Lessons Learned

As the 'Spring' snow storm subsided, I had to make a trip into town for a rescheduled dental appointment and last minute errands before our trip to Ohio.

Having done the 'bad snow' drive already, I felt confident my trip would be just fine.  4-wheel drive was set and I was ready to roll.

Roads were still icy, snow covered, and slushy.  Speed limits continued to be low.  As I was driving, I noticed a large chunk of slush/snow in the midst of my lane a bit too late.  Clunk.  Over I went with a thud.  Not a good sound.

All seemed fine.

As I neared the end of the highway, I stopped and turned onto the road heading into town.

Drag, churn, clug is what I heard.  Remembering the 4-wheel drive mode doesn't like turning, I flipped it to regular mode.

Next stop, chug, chug, drag.  Hmmmm.... that couldn't be good.

Upon arriving at the dentist's office I surveyed the underside of the truck.  I discovered that driving in very cold weather on the snowy, slushy, non-salt treated roads of Wyoming resulted in a build up of frozen sludge on the undercarriage of my vehicle.

Said sludge caused the wheels to churn and grind against it resulting in a horrific sound that would convince the average woman that she'd 'ruined' her hubby's car by running over that large snow block on the highway.

I must have been quite a site as I stood outside the truck, in a long jean skirt and cowboy boots, kicking the crud out of the frozen slush around the tires and under portion of the pick-up.

I'm sure to an unsuspecting on-looker it must have appeared as though I was a disgruntled girlfriend taking out her frustrations upon her ex-boyfriends truck.

I could just hear the country music in the background.

At least I hadn't 'damaged' the truck with my driving.  :-)