Ice!

[Al Agnew]

Drove five miles to pick up our two nieces and take them to the nearby bar and grill for supper at about 5:30. It was just beginning a very fine mist. Took them back home at 6:30. Two miles of Hwy. 32 between the bar and grill and their mile long gravel driveway. Road wet. Dropped them off, didn't even get out of the car. Drove back up the mile of gravel to the highway, and it was SLICK. Drove the five miles back home at about 40 MPH, our little front wheel drive car felt squirrelly even at that speed. It started that quickly.

Their mother got home from St. Louis after a harrowing drive down I-55. Cars in the ditch at about every mile marker. Hwy. 32 was very slick, but between 55 and their house there aren't too many bad curves and hills. Still took her close to an hour to cover eight miles. They were closing 32 about a mile from her driveway, but she was able to take a side road to another sister's house, which was only a quarter mile of gravel road from her driveway. By that time even the gravel roads were solid ice, and it was a steep downhill walk after she left her car at her sister's. She slipped and slid down the gravel and ended up crashing into a parked car that was blocking the road entrance to Hwy. 32. Husband came up their driveway and picked her up at the highway, so she finally got home. That was about 9 PM.

We checked the internet and saw that 32 was now closed by our house, which is a third of a mile off the highway. Tina said that there were cars parked along 32 everywhere between 55 and her house, so we decided to hike up our driveway to see if anybody was parked and stranded near our driveway and to offer them shelter if so.

Nobody parked nearby, but about a half mile up the highway it leaves the gentle grade in front of our house and goes through a section that's very hilly and curvy. We looked up that way and could see about 20 vehicles parked there, lights on. Our gravel driveway was so slick it was dangerous walking on it; we had to walk in the weeds to the side of it. The highway and shoulder had a good quarter inch of solid black ice completely covering it. There was absolutely no way you could walk on it. There are four or five other houses up close to where those people were stranded, so we decided not to make the long and dangerous hike up there to see if anybody needed shelter, since it would be pretty dangerous for them to hike that far back to our house unprepared. We hope that if any of them need shelter they will knock on the doors of those other houses; the people who live in them are nice folks and will help them.

It's still raining, and in fact just rained pretty hard for a few minutes. Odd thing is, the rain isn't freezing much if at all on the trees, only on the ground. I guess it's been so cold that the ground is now colder than the air (air temp now is right around 30 degrees. Nasty night!

[ColdWaterFshr]

Its bad here in Ballwin too. Black ice. Haven't been driving in it but the drive way is glazed and so is our street. Very thin glaze, but I don't imagine the main roads are too bad since they've been hit so hard with salt the last couple days.

[Mitch f]

Because of the ice I drove my wife to work last night at 11:00 pm at Scottrade (temporary 3rd shift). She stepped onto the steps of the corporate building and immediately slipped on the ice head over heels. Pretty scary! When I got home I could barely make it up the sidewalk, had to walk in the grass.

[eric1978]

It took Sherwood and I 9 hours to drive from Tan Vat back to St. Louis last night. I repeat...9 freaking hours. It was a nightmare, 'nuff said.

[trizkid]

eric how was the fishing

[David Unnerstall]

Although I live a quarter mile from the city limits I have a long driveway and a bridge over a creek with a twenty foot drop-off. The driveway was all ice. I did have an ash bucket from the wood stove that was full. It is amazing the traction you can get on ice with wood ashes.

[eric1978]

eric how was the fishing

I'd say mediocre. Cricket caught a nice brown at dawn. Fish were rising all day to something tiny (and to something I didn't have in my box). Sherwood took quite a few on a #18 Griffiths Gnat, and I got a couple on an olive bugger. Otherwise, slow. Another guy that was there was slaying rainbows on a pink/white/green jig and spinning gear.

[exiledguide]

Tip, the Wife and I bring our felt soled wading boots inside so they are right at the front door this time of year have not had any trouble with icey driveway or steps since we started doing that over 20 years ago.