Ice Storm

I didn't have a reason when I refused to let my newly licensed son drive on a 6-hour trip. We had just moved houses, so we were starting our trip to grandma's from a new part of the city. We veered away from our normal route because of road construction, and I headed north on the wrong road. An hour into our journey, my husband looked up from his phone and noticed the mistake. GPS directed us to a simple detour across country to get us back on track. We couldn't know this was going to have a high ridge with a big curve. I was nervous about the height and narrow road, so I slowed the car down quite a bit. Everybody was mad at me anyway and they made comments about my caution! A few minutes later, while we were still on the ridge, the wind blew, the moisture on the ground froze immediately, and the car spun out of control. I took my foot off the gas pedal. The car finally stopped when two wheels caught the gravel edge of the road and gained traction. Several other stranded drivers stopped too. Many of us got out of our cars. We couldn't even stand up because the road was so slick. My husband said he could see a gravel road at the bottom of the ridge, and he thought we could slide the car down to it and swing around to a safer location. As we stood there debating our options, the ice pelted harder. I was terrified, but we decided to take a chance and let the car slide down the hill like a big sled. Our son opted to get out of the car and slide down himself. It worked and we made it to the gravel road. We inched along the back roads for hours as it grew darker and the ice storm gained intensity. I don't know if it was the weather or how far away from civilization we were, but the phones stopped working. Kind people in an isolated house allowed us to use their phone and a farmer led us in his big truck back to the main road. We made it to a McDonalds packed with weary travelers looking for warmth and safety. A dumpy motel next to the restaurant had one room left! If my son or husband had been driving their usual 10 miles over the speed limit, music blaring, we would have slid off the ridge and rolled the car to the bottom. Help would not have beenavailable for days because of the storm. I think it would have been the end of us!