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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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