Winter Fun

I second everything Mike, jbjeep, and Earle said - with the exception of the cops on the lake thing, which I've never seen and so can't comment on - but it sounds pretty sweet.

The only way to learn it is experience. We can tell you stuff like drive slowly, turn into the skid, use engine braking if possible - it's all good advice, but vehicles on snow and especially ice behave radically different than dirt, mud, and rocks. If you've never been on it, it's hard to explain - no frame of reference and all that.

I don't know anything about schools for winter driving - I've never heard of any here on the right coast. Next time you're up in Oregon in the snow take the opportunity and find a low-traffic road or unplowed parking lot and just hit your brakes or throw your steering wheel around and such (carefully, of course, you don't want to wreck your jeep) and just note how your vehicle handles. It's tons of fun and it'll teach you a bit about what you're dealing with.

Also, take a look back up-thread at Mike's advice about 2wd/PT 4wd etc. Very good stuff.

Earle Hort> I learned how to drive in this stuff. The worst surface I ever drove on was

Brett:

You live in Houston, huh? I don't understand why it's surprising that you have idiot drivers there. I'm from Austin, whenever I have to go to your neck of the woods I go waaaaaaay around you... Last time I tried driving in your city I almost burned up my clutch.

The ice is out of control here, they've shut down all our flyovers, we're fresh out of chemical de-icer and there have been wrecks everywhere. One of my buddies came up to my house earlier today to borrow something, said he had his truck in 4wheel going 80 past everyone on I-35 and he almost rear-ended someone when his brakes didn't quite work as he'd hoped. I just laughed at him.

-Micah

Well, northern LA county got hit with some wintry stuff today...I was kinda snickering.

I just got back from Atlanta and the local morning news was talking about how all the grocery stores ran out of bread, milk and firewood because it got down to 28*F last night and they might be getting some precipitation today. Being from Michigan, I had to laugh.

Easter 2004 found me in Nashville where it was about 45 degrees and rainy. Suddenly a snow mix started coming down. It had been 60 degrees all week so I knew there was no way the snow was going to stick to the road, and the roads would just stay wet. It was funny how everyone was slowing down to 35-40 mph on I-24 while I was blowing past them in my F250 with my Jeep on a trailer.

When I got to our hotel a group of college-age kids ran outside, mesmerized by the "snowfall."

That said, my freshman year at Belmont College in Nashville saw an 8-inch snowfall overnight, the day before the start of the January '88 term. That pretty much paralyzed the city, but I learned to drive in snow years before and my roomate was from Chicago so we had no trouble.

When I lived in Alaska it was a regular thing to go to the parking lot at the "Mall" and chase each other around the parking lot. Back then I was deiving a K5 Blazer, it was a blast!