Let there be light....

Part of our daily process now is to scrub the grime off of our headlights so we can see where we’re going. I had the great misfortune of driving home from JCPenney the other evening wondering if both of my headlights had blown. Turns out they were just completely covered with road grime.

This apparently is a major driving hazard in this area. As I’ve mentioned, they don’t put salt on the roads because when the temps drop, salt is basically useless. So, instead, they coat the roads with small gravel which embeds in the snow/ice to make a decent driving surface. However, when the snow/ice melts (March is bad for this), all the dirt that was on the small gravel is washed off and splatters all over all the vehicles driving along the road. It basically looks like we’ve all just gone “mudding”.

We’ve had some “warm” temperatures lately, hovering just above freezing. So the snow/ice layer on the roads has melted. Stephen told me there was a long traffic jam on the Glenn Highway the other night because so many people had pulled over to wipe off their headlights. I think people carry a stash of baby wipes for this purpose. Just another twist in the saga that is life in Alaska.