Airman Jack
01-04-2005, 12:05 AM
To add to the winter tire praise in other threads, i think the trip would have either been impossible or at the worst deadly if I had attempted to drive through those conditions last week on the stock RSA\'s. The Toyo Garit HT\'s I got from Tires 23 worked fantastically, despite a spin in North Dakota... I didn\'t realise it, but the road was completely covered with a uniform layer of ice, I have a couple pics of the spin spot and a video of my girlfriend sliding on the road. Luckily for me, no damage to the 3, but most importantly no damage to us!
So we left Toronto on Monday, and pulled into Chicago around 9pm EST, or 8pm Central. Ended up getting an AWESOME rate at the Hilton Homewood Suites, $89 a night US, so we stayed an extra day in Chicago to see the sights. I would highly recomment Andy\'s Live Jazz Club!
Setting out on Wednesday morning I knew it was the last day we were going to have decent weather, and made it to Fergus Falls Minnesota. Stayed at the Best Western there, and had one of the nicest continental breakfasts I\'ve ever had!
Thursday morning I woke up to a sheet of ice covering everything! After building up a false sense of confidence on highway 52 heading towards Minot is when I encountered the spin I mentioned. I don\'t think I exceeded 40mph after that for the rest of the day. Crawled into Minot that night at 8pm. Don\'t bother with the \"Dakota Inn\".. the rooms suck, there\'s not even a sink in the bathroom! We ditched that place and went to the Comfort Inn instead.
Finally made Canadian turf Friday at 1pm, and the roads were mystically clear of ice... I think the States could learn a lot from Canadian snow/ice clearing services. Funny story though, since the major highways in Sask. are cleared extremely well from snow, but when you get into town, you\'re faced with huge piles of uncleared snow!! Since the back end of my 3 was already riding low from all the crap I had in the back, I was dragging my belly all over the place!
So now I\'m in Moosejaw in the shacks on base, the girl has flown home, and the car is happily perpetually warm thanks to the block heater I had installed at Scarborough Mazda before I left. The winter tires held up great, the 3 was a comfy home for 4 days of driving, and now the suspension is much happier without all that extra junk in the trunk!
I hear you bastards in TO had +10C temperatures today.... gawd it sucks out here, the damn sun doesn\'t even rise until 9am! :D
So we left Toronto on Monday, and pulled into Chicago around 9pm EST, or 8pm Central. Ended up getting an AWESOME rate at the Hilton Homewood Suites, $89 a night US, so we stayed an extra day in Chicago to see the sights. I would highly recomment Andy\'s Live Jazz Club!
Setting out on Wednesday morning I knew it was the last day we were going to have decent weather, and made it to Fergus Falls Minnesota. Stayed at the Best Western there, and had one of the nicest continental breakfasts I\'ve ever had!
Thursday morning I woke up to a sheet of ice covering everything! After building up a false sense of confidence on highway 52 heading towards Minot is when I encountered the spin I mentioned. I don\'t think I exceeded 40mph after that for the rest of the day. Crawled into Minot that night at 8pm. Don\'t bother with the \"Dakota Inn\".. the rooms suck, there\'s not even a sink in the bathroom! We ditched that place and went to the Comfort Inn instead.
Finally made Canadian turf Friday at 1pm, and the roads were mystically clear of ice... I think the States could learn a lot from Canadian snow/ice clearing services. Funny story though, since the major highways in Sask. are cleared extremely well from snow, but when you get into town, you\'re faced with huge piles of uncleared snow!! Since the back end of my 3 was already riding low from all the crap I had in the back, I was dragging my belly all over the place!
So now I\'m in Moosejaw in the shacks on base, the girl has flown home, and the car is happily perpetually warm thanks to the block heater I had installed at Scarborough Mazda before I left. The winter tires held up great, the 3 was a comfy home for 4 days of driving, and now the suspension is much happier without all that extra junk in the trunk!
I hear you bastards in TO had +10C temperatures today.... gawd it sucks out here, the damn sun doesn\'t even rise until 9am! :D