Here’s my story of young men in cars being stupid and, thankfully, surviving without nary a scratch.
Back in 1983 when I was 22 and my brother was 20, we did an epic road trip across the USA in my small 1979 Fiat X1/9: it was from San Francisco to Colorado Springs to Latham NY to West Hartford CT to Washington DC to Key West FL to Santa Barbara CA and back home to San Francisco. 11,500 miles over 5 weeks. Truly epic!
That little Fiat X1/9 was a fun and beautiful sports car. See the first picture in the imgur link below. And it was dependable and reliable, a solid runner.
We left on 11 April 1983 and the weather over Donner Pass was clear, albeit still cold. But once we entered Colorado snow started falling heavily. Heading into Denver the snow had built up on the roads, the radio was warning people to stay home if they don’t have to go out, and several cars had wiped out. But we passed them and kept on truckin’ through.
I grew up in the northeast and fortunately learned how to drive in snow and ice. And, a nice surprise that I didn’t realize until then was that little car was actually designed well to drive in snow, with its mid-mounted engine and it being rear wheel drive, the engine weight was over the drive wheels and it handled the deep snow really well. When I say deep snow, it was about 4-6” — deep for a tiny X1/9, that is. Much deeper and we’d have had to stop.
The late spring snow storm was a bad one and it followed us across the USA as we drove eastward. We visited our brother at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and it was cold, windy, and wintry there.
Leaving USAFA and heading to Chicago next, we decided to drive through the night and see if we could outrun the storm. Because of the storm, on that overnight run we ended up off the interstate, off the road completely, and in the median twice. For the entire trip it would be three times.
The first time that we wiped out was when were on I-76 northeast of Denver. My brother was driving and was passing a semi truck and trailer that was in the right lane. We were in the snowier left lane, and the car was getting squirrelly. Just as we were passing, the truck jackknifed right next to us. The cab of the truck was pointed right at us, sideways and facing directly at us, as it slid down the interstate. A sobering sight indeed, especially in a small and low car like we had — its massive grill and headlights were pointed right at me in the right seat. My brother expertly maneuvered the car onto the median on our left, he kept his speed up and therefore maintained momentum while we were in the snow (about 6”, on the grass), and then he steered us back onto the interstate as if nothing happened. The truck, in the meantime, ended up in the snow on the right side of the road, stopped, while we kept on truckin’ on.
No harm, no foul, and we were fine. Luckily! No damage to the car with that off-roading stretch of maybe 200-300 yards.
The second time we ended up off of the interstate and onto the snowy median was early the next morning, in eastern Nebraska, after driving through the night on really treacherous snow and ice and crosswinds and snow drifts formed across the interstate. Almost nobody else was on I-80 that night, and all night long on the radio they kept telling people to stay home, stay off the roads, and how unsafe it was to drive.
But we were young and dumb and full of bravado and not full of wisdom. I drove all night long across Nebraska and the car was frequently squirrelly as it wanted to slide sideways. I kept applying correction and we trucked onward. And I was driving WAAAAAY TOO FAST! In the days of the double nickel (55 mph) I was cruising at 60-70 in the bad weather. Very, very dumb! When you’re that young and full of machismo, you don’t think you’re going to die. That was us.
That night across Nebraska, some of the worst experiences was exiting to get gas. That’s because, while what little traffic there was on the interstate kept the right lane moderately clear of heavy snow buildup, that wasn’t true of the exit ramps. I still remember taking the exits and plowing through deep, unplowed snow, and then spotting the gas station. But the station’s parking lot was not plowed and it was covered by deep and pristine snowfall. Fortunately the temperature was cold, so the snow was light and powdery instead of heavy and slushy.
From the street, I’d stop and aim my car at the gas pumps. And then I’d gun it and keep the power on while going through the deep, pristine, powdery snow. Gotta keep your momentum up! The trick also included being able to stop at the pumps instead of flying right past them, or worse, right into them. Fortunately, beneath the awnings above the pumps there was clear pavement instead of fallen snow so I could stop. I just had to get to the pumps and not be stuck in the deep-ish snow surrounding them. We managed to do it well and without incident, twice that night.
Anyway, I drove through the night and as the sun started to rise the next morning there were more cars on the road with us. And I kept passing them on the icy road. In eastern Nebraska near the exit for York NE and highway NE-93B (grid 40.821819, -97.462402), we caught a sudden and strong gust of crosswind. It blew the car sideways on the icy road and at that moment Isaac Newton and his laws of momentum and energy and inertia were in control of the car. Not me. Traveling at 70mph we were spinning sideways and ended up off the road and onto the median. I can still see the plowed snow flying sideways over the front hood of the car as we slid sideways, spinning. I waited for us to hit an irrigation ditch or some concrete structure but fortunately that never came. We eventually skidded to a stop in the median.
The snow had been deep and powdery soft. It was about a foot deep. While we were spinning sideways it felt like the hand of God was gently holding the car and us until we stopped. The small and low X1/9 never threatened to roll over, thank God. We had been spinning flat in the powder snow.
When we came to a stop we got out of the car to assess any damage. Fortunately there was none. Even the plastic air dam on the front lower was in place. As we assessed, standing in the deep snow, some of the cars and trucks we had recently passed drove by, about 25 yards from us. One trucker even waved as if to say, You stupid, dumb kids, you are very lucky! A bit embarrassing.
To get back onto the highway I pointed the car at an acute angle with the eastbound direction, gained some momentum, climbed the little berm that the road surface was on, and we popped right back onto the road surface.
And then I proceeded to drive way too fast again, and passed those same cars and trucks.
We were west of Lincoln NE and, because we were curious about the road surface, at one point we pulled over and stopped on the shoulder and got out. The highway was empty then. No traffic. We walked onto the road surface and found everything, everything, was covered in ice! We’d been driving on a solid sheet of ice!
Incredible.
We wiped out and ended up off the road a third and final time a couple of days later while in Upstate New York on the NY Thruway between Rochester and Syracuse. There the snow was wet and slushy and, again while passing in the left lane, the heavy slush pulled the car to the left and we ended up in the median. Again.
In the end as we drove eastward, we ended up following the storm and being in it for its travel across the USA.
Here are the only surviving pictures from that trip. In the first picture, that’s the day we left and we’re in front of our parents’ house in San Francisco. I’m on the right and my brother on the left. That was my first car, I bought it new with my Marine Corps pay, and I absolutely loved that car!
In the snow picture, with me and the car of the road, that was the third (and, thankfully, final) time we ended up off of the freeway due to snow and ice on the eastbound leg. That was in Upstate New York on the NY Thruway between Rochester and Syracuse.
Pictures —
Here are some headlines from that freak storm that hit late in the spring of 1983.
● Spring storm buries Midwest — Spring storm buries Midwest - UPI Archives
● Spring storms pounded the Midwest and Northeast Sunday, downing… — Spring storms pounded the Midwest and Northeast Sunday, downing... - UPI Archives
● A memory we talk about every spring, the State Street river of 1983 — https://www.abc4.com/news/wirth/a-memory-we-talk-about-every-spring-the-state-street-river-of-1983/amp
