Slush

That loose wet crap known as slush is the enemy of our buses. This is my 8th winter driving professionally around here and I know of which I speak. Cold, packed snow side-roads are normally a pleasure to drive but when a major storm drops fresh powder on them and the weather warms up, they go to hell.

The packed snow roads are actually several inches of snow that have been plowed and driven on. They’re thick, and heat breaks them apart which allows heavy vehicles to bottom out down to the original road. Our rear duals are very close together and the slush gets jammed up between them and can bring our buses to a grinding halt.

I started down one of those roads today and after about fifty feet I said to myself “nope, ain’t happening”! I managed to back out to the main road and called my client, telling her to get her teenaged daughter to start moving my way if she wanted a ride. Poor kid, her goat had just died giving birth and I made her drive their four wheeler to my bus.

As the day wound down our other driver called me and said she was stuck. Drove right into a patch of slush…