Snowball Fight At 70 Mph
When I checked my rearview mirror, the car behind me was so close that all I could see was the windshield.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t like paying for gasoline. So I challenge myself to drive as efficiently as possible.
My kids like to tease me about my slow driving—I rarely go over 55 mph around town.
My kids can complain about my driving all they want though, because they don’t have to pay for the gas…
But, this wasn’t a casual drive.
A rare snowstorm had shut down Charleston’s airport, and I was driving to Charlotte to catch my rebooked flight to make it to my event.
When I left my house at 11:00 a.m., it had just warmed up enough to start melting most of the ice on the roadway, but there were still pockets where traction was sketchy.
Given these conditions, I knew better than to rush. In the South, you don’t get much practice with winter weather, and being careless can put you in a ditch.
Traffic was moving, albeit a little slower than normal.
I set my cruise control and did exactly that…cruised.
I moved into the left lane to pass the vehicle in front of me and I see this speedy roadrunner car right behind me.
Obviously in a hurry.
After a few minutes, I saw this flash of white in my rearview mirror. I watched as all of the snow on the roof of my truck slid off and exploded and a white cloud of snow dust on the car’s windshield right behind me.
I’m glad nothing catastrophic happened, especially considering that I exploded laughing as I watched the car slow down immediately after and get more space between them and my truck.
😂😂😂
As I thought about it, I was probably just as surprised as the driver behind me to see it happen. It had not occurred to me that all the snow on the roof could just detach and fly off like that.
Because in the South that’s not a thing. I don’t have enough experience operating a vehicle in wintry conditions to know that the snow on top of my car needs to be removed just like the snow on my windshield.
My lack of experience kept me from recognizing all of the risk factors with driving.
Sure, I knew the stakes were higher, but I hadn’t really thought through it. I didn’t have the experience necessary to account for all of the different risk factors of driving in the winter.
Fortunately, in this case the only thing that happened was the snow flew off my roof and landed on the car behind me.
That’s not always the case though…
There are some areas of life where the stakes are high enough, that if you make a mistake you may not be able to recover. You may not get a second chance.
Skydiving comes to mind for some reason…
In hindsight, what I should really have done is called my buddy Matt who grew up in Ohio, and has way more experience than I do with driving in the winter.
Hindsight is always 20/20, right?
Experience matters.
How many opportunities in my life have I even had to drive in wintry conditions?
When I really think about it, probably less than 10.
I’m already planning to give Matt a call when we have the next winter storm here in the south years in the future.
It’s way easier to learn from his experience of getting a car out of a ditch, than to have the experience myself and learn the hard way.
😊
Regardless of what is next for you in life, whether it’s driving in the snow, starting a business, planning a trip to a country you’ve never been to, or investing in real estate…
You can save yourself stress, time, money, brain cells, and it’s just so much smoother if you have somebody in your corner who has the experience already.
If you need someone with experience in:
Boy Scouts / mission work / youth ministry / investing in apartments / riding a motorcycle / building a fire / playing guitar / baking bread…
I’m your guy.
If you need somebody to walk you through how to drive in the snow, I am NOT your guy!
Those others, let’s talk. 😊
