The first snow in Highlands this year is something that I am going to remember for the rest of my life.
Coming from South Alabama, we never get snow, and if we do, you better stock up on bread. Roads are shut down and schools and businesses take the whole week off.
The south’s weather is perfectly described by Southern comedian Matt Mitchell, “Jan. 1: Tornadoes, Jan. 2: Snow, Jan. 3: Pollen-nado, Jan. 4: Shunnarahquakes (like an earthquake but only billboards shake,) Jan. 5: Godzilla (but with a mullet and he emerges from Smith Lake.)”
We would wake up in small-town Alabama and turn on the T.V. to find out if our school would be closed when it would get too cold and sure enough, our school would be closed. We would rush outside to see the snow and there would only be cold, brown slush on the ground. There were no snowballs thrown, no sledding and no snowmen to be built with the “snow” that fell in South Alabama.
Fast forward to now, I was not expecting what I saw driving up to Highlands Monday morning. It felt as if I stepped into a movie. I was truly in a winter wonderland, and it made me love where I live even more.
I have to applaud the N.C. Department of Transportation and the Town of Highlands employees for making sure that I was able to drive on the road. Since I started in June of this past year, I was always worried that I wouldn’t make it up to the mountain once the snow fell, but these workers did a great job plowing and salting the roads to make sure that all citizens could carefully drive the roadways.
With the winter months in full swing, here are some tips from AAA on driving in the snow or on ice:
• Stay home. Only go out if necessary.
• Drive slowly.
• Accelerate and decelerate slowly. Apply the gas slowly to regain traction and avoid skids.
• Increase your following distance to five to six seconds.
• Know your brakes. Whether you have antilock brakes or not, keep the heel of your foot on the floor and use the ball of your foot to apply firm, steady pressure on the brake pedal.
• Don’t stop if you can avoid it.
• Don’t power up hills. Applying extra gas on snow-covered roads will just make your wheels spin.
• Don’t stop going up a hill. There’s nothing worse than trying to get moving up a hill on an icy road.