I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Mark Turner. Have you ever noticed that sometimes reality can be stranger than fiction. That point was driven home to me over twenty years ago. At that time I was in grad school working for my masters in engineering physics. I had enough money to be able to afford a reliable, older, car and have an apartment to myself. But I didn't have the time or money to go on dates. Bummer!
Our school is located less than ten miles, as the crow flies, from the USA/Canada border. Our winters tend to be very hard. It is not highly unusual to see a temperature reach -40 degrees. (It makes no difference whether you are using the Fahrenheit or Celsius scale. At -40 they are essentially the same.)
The drive to get to my parent's house is a ten hour drive, when the weather is good. When the weather is bad it is sometimes not advisable to make the drive. Christmas was rapidly approaching. In the Northern Adirondack mountains it is not unusual to see a real snow storm during this season. This year it looked like the storm was going to pass to the North of us.
The drive requires a fair amount of gasoline and at least one stop for a meal. I have found that it is easier to afford when I can split the fuel cost with someone else. This year, my friend, Bob, was not going to make the trip. He was behind on his school work and had to catch up while he could. That left me in a bit of a bind. I could afford the trip home but the return trip was a bit "iffy".
Bob came to the rescue. He knew of a girl, an undergraduate senior, who was in need of a ride to a town about ten miles further away from school than was my house. She was also an engineering physics major. All I needed to know was her name and where to meet her.
Her name was June Brown. She had volunteered to foot the gas bill. Since she didn't have a car it was cheaper than taking the Greyhound bus.
At the appointed time June knocked on my apartment door. When I opened it I saw a somewhat heavy (pudgy would be the polite term) girl with dark hair. Her skin was a dark mocha color and she had beautiful brown eyes. (I am a very fond of brown eyes.)
I asked her if she needed a "pit stop" before we left. She didn't. I got my suitcase and took her down to my car. Our bags fit in the rear seat with plenty of room to spare. We were about two hours into the drive when the storm that was to go to the North of us decided it wanted to pass directly over our path. It was much akin to finding six inches of "partly cloudy" in your driveway.
I slowed down as much as I dared. I didn't want my car to become a hood ornament on a Semi. We were on a section of road that had a relatively steep embankment down to the forest on the right side of the road.
If you have ever driven a highway in bad conditions you are probably familiar with the fact that when a semi passes you visibility drops to zero for a few seconds. The road crews had been out and salted the road because the storm had started out as freezing rain. That meant that the road surface was coated with about half an inch of "slush".
When the truck went by us, my windshield was covered by slush and the snow from the back draft of the truck made visibility out of the side windows impossible. It is frightening to be driving along and suddenly realize that you are doing about fifty miles per hour and can't see anything!
If we had not been at the beginning of a curve we probably would have avoided what happened next. However, a curve was there and I couldn't see it coming. My car went straight ahead and the road moved away from us toward the left. We hit the embankment and slid about a hundred-fifty yards before coming up against a tree. We were wearing seat belts and shoulder harnesses. The brush and leaf debris had slowed the car significantly, but we were still going about twenty miles per hour when the car hit the tree. If the tree hadn't had a low branch at the height of the car's radiator things would have been better. As it was, I couldn't let the motor run without damaging the engine. I couldn't afford to replace the engine.
We took stock of our situation. Neither of us had been hurt, other than bruises where the belts had restrained us. We couldn't see where the road was. I tried my cell phone, but didn't have any signal. I had an old CB radio in the car. I tuned to channel nine (the emergency channel) and tried to contact anyone. We were down below road level by probably fifty feet or more and our little radio signal was useless.
I turned on the car's radio and found a station that broadcast the local road conditions. One of the first things we heard was that the route we had been on was now closed to all traffic. It was too dangerous even for the snow plows.
"I'm sorry about this June. I tried to keep us safe and I didn't succeed. I am torn between trying to find the road and lighting a flare or waiting until the snow lets up a bit. What is your opinion?"
"I think we should stay put. We spun at least once on the way down here. Other than up hill I have no idea which way the road is. If the ground slopes down from the road and slopes up or down in the direction parallel to the road either of us could get lost. At the rate that the snow is falling a person's footprints would be filled in quickly. I don't think it would be worth it."
"I think you are right. You seem to be able to keep your cool in a bad situation. I like that!"
"Thanks, most guys are intimidated when a girl has better sense than they do. In this case I suspect that we both had reached that point of view at about the same time. I grew up on a farm. You always had to be ready to fix a sudden problem. Some things can't wait for more convenient times. You do what you need to do but you do it as safely as you can. Farming machinery isn't forgiving. What do you think we need to do now?"
"Well, since I drive this route several times a year I carry a blanket, some water, some canned food and candy bars. With the two of us the blanket may not be adequate. It's already getting cold in here. Do you have any ideas?"
There was a long pause. "Yeah, I think I do. If we put some of the clothes from our bags onto the back seat and sit next to each other with the blanket over us we will conserve heat and the one blanket might be enough. What do you think?"
"I was thinking the same thing but didn't want you to think I was trying to take advantage of you."
