Date: 2 Feb 96 17:56:00 +1800
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: GOLDBERG_DAVID@mpd.tandem.com
Subject:
vintagvw%sjsuvm1.sjsu.edu@tzone.mpd.tandem.com
Subject: A true story in Austin,Tx(long)
Dateline Austin Texas, Feb 1 1996. At about 1:00 pm today on Loop 1 here
in Austin, something happened that, well frankly, is one for the record
books. The 5:00pm rush hour had been moved up to one o'clock today due
to the freezing rain, and sleet that has been falling over the city. As
this reporter stood on the side of the road reporting on road
conditions, I saw the unbelievable, a Volkswagon Camper, thats right
ladies and gentlemen, a Volkswagon Camper was passing all of the traffic
on the road. It was utterly amazing. People were swerving off the
road, with looks of disbelief etched into their faces. Ladies and
gentelmen, I have now seen just about everything.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For those of you who haven't seen any news in the past two days, Austin,
and most of the state are covered with a blanket of ice, by 10:00am
yesterday(1 Feb) there were 210 accidents, alot of which involved 4x4's.
People here think that a 4wd means that you will not get stuck, or slide
on ice. I was driving home from classes at Saint Edwards university in
south Austin, to where i live in North Austin, normally a 30 minute
drive on the the freeway(loop 1 is a 6 lane freeway) but due to the
everyone was going slow, took me 90 minutes to get home, and I was the
fastest on the road at 40 MPH. Everyone was going 20-30 MPH with one
foot on the gas, and the other on the brake, makes for a dangerous
drive, as the people are ready to jump on the brakes at the slightest
indication that there may be a reason to slow down in the next 1/2 mile.
Needless to say, I grew up in this stuff, Pennsylvania, so I was more
concerned with getting away from these drivers, than going 30mph.
Fortunately for some reason, the people who normally refuse to get out
of the left lane when someone comes up behind them, got out of the way.
Whoa. One negative incident, I was rear ended, fortunately the person
was only going about 2 mph, and had 5mph bumper on the front. Put a
small dent in the bumper, and strangley, pulled a dent out of the bumper
that was in another section of it. Did more damage to the other car
than to my bus :-))). Had a cop been there I would have nailed him to
the wall, but I was cold, and it was lunchtime, and the damage was very
minor and to the bumper only, I checked under the bus to make sure.
To backtrack a bit, the drive to school(8:00am class) was rather
eventful. The heating, and defrosting is barely adequate, and whose
hasn't been at one time, and the bus sat outside all night, and as a
consequense, the rain was freezing on the windshield, and the wipers,
nor the heat could dislodge it. I had meant to buy more windshield
washer fluid, but like everything else, when it is in your face at the
store, you cannot remember you need it. So three times during the trip
to school I had to stop and scrape off the windshield. By the time I
got to school the heat had been effective enough to warm parts of the
windshield so the rain would not stick.
Today I had to go back to work, but classes were cancelled, work was
cancelled yesterday. I had to scrape an 1/8" of ice from the windows on
one side of the bus only, unfortunately it was the drivers side, so I
had to do a reasonably good job at it so I could see.
Tonight the weather people are predicting more of the same, eventhough
the roads had started to dry out. I looks as if I may be spending the
night here at work. I only wish I had gotten that propane heater
installed so I could sleep in the camper.
Cheers,
David
74 Thing
79 Westy
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