I had an idea this morning. I’m currently in the process of setting up a FlexRay cluster for my research (more details on this coming soon), and I had been thinking about paying a visit to the GM Tech Center to have another look at their cluster. They already gave me a good demo on my last visit, and I would really only need to go over a few details. It wouldn’t really take too long though, and it didn’t seem worthwhile to make a trip up just for that purpose. My route home passes right through the area anyway though, soooooo…
I put in a call to one of my colleagues at GM, and we set up a time for tomorrow. I figured that I could make it to Ann Arbor this evening, spend the morning there tomorrow, and shoot over to GM for my meeting at 2:30. My luck with the weather, though, seems to have finally run out.
Traffic started to slow around Gary, IN, but the weather was still OK. That changed as I got on I-94. The snow started to come down, the wind started to blow, and visibility plummeted. Traffic was moving, but even our 20 MPH pace seemed too fast. Three lanes of traffic were filled nearly bumper to bumper with vehicles, with semis making up the overwhelming majority. People were making their own lanes. Every once in a while you would see a semi blow by in the right doing about 50, followed closely by some courageous — or idiotic, it’s a fine line — soul in an SUV. One semi passing on the right nearly touched my side view mirror.
It takes a lot to make me nervous on the road. I’ve definitely driven through some sketchy weather before, especially on I-80 taking snowboard trips to New England. I was genuinely worried about the conditions on the road tonight though. Conditions were ripe for another horrendous pileup.
There was barely any traffic on the road off of the exit… not that I could see it if there was. A couple of inches of snow had accumulated on the road, but once again the Subie proved its worth. I had no problems making it through unplowed secondary roads looking for a hotel. Snow tires were a fantastic investment.
I ended up at the Country Inn & Suites. It’s a decent place with a pool and a hot tub, which was sorely needed after being on the road all day. I’m watching the weather channel right, and there are winter weather warnings all night. Lake effect snow, near blizzard conditions, accumulating 1 or more inches per hour through midnight. Low of 0, with a high near 2 degrees tomorrow. Hopefully they’ll get the roads clear enough that I can make decent time to Detroit tomorrow. For now though, I’m just glad to relax in a nice warm room, and not be stuck in my car.
