Albuquerque and Santa Rosa night before last. Came out of nowhere. Driving along in I-40 at 75mph and one minute the air is clear then the next minute I see snow flakes. At first just a few but quickly this few turned into many. Then too many. On the road surface I see snow sticking and tracks in the snow.
Of course I'm slowed way down by now and cars zooming by in the fast lane like always. But not for long. A few miles down the road and there are cars in the median and on the side/shoulder of the road. And further east on other side of the freeway came upon stopped traffic. A wrecker had run off the road on a way to a call I guess. Another wrecker pulling the first one out of weeds off the side of freeway. Thankfully no stoppage on the east bound side.
I end up behind a slow moving -- 30mph -- big rig and let it clear a path ahead of my car. Sure my car has new tires, Bridgestones, but of course summer/high performance tires. New though, maybe just around (or over) 1000 miles. And AWD, traction control and PSM. Even so, I could easily break the tires loose with just a dab of the throttle so while the new tires were gripping they had a tenuous hold on the road with snow on the surface.
Managed to snap a pic while driving.
Decided to bid my time and stayed in the slow lane behind the big rig. Got pretty tense at a couple of places when the snow got several inches deep. The car didn't get skittish or act up but I had a death grip on the wheel. Scared about being snowed in I called ahead -- using my cell phone while driving ( afraid to pull off the freeway cause I might not be able to get back on ) and called motel in Santa Rosa to reserve a room.
About 10 miles west of Santa Rosa drove out of the snow and only managed to touch 75mph a briefly a mile or two before my turn off.
Felt sick and stressed and decided to keep the room instead of pressing on. Glad I did cause later came the food poisioning symptoms. Oh my. Rudy's BBQ let me down.
Next day late on way across Texas panhandle and still sick enough to after a stop to forget to turn on the V1. Big mistake. Texas officer pulled me over for doing 80mph in a 70mph zone. Ticket. I asked several times for a warning and was told couldn't be done. Of course had I been in a vehicle with TX plates or been in a pickup truck or had a load of kids in a mini-van I could have run 10 mph over all day long. Right after I was cited and the officer drove away -- crossed back over the median -- and I pull back on the road from the shoulder these and other vehicles whizzing by while I'm tootling along at 70mph in the slow lane.
No biggie. I'll contact court and ask for PBA and plead for mercy and get ticket reduced. BTW, took the officer no time to write the citation. I've had to wait longer for a Happy Meal in a drive-thru. He was back on patrol before I had the citation folded and stored in the glove box.
But the worst was yet to come.
In Topeka got confused and missed an exit for Joplin. The NAV unit was directing me where to go and I made right turn onto a side street -- housing division -- and didn't see the low center island. Ran the car right over the thing. Straddled it. Could hear scraping noises. Horrible.
Started screaming NO NO NO and scanned dash for any warning lights. None came on. Pulled over when I could and checked gages again. Everything looked ok. Got out bright LED flashlight and walked around car looking for any signs of trouble. Tires still inflated. No scuff marks on the rims. Looked under the car and all panels in place and no fluids dripping. Even the low hanging spoiler apparently no worse for the wear.
Gingerly got back in the car and got going again and finally after miles of navigating city streets and I-44 under construction got back on the I-44 toll road and got the car up to speed. No vibration. No pulling. No nothing but what had been there before.
Still I had NAV unit plot a route to Springfield MO (Porsche dealer there), back to Oklahoma City (Porsche dealer there), Wichita KS (Porsche dealer there) and Merriam KS (near KC Mo), and yep Porsche dealer there, just in case.
Decided to stop in Joplin and spend the night instead of pressing on into KC -- would have arrived around 2am had I pressed on. But as soon as I finish this I'm going to check out of the hotel in Joplin and make a guick run up to KC Mo via 71 highway and get car into the service department and have the alignment checked just in case.
All of this and I have yet to even see my folks.
I think I'm about through with road tripping...
Sincerely,
MarcW.