Essay #10 (Timed Division Essay)

                When you live in Maine, you’re forced to experience all the seasons of the year. There is the season of storage, yard work, and insulation preparations for winter, the actual winter with snow and ice season, the after effects of winter with flooding, mud, and rainy weather, and then a short season in between full of humidity and bugs. With all these different seasons taking place, there are also different road conditions. The only ‘good’ road conditions are found when Maine is in its short summer season. During the preparation for, during, and after effects of the winter season, there can be wicked nasty road conditions. They either have black ice, snow, slush, or are flooded.

                Black ice is something that only a true Nor’ Easter knows all too well. For almost the whole winter period, there is black ice somewhere on the roads. It is a thin sheet of ice on the paved road. You don’t see it until it is too late. Most people can drive over it safely, depending on the location in regards to the road. However, if the ice is on a corner, the driver is in danger. When you drive on Maine road conditions, you learn to drive slowly. If someone hits a patch of black ice on a corner and didn’t slow down enough, they will almost certainly slide either off the road, or into another vehicle. Many, many accidents happen in Maine because of black ice. Unfortunately, sometimes driving slow over black ice isn’t enough, especially on a hill. In most of these cases, the vehicle slides down the hill and no amount of force from the brakes will stop it. The people in the vehicle can only hope for the best.

When snow is added to the picture, it can make things much worse. When there is a layer of snow on top of ice, it makes the ice even slicker. The snow adds a layer of wetness to the ice, and once a tire, or person, hits that patch, they are in trouble. I cannot tell you how many times I have slipped and fell because of snow on ice. I also couldn’t count the amount of times I have been stuck in my driveway because my tires had no traction with the snow and ice covering everything. When road conditions are like this, schools get cancelled, appointments get cancelled, people are sent home from work, and everything is just put on hold for the time being. Plow trucks hurry to get the roads plowed and sanded; however, they have to just do it again about an hour later, depending on how fast the snow is falling.

When it rains during these horrible winter seasons, it makes the roads just all in all, shitty. It is almost like the consistency of thin mud, except it is really, really, wet snow. It gets all over the roads. When it is still raining, or right after it rains, it is clean, but slick. It isn’t icy, but slush can still pull your vehicle one way or the other. After a day or two, the slush is completely covered in mud and dirt. This is when things get really messy. When someone drives over slush, it sprays everywhere. I have been hit by slush so many times when I was a kid waiting for the bus at the end of my driveway. When dirt is added to the slush, there will never be a clean vehicle for the rest of the season.

Finally, there are the flooded roads. This is a huge factor in the aftermath of winter. When the temperature begins to warm up, everything melts! This causes massive flooding in some areas. Backyards get flooded, driveways get flooded, ditches get flooded, rivers overflow, and roads get covered with the flood water. The flooding is also the beginning of the mud season. Now that I have a Jeep, I can drive over flooded roads. Before, I had a smaller car and I would be forced to turn around. A lot of the times, the D.O.T. will block off roads if the flooding is too bad. This makes things very inconvenient when you have to get somewhere. Also with flooding, comes hydroplaning. Hydroplaning can be very scary if you are not paying attention. A sudden wrong move can cause you to be in an accident.

Most states have a spring, summer, fall, and winter season. However, that is not how I, and most others, think of Maine. Fall is translated into: yard work, storing things away, insulating any possible heat loss areas, and preparing a cord of wood. Winter is translated into: snow tires, loss of money to rising oil prices, tardiness to work or school, and power outages. Spring becomes: still having snow, mud, flooding, mud, washing floors, and more mud. Finally, there is summer. This correlates to having humidity and lots of black flies. However, this it’s worth it to be away from the horrendous winter seasons and the nasty road conditions. Driving on slick ice, snow, slush, and flooded roads is not my cup of tea, especially with since I have a baby with me now. Now I understand why everyone leaves Maine in the winter!