Car in the Ditch???????

That is what could have happened to my car today morning. As usual the weather in Scranton sucked, with freezing rain, sleet, snow and ice (finally a slushy mix was in the road). As a good practice (they call it best practice) had my car switched on 20 mins before I started to office, cleaned all the icy wintry mix on top of my car. The drive from my house to office is not much of a problem. I give ride to my office colleague whose house is in a steep hill, for which I have to take a small de-tour from my office route.

I have had problems before in the snow and ice mixture driving up the hill and was really skeptical to drive up this time too. I thought lucky me, since I did not have any problem in driving up the steep hill. I was sort of confident that I have made it but there lied the final touch. There is an adage that life is not always smooth, but the problem today morning when I was taking U turn was that the road was too smooth. There is no worst place to do a 180 than this one. With me staring down the hill, it is a forest with trees and not a road (sema pallam) and my car front tires are deep inside more than 1 feet of snow.

Only after getting down the car to look at the conditions, I realized how slippery it was. It was at least 2 inches of ice on the road and I could not walk there, I could have fell down and hurt myself easily. I shoveled the snow below the front tires in my car and with combination of reverse gear and drive mode, I struggled( rather the car struggled) for about 15-20 mins to come out of the snow. Now I am more experienced in driving in snow :) and know who will come to help you when you are really struggling.

How to do a 360 easily???

What is 360??

Car doing a complete circle of turn at high speed (speed is relative). Simplea layman termsla “Car Full Roundu Adikanum”(Thanks to Shankar for the definition).

Physical Requirements:

1. Obviously you need a car for doing a 360 (Enna question ithu).

2. Car tires should be bald (namma lollu sabha manohar thala maari) or you should have driven the car with new tires for more than 20k miles ( avlo ottuna eppadiyum car tire bald aaydium).

3. Preferably no passengers in the car except you, compulsorily no gals (otherwise there will be lot of screaming).

4. Driver heart should be made of steel (shouldn’t panic under any circumstance).

Environmental Conditions:

1. You should drive down the hill (hill grade should be high).

2. There should be a stop sign in the road where you cannot make your car to stop.

3. There should have been atleast 1 inch of sleet (sleet is neither snow nor ice, but very slippery) rain.

4. No Car should be parked in the road where you are going to do 360

5. Gods should have showered a lot of luck on you

Drive down the hill at a good speed( if the speed limit is 20 , drive at 35-40) and try applying your brakes at the first stop sign, you cannot stop the car from doing a 360, trust me I did that twice this morning.

Driving in Hazadrous snow storm

I dont know how to start writing abt the trip (unmayaa sollanunaa this is my first blog so dont know how to write).... ok let me start like thiswhat made me to drive for 9 hours in the hazadrous snow storm? I am guy who is risk taking and adventrous coupled with the motivation for making to my sweet frnd's b'day made me to drive in the snow storm.

It was a 450 miles journey from Scranton,PA to Blacksburg,VA usually through the woods of Pennslvania , through the capital state (MaryLand), West Virginia and Virginia. I made the trip in my trusted Nissan Sentra, though it is a two wheel drive was very very stable in the snow storm. I started around 1.00 P.M from Scranton on March 16th and had no second thoughts of driving in the snow. I was prepared with all the essentials for the trip - cookies, water, and books (incase I got stuck in the road due to snow). I have driven the entire stretch 5 times before, usually it takes 6 hours 15 mins to drive the entire stretch with an average speed of 75 miles per hour. In this drive i was driving in 35-40 miles per hour for the first 4 hours, i drove behind big 18 wheel trucks since they clear the snow when they go on the road. As a young driver who is willing to take risks Intially I was trying to change lanes but found it pretty difficult due to the snow accumulation in the middle of the road.There were lot of vehicles skidded of the road and i had a close call when i was 100 miles away from scranton, my car skidded and i try to pull it back then again it skidded then i applied the brake and the hand brake at the same time to stop it. I later on realised that the car had stopped perpendicular to the road with inches from the state trooper(cop) car , infact that state trooper was trying to pull another skidded car from the side of the road. I remember the look the state trooper gave me after lowering his car window and he just said "drive carefully", my confidence was shattered for a while and i was feelin nervous , i have never felt like this since i started driving my dads Bajaj M-80, thanks to my planning i had a bottle of water i drank one full bottle of water to calm my nerves( infact till date i did not say to my frnd that i had a close call). Then i did something (i myself would call it insane) i took out my camera whi le driving and took some snaps of the road conditions. I took a break after 4 hours and had crossed only 150 miles(in good road conditions i cover the distance in 2 hours). I stretched my legs a bit( i had 300 more miles left in the journey) and then when i saw the car i realised the road condition i was really driving in, the front part of the car was completly covered with thick ice(probally 5-10 inches), i removed the ice with the ice scraper and started again. The road conditions started improving as i was driving south and i started picking up speed after some time. I stopped for gas after i crossed into virginia after 6 hours of driving(180 miles still remaining), i grabbed a french vanilla in the gas station. I have a peculiar habit when i do a long drive alone, i listen to SV sekhar comedy plays, the plays are so witty and humorous it will keep you occupied when you are driving. I listened to 6 sv sekhar comedy plays during the drive for close to 7 hours. I reached Blacksburg after 9 hours of driving. It is a drive to remember and cherish forever