Gravel vs Blacktop

In this kind of weather there seems to be an advantage of having a graveled driveway vs. a blacktopped one. Our neighbor, whose job is to blacktop peoples driveways, is outside armed with broom & shovel trying to get his son out of his nicely blacktopped driveway.

As I walked through my living room I heard the racing of an engine and spinning tires and my curiosity got the best of me, so I went outside to see who was stuck and where. It's not unusual to have people stuck in our own front yard when they slide off the road in icy conditions. During times like these where we're living in a frozen tundra, salting of the roads and driveways doesn't make any difference. It's slippery before you salt and still slippery afterwards. Cinders and sand seem to work better on hills and steeper grades and of course those big ice scraping trucks help too.

Jimmy hasn't had any problems getting out of our driveway. He's been out several times and he's out right now. He decided we needed a new loaf of bread and made the mistake of asking me if there was anything else I'd like him to pick up while he was out. I venture to say that he'll be gone for some time. I was going to take advantage of his absence and make a weather related phone call but decided that perhaps I should jump in the shower instead.

I still hear the spinning of the neighbors tires on his steep graded driveway and I'm almost tempted to go out and give him permission to cross over our front yard to our driveway, but then I know that they would think I'm stupid for making such a suggestion, so I think I'll just let them work out their problem by themselves.

It's amazing how only 2 maybe 3 inches of snow on his blacktop driveway can be causing the neighbor so much trouble....but of course our driveways are down and we both have to climb a steep grade to get out.