NEW ICE ROAD RULE HARMS OUTDOORS PEOPLE

By Tim Colin
Editor
I and everyone I know are extremely disturbed. It seems that the State of Michigan is going to be ticketing people who drive their vehicles out onto lakes and rivers when there is little if any ice to hold up said vehicles. It seems the government believes it is the driver’s responsibility to check to make sure that there is adequate ice on a lake to hold up your personal vehicle. What kind of nonsense is this? How in the world do you know if your vehicle can be supported by the ice unless you first test the ice by driving your vehicle out on it? Of course once you’re out on the lake you is either going to find that there is ice to support your vehicle or there is not; in which case you will go through the ice and have to pay a big fine.

In addition to the fact that sometimes it is hard to tell if the ice is thick enough to hold your vehicle sometimes, it is hard to know if there is any ice at all to drive on. For instance, just last summer my dad was driving along a lake late one night when he decided to try to take a detour home across the ice. Unfortunately it was really foggy that evening and my dad couldn't see that there was no ice to drive on so he ended up 40 ft. out from shore and 15 ft. under water. Luckily my dad equipped his truck with an automotive snorkel device or ASD.

An ASD is just a long tube tied to a balloon that you release from your car hood whenever you find yourself underwater. Most people I know use their ASD at least once a year. The state legislature is talking about making an ASD mandatory on every car sold in Michigan because we have so many lakes.

The automotive snorkel device certainly kept my dad from having to chance swimming to the surface and getting all wet and maybe catching a cold. It allowed the old guy to remain calm and collect his thoughts since the snorkel device would allow him to stay under water for several days even weeks if he could find a way to catch a couple of fish. Meanwhile there was an emergency kit that he used to help pass the time. In there emergency kit he had some dried peanut butter sandwiches and a package of prunes to stay regular.

My dad was actually rescued the next day after a fisherman trolling for crappies hooked upon my dad’s truck. Unfortunately for my dad he had found in the emergency kit a bottle of tequila and when the deputy divers smelled his breath it was away to the jail for dear old dad. He also lost his license and had to pay some heavy fines. Right about now he is just about done with his community service. It seems it didn’t matter that my dad had not been drinking before he went into the drink. The fact that he drank while in his truck while under the drink was all the judge needed to know.

Well, it kind of serves him right. He never treated me that good when I was a kid. He always paid a lot more attention to what my brothers were doing. Just because I wasn’t able to get into the marching band like my brothers, my father always ignored me. Of course I had a hard job trying out for the marching band because I couldn’t play an instrument. Playing the drums gave me a headache and playing any kind of wind instrument gave me nose bleeds. No, I just could never be a band jock like my old man wanted me to be and I’ve always felt he thought less of me for it.