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Depending on what exactly is meant by interesting, the most interesting thing that happened to me this past weekend may well be losing control of my car on Lakeshore Drive. I got through the experience unhurt, but pretty rattled. It happened at that sharp turn by the breakwater north of Navy Pier. I slowed down as usual to make the turn, but I regardless found my car's nose sliding in a direction that was not consistent with the front wheels.
I tried to correct the slide but apparently did so too well; I turned back toward the right and had a couple seconds to realize that I was going to cross the traffic lane to my right and hit the concrete guardrail at the edge of the road. I was lucky enough that the traffic light at the intersection just before the Drive was blinking red when I went through it, perhaps because of the electrical storm that morning, so cars were only getting onto the drive in fits and starts. No one was directly behind me in any lane, so it remained a one car accident. Just as amazingly, my angle of attack at the guardrail was shallow enough that, rather than causing my back end to spin around to the front, I merely scraped along the concrete and ended up realigned the way I was supposed to be.
I was terrified that my car might be disabled, but I also did not want to stop in the middle of Lakeshore Drive and inspect the damage. Through the whole incident, I managed to not drop below about 15 miles per hour, so I just put the car back in gear and kept driving. I was worried at the first stoplight I came to that something was wrong with the engine as it began to stutter as I slowed down. Then I realized I'd been too distracted to remember to take the car out of gear. That helped.
I drove the rest of the way to my destination (the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House by the Midway Plaisance where I was going on a tour with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
danaeris) in little old lady mode and without incident. When I got there, Danae and I gave each other a big hug and mutual comfort; it turned out she had spun out on Lakeshore Drive too! In the same place!
The temperature was very near freezing, and I'm convinced that a nasty spot of black ice must have appeared on the Drive. She and I found out later on that day that southbound Lakeshore Drive had been closed down by police after two more accidents, including some injuries, occurred on it. I'm just grateful that my injuries were restricted to a broken turn signal, a dented and scraped quarter panel, and a frazzled psyche. And I'm very glad that Danae was not hurt either.
I tried to correct the slide but apparently did so too well; I turned back toward the right and had a couple seconds to realize that I was going to cross the traffic lane to my right and hit the concrete guardrail at the edge of the road. I was lucky enough that the traffic light at the intersection just before the Drive was blinking red when I went through it, perhaps because of the electrical storm that morning, so cars were only getting onto the drive in fits and starts. No one was directly behind me in any lane, so it remained a one car accident. Just as amazingly, my angle of attack at the guardrail was shallow enough that, rather than causing my back end to spin around to the front, I merely scraped along the concrete and ended up realigned the way I was supposed to be.
I was terrified that my car might be disabled, but I also did not want to stop in the middle of Lakeshore Drive and inspect the damage. Through the whole incident, I managed to not drop below about 15 miles per hour, so I just put the car back in gear and kept driving. I was worried at the first stoplight I came to that something was wrong with the engine as it began to stutter as I slowed down. Then I realized I'd been too distracted to remember to take the car out of gear. That helped.
I drove the rest of the way to my destination (the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House by the Midway Plaisance where I was going on a tour with
danaeris) in little old lady mode and without incident. When I got there, Danae and I gave each other a big hug and mutual comfort; it turned out she had spun out on Lakeshore Drive too! In the same place! The temperature was very near freezing, and I'm convinced that a nasty spot of black ice must have appeared on the Drive. She and I found out later on that day that southbound Lakeshore Drive had been closed down by police after two more accidents, including some injuries, occurred on it. I'm just grateful that my injuries were restricted to a broken turn signal, a dented and scraped quarter panel, and a frazzled psyche. And I'm very glad that Danae was not hurt either.