December 18, 2010

• Geek Quest: Tron, The Blizzard and a Ditch.

  We awoke at 7:15 while it was still dark, (I was somewhat hoping my timer was still on summer time and I’d get another hours kip…but no) The weather was reporting pretty serious warnings for our coming trip across from Skye to Inverness and most of the morning was taken up with discussing the potential risks and should we shouldn’t we go.

  But with Toast and Coffee to keep us going we eventually decided that it would be okay and worth the risk.
  Initially me and my brother were going to take a bus, but since my mum also had a work Christmas party to go to we all piled into the car.

  On our little road and the main roads on the island the snow was pretty thick but it was passable and had been slightly gritted so we continued slightly encouraged that we’d make it okay.
  Our deadline was 2:20 for the film and I think around 1 for the party, so we had plenty time since it’s around a three hour trip at normal speeds and even though we planned on doing no more than 30mph we’d still be fine.

  The trip of the island was uneventful and quite pretty with a wonderfully wintry covering to everything, but when we reached the mainland things began to get much worse.
  The roads Had been gritted but not really ploughed in many areas so rather than two lane main roads it mainly looked like a single track with deep drifts obscuring the sides, this made overtaking impossible and passing oncoming traffic (especially lorries) hair raising to say the least.
  

  As we continued it also began to snow in parts which certainly didn’t help. And then about just over half way through our journey while we were driving on what seemed to me to be a pretty flat and straight bit of road we suddenly began to slid, my mum who has had quite a bit of practice driving in the snow tried to counter but the car veered right towards a crash barrier and then swerved left and bounced into a boggy ditch.
  The car was stuck in snow upto the bottom of the door and on foot deep mud, this was not great as we certainly at this point didn’t have much spare time. So we set about with a shovel and some ash we’d brought trying to get some traction.

  

  Fortunately we were only going about 25 – 30 mph and there was no damaged especially since It was such a soft landing. The car wasn’t going to move quickly though as with the snow and mud it was well and truly stuck, with branches from the near by forest we could have gotten out but it would have time a LONG time.

  But right when we thought the day was done and Tron was slipping away, a Heroic Hovis lorry man pulled up and really amazingly just got right to it and pulled us out, he was an awesome bloke and really saved us.

  The rest of the trip was just as spooky with several parts forcing us to go at no more than 20mph, barely able to see the road or very far ahead. But eventually and with only 30 mins to spare for the film we made it. My mum was slightly late for the party sadly but she still managed to get the main course.

  The Film was BRILLIANT and with almost no one else in the cinema and perfectly central seats we enjoyed it thoroughly and if you like the first Tron then you certainly won’t be disappointed as they really did it justice.

  After the film it was 5:30 I think and we then had to get back and now it was dark…..
  But again fortunately even though it took a couple hours longer than normal and did involve some pretty alarming sections we made it back in one piece.
  It is now again totally white outside and set to last for a bit, but even though thinking about it I did actually risk my life to watch Tron…it was kind of worth it lol

  Also The Hovis bread company train some pretty damn fine drivers    

  • 12:23 pm
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