17 what? You might ask. 17 accidents between The Planet Ann Arbor and Hoton Lake, that’s what. Can you say intermittent black ice and other various forms of frozen water?

We encountered the first two (slide-offs) within a mile of getting on the freeway. Most of the accidents we saw were slide-offs, including one semi that jack-knifed into the median. I didn’t see his face but the GG got a glimpse and said he looked very unhappy. There were a few two-car crashes and one that involved SIX cars if we counted right. I couldn’t tell if any of these involved injuries, etc. We saw one ambulance leaving a scene but couldn’t see what had happened because there was a barrier between the southbound and northbound. Maybe that was a good thing.

Did the GG slow down? Oh, yes he did. Disclaimer: he is a good driver but occasionally he is a little fast for my taste, especially in inclement weather. Today I was pretty comfortable with the speed we were going but kinda wished we would just get off the freeway and make our way back home via the back roads, although they were probably worse than the freeway today, just not a lot of traffic. The freeway was jammed with semis and recklessly fast pickup trucks. Guys, SLOW DOWN! When we passed a slow-moving pickup, the GG was marveling at its speed until I said, “It’s a woman.”

Nevertheless, we persisted, making a stop at FlaMan’s place after which the roads got much better. And after lunch at the Spikehorn Bar (we were both starving and the fish sandwich hit the spot), gas and windshield washer (low as you can probably guess via the photo), we got to the Hoton Lake Group Home aka the cFam cabin. The GG did a lot of snow-blowing (with my dad’s old blower). We aren’t sure what our itinerary is from here, weather permitting it might include Gaylord and/or Iggy (St. Ignace). But we’ll be back on The Planet at the end of the week by hook or by crook.

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