slip sliding away

[Brett Dikeman]

At 9:27 PM -0500 12/28/04, Lee Levitt wrote:

>In the five and a half hours of driving, the car didn't lose traction once
>(except when I tapped the brakes to check the conditions) until we got to my
>driveway...

I helped Mark fetch a friend's car in Boston Sunday night- when I got 
to his apartment (and met the WHOLE Chang family....or just about; 
visiting and thrilled with the snow), the roads has an inch or so of 
packed snow as the crews couldn't keep up.  Conditions on 128 
approaching whiteout, with winds 20-30mph blowing the dry snow 
everywhere.  Fun stuff.  The Hakka Q's (pretty damn worn in the back, 
better up front; two winters and at least one full summer season when 
one of my #@!$ Ronal rims cracked) did fairly well.  Not nearly as 
good as when they were new, when it was a challenge to get them to 
break loose in 2nd in a straight line...but still quite good given 
the conditions.  I think next time I'll get a slightly more normal 
size- 195/45 is a tad thin for the lumbering beast.

Some fun pics:
http://frank.mercea.net/~brett/2004_winterwonderland/
(5891 sums up the fun I had on the back roads decently, and the shot 
of Newbury Street is kinda cool.  Sorry for the noise, all were shot 
at something like 1600 ISO).

Two hours later, we're half way back to his place, the friend's car 
tucked away under Boston Common) and Mrs. Chang calls.

"Yup, we're almost back."
"Quite a bit, on purpose."

;-)

If you think it's fun driving in the snow and only sliding by 
accident- well, you should try spending an entire two days doing it 
on purpose!  Winter driving schools are a total hoot- NEQ is running 
one 15-16th and again Feb 5th-6th.  Last year's motto on the nametags 
was "if you can't stick it, slide it!"...Or was it the other way 
around?  Some details on www.neqclub.org.  Bring lots of warm 
clothing, no thicker than 5w30 oil, and make sure the battery is in 
good shape.  It won't turn you into a Rohl, but the money spent on 
one WDS is pretty small compared to your average insurance 
deductible...

Plus, doesn't this look like a hell of a lot of fun?
http://frank.mercea.net/photos/cars/IMG_0643.jpg
(full set from last year's WDS are here: 
http://frank.mercea.net/zoph/photos.php?album_id=14 )

Okay, I'm done promoting the schools and showing off my photos now :-)

Brett
-- 
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/