It wasn't a truck or car but a class A motor home. It was a cold February night, when my wife and our best friends got the motorhome packed for a trip to sunny Florida. Two weeks of short track racing, the Daytona 500 and maybe a little deep sea fishing. We wasn't about to let a little snow storm ruin our plans. We did decide it would be best if we stuck to the major highways instead of the usual short cuts and decided I-74 to I-65 would be better than getting stuck in a snow drift.
It started off shaky, it snowed hard from Davenport Iowa to Indianapolis, but as we turned south into Kentucky on I-65 it turned to a light rain. At least we wasn't snow blind and sliding in the wind and our spirits was soaring.
We was making good time and just as we got into the hills south of Louisville we peaked a hill and I looked down a long stretch of down hill grade to see head lights and tail lights going every which way. OH S--T Black ice, 34 foot motorhome and a free ride to the bottom a bout a mile or so down the road. I let off the gas and that big sucker started side ways. Sliped it in neutral quick and started a tap dance on the brake for what seemed an hour. It didn't seem to slow a bit and the big pile up of cars and trucks is getting closer. I try the shoulder to see if we could catch some gravel to help slow down, nothing there but there are some cars on that side up a head so I go for the road again, but as i did it did a 180, I locked the brakes down and cranked the wheel and as we got on a forward direction, we slid threw the first sets of cars. Now I'm sweating bullets but we aren't done yet, going around again we made a narrow passage between a Kenworth and a UPS truck backward, still making them lazy circles on the ice the next obstical was about 10 trucks and cars in the middle and a truck wedged under overpass. Went for the shoulder again and bet there wasn't inches on either side, did that one forward thank goodness and the grade was getting better and finally stopped on the shoulder quite a ways down the road. I sat there and shook for a good 15 minutes. I don't think it would have been near as scary if one of them trucks would have just run us over with out seeing it coming. I was in a 7 time roll over in a 55 olds and it never scared me like that.
Yes make that a double, I'm not driving anymore tonight.