I just relocated to the Pacific Northwest and had to drive my SLK 55 across the northern states to get to my new home near Tacoma, WA. It was smooth sailing from Illinois across the Rockies to Boise, ID. I ran into some heavy snow fall in eastern Oregon.
Once into the low mountains on Interstate 84 I hit blizzard conditions. The snow was falling so hard at times I could hardly see the road grader I was following directly ahead of me. I followed the big grader for about two hours at 15 miles an hour! No way could I have passed him. The snow was about 6-8 inches deep in the other lane. At one point I was able to get a clear view of the traffic stacked up behind me and it was cars, SUVs and semis as far as I could see (probably 2 miles and 500 or more vehicles).
The highway was clean when I left Boise at about 6 am. It started to snow an hour or so later. The snow was accumulating so fast and so rapidly that within a few minutes it was becoming a problem for my low clearance car. I was about to pull over in the middle of nowhere to wait it out when I saw the road grader ahead of me. I pulled in behind him and followed directly behind him for about 30 miles. Talk about good timing!
I have Pirelli Wintersports on all four wheels. They are 'Mountain/Snowflake' tires and meet the requirements for 'traction tires' that are required by the DOT in the mountains. They proved themselves on this trip! I wish I could have taken a few pictures but I was afraid to stop to get my camera out. The rest of the trip was uneventful.
