As a resident of Casper, to get home I must traverse the treacherous highway 287/487. Recently I went home and my return to Laramie was delayed by the snowstorm. I stayed an extra night, hoping that the roads would clear and as Monday morning rolled around, with the utmost confidence in my 1997 Chevy Monte Carlo, I set out.
I have nearly died driving countless times due to weather and/or my own foolish love for speed. However I have never experienced anything quite like my most recent brush with death, which leads me to my latest nugget of information: how not to drive in Wyoming in the winter.
First off, you are going to want to panic. The first time you slide, wobble, or drift, you will want to cry, hyperventilate, and/or pee your pants. Do not do this. Fight the urge and hold your steering wheel and bladder steady. This is important because correcting in a moment of terror only makes you slide worse. It will feel wrong in every way, but unless you want to end up on the side of the road, don’t panic.
Along those same lines, do not speed. This is my biggest weakness due to my aforementioned love of speeding. I get frustrated when I have to go 30 when I know I could go 70. However, going 70 also means you will hit black ice, reflector poles, and ditches going 70. Speeding is fun, my stack of tickets can attest to that, but doing it when the roads are bad is 10 kinds of stupid.
Lastly, if caught in a white out, keep driving. Nothing says turn around this is not safe quite like a solid wall of white that prevents all visibility. However, the people behind you are also driving into that same wall. If you stop, like your better judgment and experience riding Splash Mountain tells you to, your rear end is going to become a smashed piece of scrap metal. So, just keep going despite what your mind is telling you, because stopping is not in your best interest.
As you all probably knew, driving in Wyoming is not for the faint of heart, especially in the winter. That said, I hope that you all can learn from my stupidity and misfortune and avoid some of the predicaments I seem to consistently get myself into.
