Trip to the Liquid Web Holiday Party
Last night was the Liquid Web holiday party at Enso. It was really nice, and like usual, the party had outdone all previous that Liquid Web has hosted. The trip there ended up being a bit interesting. When driving onto the I-96 entrance ramp at Pennsylvania St, around the curve I hit some ice and dig a nice fishtail that had me end up in the ditch. I attempted to drive out, but with all the grass being covered in snow and ice, my attempts were futile. I wasn't the first person to end up in the ditch. A little further up the entrance ramp, there was another car that was in the ditch on the other side of the road. Thankfully, that other car had already called for police assistance as a cop car showed up within a minute of me ending up in that ditch. The cop came over and let me know that a tow truck was on its way and I could just stay in the car to stay warm.
The cop car stayed and blocked off one of the lanes of the ramp in an attempt to get cars to slow down. I wasn't sure how good of an idea that was, as that meant that not only did people have to slow down, but they also had to unexpectedly merge lanes. Things were going well for a while, but I was getting worried as there were a lot of people fishtailing around that corner. I started to feel like a sitting duck, only took one other person to lose control and they were hitting me. Eventually that came really close. A car lost control and did a 360 going toward me, ending up on the side of the road, maybe 15 feet from my car. Was somewhat of a scary moment. Not long after that however, the moment I was expecting to happen took place. Yet another car fishtailed and lost control. That guy however crashed into the cop car. It was at that point I felt much less stupid about being in the ditch. At that point the cop moved his car and completely closed off the ramp. The highway entrance was probably closed for a good 20 more minutes. Eventually the tow truck came and pulled me out.
I am generally a pretty good driver and have only been in a ditch two previous times. Once 12 years ago when my brakes went out, and another time 8 years ago during a whiteout near Grand Rapids and a miscalculation on where the road was. Both those times I was able to get out. This was a somewhat embarrassing situation for me. It didn't help that I was all dressed up, and was also in the car with Rachael and Brian. Thankfully, in the end, my car was totally fine and no one was hurt. I luckily slide in between two of the roadside reflectors so those didn't do any damage to my car, and the car fairly easily was able to be pulled out. We all ended up making it to the Liquid Web party, and had an interesting story to tell.
The cop car stayed and blocked off one of the lanes of the ramp in an attempt to get cars to slow down. I wasn't sure how good of an idea that was, as that meant that not only did people have to slow down, but they also had to unexpectedly merge lanes. Things were going well for a while, but I was getting worried as there were a lot of people fishtailing around that corner. I started to feel like a sitting duck, only took one other person to lose control and they were hitting me. Eventually that came really close. A car lost control and did a 360 going toward me, ending up on the side of the road, maybe 15 feet from my car. Was somewhat of a scary moment. Not long after that however, the moment I was expecting to happen took place. Yet another car fishtailed and lost control. That guy however crashed into the cop car. It was at that point I felt much less stupid about being in the ditch. At that point the cop moved his car and completely closed off the ramp. The highway entrance was probably closed for a good 20 more minutes. Eventually the tow truck came and pulled me out.
I am generally a pretty good driver and have only been in a ditch two previous times. Once 12 years ago when my brakes went out, and another time 8 years ago during a whiteout near Grand Rapids and a miscalculation on where the road was. Both those times I was able to get out. This was a somewhat embarrassing situation for me. It didn't help that I was all dressed up, and was also in the car with Rachael and Brian. Thankfully, in the end, my car was totally fine and no one was hurt. I luckily slide in between two of the roadside reflectors so those didn't do any damage to my car, and the car fairly easily was able to be pulled out. We all ended up making it to the Liquid Web party, and had an interesting story to tell.