> > Ice, on the other hand, you can respect all you want, and it'll still kill you.
>
> Hmm. Interesting. My dad taught me some ice driving techniques as well (Lesson number one is don't drive on it unless you have to, but lesson number two is what to do if you DO have to). Of course, very few people I know can do that very well, and I am very out of practice-- we don't get much ice in Calgary. Basically, driving on ice can be summed up in one key concept: Don't fight inertia.

I had the (mis)fortune of living in Illinois for several years. One such year was the year I learned to drive. I learned to drive in the middle of winter. This knowledge served me well when the Ice Storm hit Texas.

In Texas, an Ice Storm is nothing more than the temperature getting below 32 degrees and some rain/snow happening. I woke up and there was a thin layer of snow and ice on everything. It immobilized the town.

I was riding along Highway 6, passing a Texan who never knew what the frozen stuff was, when the other Texan spotted a patch of ice about three feet across in the road. Like all ignorant ice drivers, he slammed his brakes. He managed to fishtail on the one patch of ice in the middle of a straight stretch of road.

Then there was that time I almost did die and it was all due to ice on the road. (Basically: a slight crest, road curves to the right, large patch of ice on the other side of the rise that I can't see, overcorrection once, twice, in the ditch parallel to the road. Ice is a female dog.)

-Faux "thinks I may have told that story sometime before" Pas