I had enough

After all the snow and ice we have had, and having had to work two Saturdays in a row I had to get outta Dodge. Sunday morning, I awoke and decided to hit the road, (Cage), at 7:30am I called Gerry and Linda informed me he was still sleeping. So much for a trip, I went to Wally World to spend some money, as I was leaving there, Gerry called Linda had kicked him out of bed and the ride was on. I picked him up at his house, we bid adieu to his woman and off we went...to Groton...Norms, for breakfast. I found that he needed a break from this area also, so we hit the road, 32 to 395, 395 to 2a to 32 and into Palmer Mass, as we drove, the temperature was increasing. Route 20 to 181, Bondsville, Thorndike, Belchertown, Amhurst, route 116 through Sunderland and across the Connecticut river onto River road.The rain we received the day and night before (with some damn loud thunder and lightning) came down as snow in this area. We were cruising along this road and we came to the determination that Massachusetts,in this area anyway, uses a ton of sand on the roads, but no salt. The road was brown slush everywhere except for the tire tracks of the vehicles that had gone before us.

I am going to stop right here and mention that I was driving a 2011 Toyota Corolla, the car has manual windows, manual locks, and no cruise control, but it does have ABS and the "NS" alert system. Let me explain that system, We were cruising along pretty good, doing the speed limit when we met a car coming around a corner the other way,(also using the tire tracks), the problem was that the tire tracks were in the middle of the road and we were both in them heading for each other, so... I moved to the right, putting myself in the slush. The car did just as you expected it to, it lost grip and broke loose, the car was heading straight for a stone wall and the ABS was doing what ABS does, clicks and grinds but little else. At this point the "NS" system kicks in, the car starts chirping at you with a fast paced dingdingdingdingdingdingding, Then a light starts flashing on the dash, catching your eye and taking your attention from the road and problem at hand and draws your attention down to the instrument cluster. The light is a small yellow square at the bottom of the the panel between the speedo and tach, it has a little car drawn on it, with squiggly lines coming from the bottom of it, "oh, that's whats going on, we have no traction". As I got the car back under control, I turned to Gerry who asked what that alarm was, I told him that the car was informing me we were sliding, He said "No Shit, Really?"  "NS" System.

From river road we continued to East Deerfield where we found a parking lot and started throwing the car all over the place watching the NS system work, "No Shit we're sliding" (Doesn't take much to amuse us). From there we ran up 5 through Greenfield, onto the Mohawk trail and up into the Berkshire hills. the temperature in Charlemont was 41f , as we climbed the temperature dropped, Running up through the cuts all the scenery went from snow covered to ice covered, trees, signs, etc. I found that the ride up was fun, the road was clear just wet, although as we climbed and the temperature dropped I grew a little sceptical about the damp spots, still we passed up through the left right switch back at 60mph, it was like the in car footage at a rally race except that there was traffic coming down at you. By the time we hit Florida (top of the hill) the temp was down to 29f. We made a stop at the look out over North Adams before heading down route 8 to 7 in Pittsfield, to 43 through Canaan Ct then west into New York and onto the Taconic (Catatonic) Parkway, then south into Yonkers.

In Yonkers I dropped $200 bucks in slot machines, as we were leaving Gerry informed me he had to be on duty at 6pm at the fire department, I asked him what time is was right then and he said, "6:30, I'll probably be a little late". He called them, explained he was in Yonkers and would not be back until 9, 9:30, or 10p. We took the Cross County Parkway to the Merritt, to I-95 in Milford, then I-95 home. I dropped him off at 8:01pm.

It was great to take a day away from the area. It is one of the reason I really dislike winter, not much to do and usually no where to go..

klay