Winter Driving

The Frog wandered (flew) to Denver, Colorado this January, on Friday the 13th. Along with cousin Garrett, rented an SUV with AWD and drove to Steamboat Springs, Colorado with plans to attend the Bridgestone Winter Driving School on Sunday.

The town of Steamboat Springs is rather ritzy for this Southern California frog and the number of boutiques probably outnumber the residents! Never saw so many condos nestled on the slopes of the mountain that has the many ski trails. Half of Colorado was probably there, or at least their kids were! Skiing on Saturday was like driving on the Los Angeles freeway during rush hour. Only instead of fast moving vehicles, there were the dreaded snowboarders!

My slalom ability improved as I zipped (too steep to not zip) between parked snowboarders and snowboarders starting to move, ever which way a wild guess. Now I know why skiers feel snowboarders are a bane to the slopes. Actually the ones that are moving aren't the problem.

Those snowboarders that park on the slope, in a row, with snowboards perpendicular to the vertical descent preferred by skiers, are accidents waiting to happen.

I managed to survive skiing at Steamboat Springs, and vowed never to return. The next day I attended the Gear2 session of the Bridgstone Winter Driving School. Now, that was fun.

The techniques taught at the almost basic driving level is similar to any driving school, except for the emphasis on grip. Grip is important on snow and ice, and there were lots of snow and ice on the course. In fact there was nothing BUT snow and ice. I learned that without grip you have no control.

We used Toyota 4Runners and Toyota Camrys mounted with Bridgestone Blizzack winter tires. The tires were snow and ice tires, designed to replace studded tires. The tires were great!

Instruction was personal and very informative, as the short driving course with the obligatory turns, slalom and gates. I wish I could attend the higher level courses, but that costs a lot!

I had a lot of fun purposely losing it and as I slid sideways practiced how to regain control. I would recommend that school to anyone who might someday drive on snow or icy roads.

A Day too Early and a dollar short!

As planned, left for a ski trip to Brian Head Ski Area in Southern Utah a few days after Christmas Day. I originally planned to use my trusty old 1994 Dodge Caravan for the 350 mile trip but it wasn't as trusty as I thought. Sprung a coolant leak from somewhere, I suspect the water pump, so I decided to rent a vehicle for the trip.

I rented an SUV from Alamo, a chevy Trailblazer. This vehicle sucks gas like there is no tomorrow. The ride was firm and a little jiggly on the smooth and sometimes not too smooth (in California) Interstate 15. The Trailblazer doesn't track well and wanders a bit on the straights and is a little too top heavy. Made it to Cedar City and on to Brian Head Resort, never once having to use the 4WD.

Unfortunately, there was very little snow on the ground at Brian Head. Maybe 17 inches being optimistic. Man-made snow on the slopes allowed the resort to open with about 40% of the trails available for skiing. Mostly ice with a topping of manmade made the ski trip rate about 4.5 on a scale of 10 being best. But I managed to not fall until the second day of skiing when my unprepared legs started to give out, hence, a loss of control.

After departing the moderately successful ski trip, the weather changed and just a few days later, snow is falling and the resort is 100% open. Should have waited one week!

On the drive back to California, we stopped in Las Vegas on what was New Year's Eve at the Bellagio since parking is free there! The gambling tables and slots seemed rather high end for the $5 I planned to gamble with, so we went across the street to Bally's which was more within my price range. It was at Ballys that I lost my obligatory (homage) money ($5) to Las Vegas.

I will be back there in a month to visit with my sister who is a successful gambler. Meaning she wins more often than loses. So I will take a quick drive from California (4 hours) and have dinner with my sister who I haven't seen for a few years (East Coast resident) then after an overnight (and another $5 loss) I will head back to California!