Heh. Reminds me of a winter I was stationed at Duluth IAP. Mesaba Ave runs nearly straight down the bluff toward some wharves on Lake Siberia. One fine winter evening my wife and I decided to brave a snow storm and head out to a Chinese (!) restaurant we liked for an evening dinner. We didn't make it.
As I drove down the avenue, there came a red light near the top of the bluff. I actually managed to get stopped for the light, but then I must have twitched on the brake pedal, because my Datsun 1200 broke loose and away we went, sliding down the hill in our curling stone's stately pace with braking action of zero. As we neared the bottom and those wharves, there hove into view a last-ditch side street, and even though I had no braking action, I had excellent steering: I was able to turn onto the side street. We took the hint and went home (getting back up the hill was a trick in itself) and ate in.
The bluff wasn't all bad, though. Many's the morning I drove in to the base and, from the top of the bluff, looked down on the sunrise.
Heh. Reminds me of a winter I was stationed at Duluth IAP. Mesaba Ave runs nearly straight down the bluff toward some wharves on Lake Siberia. One fine winter evening my wife and I decided to brave a snow storm and head out to a Chinese (!) restaurant we liked for an evening dinner. We didn't make it.
ReplyDeleteAs I drove down the avenue, there came a red light near the top of the bluff. I actually managed to get stopped for the light, but then I must have twitched on the brake pedal, because my Datsun 1200 broke loose and away we went, sliding down the hill in our curling stone's stately pace with braking action of zero. As we neared the bottom and those wharves, there hove into view a last-ditch side street, and even though I had no braking action, I had excellent steering: I was able to turn onto the side street. We took the hint and went home (getting back up the hill was a trick in itself) and ate in.
The bluff wasn't all bad, though. Many's the morning I drove in to the base and, from the top of the bluff, looked down on the sunrise.
Eric Hines