Sunday, 21 February 2010

Thrapston for the Winter Olympics

Thrapston for the Olympics

I think gold medallist Amy Williams could have got her tea tray out on the A605 on Thursday night . She got to 90 mph in 54 seconds in lack of snow Vancouver, whereas I drove at 9mph taking 2 hours to get from Corby to my snow blocked home in Thrapston, just 12 miles.

True it was only 4 inches of rush hour blizzard snow, but those that did not keep their wheels moving, got stuck making it more hazardous for those of us that were trying to gauge the changing white road conditions.

Though Thrapston has not got the Rocky Mountains in its back yard, the local countryside is undulating and the lorries could not get up the slopes. In fact I had been driving in the snow all day through Worcestershire , Warwickshire and then Northamptonshire. I only saw Highway Agency gritters on some of the motorways, even the M45 was white and only me driving along it (in a lorry), with others following. It was as if the road was closed as I drove through the vortex of a snow blizzard.

Road signs were covered in white, and to compound the agony for motorists the M1 had been shut for most of the day due to an earlier accident. When the snow arrived the Police or jack knifed lorries closed even more roads.

So once again the snow is forecast, but the authorities are slow to respond, or in the interests of safety make it worse for all of us trying to get home. Much of my endeavours getting home from my work base in my car, which is an automatic and hates the snow, was trying to circumnavigate the road blocks, to little avail as the minor roads were nigh impassable. In fact the only way I got into Thrapston was on the wrong side of the road passed the Police cauldrons who were distracted by other events fortunately, but had made the other side of the road clear by stopping all the traffic.

Else, like I saw the following morning, I could have still been out there with the rest.

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