Well all the prep paid off. I drove home to Kansas last week (from florida) in my 96 RMW. Other than the oil leak from the cooler adapter (fixing it soon), only "issue" was a 02 sensor, but fixed that when I got there.
It is nice to have enough room to lay out and sleep while the other person drives, even with two dogs in the car.
Anyways, weather did turn to the bad on the last few days. I was out drinking with a few friends one night and there was 1/4 inch of ice on the ground when we left. I drove home after cleaning my windows and made it home no problem. Maybe had a few more drinks than I planned because when I woke up, my dad was asking how the grass got on the front bumper. I honestly have no idea, but there was some suck to it.
The next day, I took some back roads over to the wife's grand parents. They had not gone and done much with the roads yet, but it didn't stop me. She was behind me in a 98 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and I kept losing here. I did slid a little bit when stopping, but never had any troubles, which was extremely surprising as I had to go up a decent grade on a switch back corner and I made it with only a little bit of wiggle on the last turn. The old lady ended up spinning out and having to put the Jeep in 4x4. It probably has more to do with the driver and the fact I have almost new Kumho tires, but it doesn't stop me from bragging.
Yesterday was the biggest test. On our drive back, we got caught up in the winter storm going through Arkansas. We had been driving in some light snow and ice for about 30 minutes, but I was so comfortable with how this car did on the snow and ice I was driving at or near speed limits while most all other traffic was back down to 30-45 mph. So, we are cruising along about 60 mph and this mustang comes up the on-ramp. I guess he didn't want to be behind me (even though it's a divided 4 lane highway) cause he just keep accelerating. He was a few hundred feet ahead of me when he hit the highway and lost it. He slid across my lane and looped back into his, then back into mine, and back to his. I had let off the gas and lightly applied the brakes anticipating the impact, but after his 2 loop, I knew his next move and that was the sholder on his side. When he started going back into his lane, I tap the gas and his next loop was right behind me and he sat in the median facing the opposite direction of traffic. Well, that was fun
So we keep chugging along as the weather got worse. It got to the point the people were snailing along in the only lane the snow plow truck had cleared (the right lane). I got alot of glares when I got over in the left lane and passed them, but the ol' buick never stuggled. It kept chugging long and never wiggled. So we get down the road and stop a place called mammoth springs (usually a large spring fed lake, but now the place was full of snow and good place to play with the dogs). We stopped for awhile then got back on the road. What do you know, about 2 miles down the road, there was a traffic jam due to an accident through the curvy, winding hills around there. I'm sitting there with my brakes on at the rear of the line of at least 40 cars, then I see it coming. Some mid 2000's impala was going left and right trying to stop (we were facing downing hill in an S-curve). Wasn't much I could do here but wait for it. As he got closer, I tried my only option and that was to roll forward a little bit, and it worked. He missed my bumper by a few inches and went back into the left lane and some how straighted up enough to pull right into the line of traffic.
All in all, the roads slowed us up about 4 hours. I was amazed at the amount of mini-vans in the ditch. I think I seen more of them than cars. For the longest time, I was about the only car on the road. But, I made it home and the car made it un-scathed (other than the brand new water pump I put on is leaking out of the heater hose line).
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Mon Feb 03, 2014 8:12 pm
