I apologize.
You see when it snows like this – you know, constant, fine, light snow, the roads get slippery and when you hit the gas you slip and slide.
You sit and spin.
The thing is…ever since I got this car with all-wheel-drive, when I hit the gas, I just go.
Rain, snow, small animals, volcanic ash. Nothing can stop me!
Yes!!! It’s like I’m a God!!!!!
Lord of the Lanes! Baron of the Boulevard! Potentate of the Interstate!
Four-wheeled power – an advantage, right?! Sure…if you’re not in front of me when the light turns green.
And when you are, I get so very anxious. I’ve become an all-wheel-drive snob and I’m not proud of it.
“C’mon! Letsgo letsgo letsgo letsgo letsgo letsgo letsgo letsgo letsgo! What?! Are you paid by the hour!!!”
(not that there’s anything wrong with that)
It’s like being the guy that gets frustrated and everyone thinks is so annoying because his Mensa IQ affords him the luxury of “getting” things so much quicker, but then he has to wait until everyone else catches up while he rolls his eyes.
He’s not the one that gets the girl, is he.
Like that insipid commercial for AT&T where the portly passenger with the fastest network gets the download quicker than everyone else in the car, and laughs out loud. Thirty more seconds go by and the rest of the passengers get the download and do the same.
They’re the popular ones. They’re late, but having all the fun.
It’s lonely at the top.
This winter we’ve had way more than our share of snow and as a result we’ve been sitting in lines, three lanes wide, like cattle in a slaughter line, waiting waiting waiting to get to the office or home.
And there I sit, with the power to go go go!!! …if it weren’t for the 1985 Crown Vic in front of me.
It’s like a curse.
God I miss my Harley.
Look at the bright side, Roosh. If we had full employment you’d have a lot more 85 Crown Vics getting in your way.
Just be thankful that the federal government was able to get so many ‘clunkers’ off the roads last year.
But seriously, it is allowable to be a 4WD snob if you observe one rule-keep tow cables in the back seat and offer to pull people out of the snowbanks after you run them off the road. Just don’t do it on the freeways, that’s verboten.
Well, if you were able to write that whole post while waiting for the Crown Vic to move its mass, I can see why you are complaining. What does one do when they have a Mensa IQ & AWD?
What does one do when they have a Mensa IQ & AWD?
Figure out an alternate route?
You analyze, move with alacrity, but with all due care.
I haven’t had a truck without 4WD in almost 20 years, so I feel your frustration. But remember, 4WD means you can get going, not that you can stop.
Yes, I’ve pulled more than a few cars and pickups out of the ditch with chains. One word of advice: have the other person put them on. I’ve seen too many instances of bent axles and ripped sheet metal to want to take responsibility for damage to someone else’s car. And be willing to call a tow truck rather than pull someone out of a clearly hopeless situation.
I LOVE my 4×4 Wrangler and yes I do carry a tow rope and help the less fortunate (2WD) cars out when I can. The Dec. Blizzard was awesome for me taking the back roads and climbing the hills that others could not make it up but when I got home I was greeted with a compact blocking the entrance to my apt buildings lot. I just hooked up and used 4Low to pull it out of the snow bank and went on my way. Most 4×4 and AWD trucks are not that nice and it erks me when I see others not helping out as much as seeing 2WD cars sitting at lights and mashing the gas as fast as they can.
HINT: more tire speed does not translate into better traction on a sheet of ice when your dead stopped!
Just because you don’t have 4×4/AWD does not mean you can drive ignorantly.
And last but least – just because you drive a 4WD or AWD does not mean laws of physics do not apply to you.
dovetail;
I agree whole heartedly. Being an old 4×4 afficianado myself, it never ceases to amaze me that people driving them, ignore nerdbert’s first statement.
I now drive primarily FWD equipped vehicles and one of the best things that I ever did for my family was to bite the bullet and put winter tires on my four car fleet! I’m sure, at least in the case of my children, I more than recouped the cost of them when compared to what the costs of accidents that they avoided would have been!
My daughter especially appreciated them being on her 4×4 Suzuki Sidekick as she traveled that stretch of US 169 between Virginia and Ely on her trips to and from college. She didn’t like using the 4 wheel drive unless she absolutely had to, which, in her case, was only once in two years, because the shifter for it was tricky.
I’ve have 4WD on both my trucks. Living rural as I do I wouldn’t be without it. I wonder how the electron-guzzler GM Volt will do in the MN winter climate?
“God I miss my Harley.”
You ain’t the only one brother!! Only about 10 – 12 weeks or so to go till riding weather (weeping).
Only about 10 – 12 weeks or so to go till riding weather (weeping).
I used to be hard core like that. My rule of thumb before my accident was “if the HIGH for the day would be 40 or more, and the roads were dry, I rode to work”.
Now, I like my A/C (not angryclown) and heat a lot, so I don’t ride as often.
I’m not fond of riding when the temp is less than 35. There was a time when I tried to ride sometime during every month of the year, not anymore. I can tell stories of not so fun rides on snow covered roads. Maybe Johnny can run a thread to share some late season ride stories.
I was riding in November this year one week before the ice storm. It was 70 degrees. One week later we lost three trees to ice accumulation and the bike was in storage.
Sadly that was the end of the riding season for me as well. There can be days in the course of the winter when the temp isn’t too bad and the back county roads are clear of ice and dry. Used to be that I’d try to get a short ride in on those days. However, my bikes are parked in my heated work shop about 400′ from the county highway and the path back to my shop is actually my yard. I plow the path back to the shop but it’s one slippery ride to get the bike to dry road. It’s one thing to ride my early softail over the ice, it’s a whole different matter on my newer Road King. The ride on that thing gives new meaning to the phrase “pucker-power” (removing leather seat material from the “nether regions” is not a pleasant experience, if you get my drift)(chuckle).
I remember in 1998, I rode every month except for January. There was a dry day in Feb , low 30s, I rode my bike from the apartment I was moving out of, to my house. December 14th, it was a high of 51 degrees, rode with my wife on back and buddy down around Shakopee and other SW burbs.
First they didn’t give us our rocket car, then they took away the global warming they promised us.