I was thoroughly traumatized on Jan 2nd, 1983. I still remember the date. The worst possible day, I could have ever picked, to return from Berchtesgaden, Germany, to Wiesbaden. A normal 4 hour trip, took 16 hours. Never again, did I ever drive my car down to the ski ⛷ slopes. It was miserable. 👎
I took my son back to college the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
It was an hour and forty-five minute drive on the Thruway (NY), and we left early enough to beat the crowd. We got unexpectedly delayed and got a later start than I wanted heading back. On the way back, a forecasted winter event, icy granular rain/snow/sleet mix, started falling.
The thruway quickly became a two lane parking lot. I saw ahead of me brake lights that stretched further than I wanted to see and by the grace of God it happened just BEFORE an exit. I whipped the steering wheel to the right and got off and went home by the back roads, which were not much better but they were moving at least.
It took us FIVE hours to make that trip and that was late afternoon. We had friends coming home from out of town and they were on the Thruway at 10 PM and reported the same thing.
I vowed then to NEVER travel on a holiday weekend if I didn’t absolutely have to again. And if we do, we leave as early as possible and watch google maps very carefully.
Can you imagine if there was some kind of attack on a big city and people tried to evacuate. It would break down almost instantly.