OK, if we're talking 'Spridget-in-the-snow stories' here's mine:
We don't get a lot of snow in the south of England, but on this particular
day, it had reached about 6 inches deep on the 'back-route' country roads I
used for work. Furthermore, the top layer had started to melt and had then
frozen so it was pretty hard. I was driving my MKIV Sprite fairly carefully,
but figured that the road must be OK since someone else had left tyre tracks
in the snow ahead of me.
The road I was following had a long, if not very steep, slope but it was
quite straight and, anyway, the tracks of the vehicle ahead were keeping me
on course. Although I was only doing about 15MPH I wasn't really in complete
control, but still not too worried. About halfway down the hill I realised
my mistake when I saw the tracks turn into a farmyard and the snow ahead
completely untouched.
Braking made little or no difference, but hey! Snow's pretty soft and I was
still only doing about 20MPH. I braced and waited for the snow to envelop
the car. It didn't. The Sprite decided instead to follow the tracks right
into the farmyard wherein I demolished a rotary clothes line before sliding
gently to rest just outside the farmhouse door! I don't know who was most
surprised, me, the farmer, who came running out of a barn where he'd just
parked the tractor which had made the tracks, or the Sprite. Luckily there
was no real damage and, after a serious deep breath, the farmer kindly
ploughed a route for me through the remaining snow on the road for the few
hundred remaining yards between the farm and my office.
Suffice to say that the next day I followed the main road to work instead.
Dave C (UK)
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