Of Kia auto parts, especially the brakes and steering system, and whichever company provided the snow tires. Apologies for forgetting your name…I must also thank the Hubs for his calm but urgent “Stop now, stop now, stop now” approach to warning me that the car in front of me stopped moving forward on account of backed up traffic. It is by luck alone on that piece of road that I had clear space beside and behind me to jig to the right and change lanes before smashing somebody in the back end. Thanks also to my parents who wound up teaching me to drive after I avoided every appointment with the instructor in high school. They done good.
My attention had been diverted by a dope in a turning lane clearly marked “Left Turn Buses Only” trying to turn left into non stop traffic. Saskatoon has this event every winter called The Enchanted Forest where they light up the Forestry Farm trees and put up other LED decorations that run the gamut from penguins playing hockey to Noah’s Ark. It’s incredibly popular and last night I suspect a lot of the traffic we were stuck in was heading there. On opening and closing night they have a “no car” event and let people walk the circuit and stop for snacks at a house halfway into the park.
It was our aim last night to do that, so after we narrowly avoided destruction and missed the turn-off in the process, I drove an extra block around and again, thank you to brakes, tires and steering, avoided sliding through a slick 4-way stop. Once we’d finally made it to a safe place to park, we had a bit of a hike to get to the front gate…only to realize just how many other people had gotten there before us. There had to be something close to a hundred waiting to get in and the end of the line looked to be nearly back to the road I’d almost crashed on.
We turned around and went back to the car. Overall, I wasn’t disappointed; I was just happy I hadn’t killed the car getting over there. Last year when we went we must have gotten there close to opening time at 5:30 because I don’t remember there being any kind of a crush of people like that. We could have waited in line but there was no telling how long it would have taken us. The Young One was severely let down, though. We promised him we’ll do a “very slow” drive through one night when we get a chance and try to do the walk on closing night whenever that is in January. Poor kid.
I was lucky to avoid collisions last night; others less so. Saw one truck hung up on the way over with police and tow truck at the ready, and saw police lights on their way elsewhere later, and then on the way home police were blocking a Circle Drive exit west-bound. Flashing lights beyond the Warman Road overpass indicated one or more vehicles had collided with something over there and ground traffic to a halt.
Saskatchewan in Winter… Be careful out there, wherever you are.
One Minion's Opinion 