morning, I gave myself extra time for getting the snow off my windshield and driving to my client for the audit. As it turned out, while it was enough time to make it on time, it still took much longer than expected. For example, snow seems light when it falls…I figured in the morning I would just flip on my windshield wipers and the snow would just wipe off. Okay so it doesn’t exactly happen that easily. I ended up turning on the car to warm it up, and the defrosters, then went to work clearing the snow off my windshields. Finally, I was on my way…very slowly. The car dinged at my a few times for sliding but yeah, little Toyota Corolla I am doing my best but this sliding bit is a little your fault too. There was a lot of snow on the roads still and difficult to tell where the lines were separating the lanes, but no one could figure it out so we all drove in the tracks of the cars before us and went slowly. Eventually I made it to my client’s offices but the office was at the top of a slope; after sliding back and to the side, I finally gave up and parked at the bottom, then walked up. Of course we all enjoyed a laugh that morning.
The client was very nice and thoughtful. It didn’t occur to me to remove the snow from the roof of my car. Apparently, if you stop too quickly it can slide forward and block your view. Also, it can fly off and hit other cars. I live in So Cal and had only ever driven in the snow once and it was nothing like this. Really, with the storm coming in, when I picked up rental car, the salesperson should have offered up some advice to an out-of-towner with an address on their driver’s license in a place that doesn’t get snow. But whatever. I lived. Moving on. Now reality is, I was not driving fast enough that morning for any of those things to be a possibility. However, the client was very nice and removed it for me while I audited his books. Overall, I enjoyed my trip and the vast learning I acquired on real winter driving. BTW, this new knowledge would come in handy in less than two months when I traveled to Syracuse, and again the next year.
