God I love winter. I obviously don't know Josh the way you do, but I feel like I have a certain degree of trust in his ability to teach you to drive in the winter. He always struck me as knowledgeable with cars. My one Canadian piece of advice: after a big dump of snow, preferably with some packed frozen snow beneath, go to the biggest emptiest parking lot you can find and slide around. Don't need to go crazy trying to do donuts or anything, but if you learn at which point in the turn you loose traction, and how to counter steer, you'll be 90% of the way there, and yiur confidence should greatly improve. The most important thing is learning to turn where you want to go instead of just hitting the breaks. Sliding a bit will no longer phase you. After that it's as simple as reducing speed, breaking much earlier, and increasing space between other drivers.
He is knowledgeable, and a very good teacher. Learning to drive as a teenager was not a very good experience (not that my dad could've taught me to drive in snow or ice anyway; I doubt he saw snow more than three times in his life). This will be better. It took a lot to leave my comfort zone enough to ask, but I'm very glad I did. :-)
I bet he is, infact I've learned plenty from him north of the boarder and at the opposite side of the continent. I was privileged (in a cold sort of way) to have grown up 4x4ing on frozen roads well before I had my license. If the sliding around the parking lot thing is outside your comfort zone I promise you won't need to do it at speed. You can really ease into it. Just accelerate and turn, learn when it breaks, and try to straighten yourself out.
Also at basically no speed you can figure out how hard you need to hit the accelerator before you start spinning, or how hard you need to hit the brakes before they lock out.
I'd like to add that you should pick a couple of parking lot options and check them out when it's not snowy. Those concrete parking barrier things are a nasty surprise under snowfall... 🤪
I love this. Two thoughts came to mind while reading:
I, too, live in a small New England town, where the speed limits on the winding, hilly roads vary between 30 and 45 depending on how “Thickly Settled” the area is. I depend heavily on my car’s cruise control to keep me just under the limit. Speeding tickets suck.
And also, when I was little I liked to pretend that I was riding in the Millennium Falcon when I got to sit in the passenger seat while going somewhere in the snow at night. But the Enterprise is cool too. :)
Reading this piece was a brief little adventure. I just started reading with no pre-conceptions of what "a creative writing edition" was. I quickly found myself immersed in the narrative and intrigued by how it read like a novel that brings the reader right into the setting. Then, just as my anticipation of what was coming had my full attention, it ended! Awww. Good writing!
Star Trek TNG was airing as new when I learned to drive. I always thought the snowflakes whizzing at the windscreen in the dark, illuminated by the headlights, looked just like stars at warp traveling on the Enterprise.
Vermont was the **one** state I did not traverse at all during the year I drove a tractor trailer. (Nov 2020 - 2021) 364 days into my first (and hopefully only) year as a driver, I *finally* got a load to Florida, which put me at 47/48 CONUS states. Hit Maine, did New Hampshire twice, and a truly unfortunate amount of time in New York, but never ended up with a route that went through Vermont.
And yes, driving a tractor trailer in the New England winter sucks just as much as you're thinking it does. 🤪
Actually, driving a rig in New England sucks in general, because the roads were *really* not laid out for it. The day in PA I ended up on "Cowpath Lane", for example...
Of course, the weather everywhere can be crap. I was driving as hard as I could at my governed 65 mph through NM, AZ, and CA to stay ahead of that ice storm that flatlined TX last year. So *I* only had to worry about the really heavy crosswinds, and clouds that looked like potential tornados.
And on one load in WY, the signs on the freeway were helpfully warning me that the crosswinds were, in fact, faster than I was going down the highway forward. Fortunately, I was a flatbedder, and that load was part of one of the really really big cranes they use to put up the big windmills, so it was all very open round tubing. And not a huge sail.
And, of course, I'm from New Mexico. So while I *have* driven in snow occasionally, well, we get about one big snowstorm every ten years or so. By which I mean "six inches" and "sticks on the ground for a whole week". So I'm not *well* experienced at driving in the snow. 😁
Thank you!
It's limited to paid subs so you must have one already, yay!
God I love winter. I obviously don't know Josh the way you do, but I feel like I have a certain degree of trust in his ability to teach you to drive in the winter. He always struck me as knowledgeable with cars. My one Canadian piece of advice: after a big dump of snow, preferably with some packed frozen snow beneath, go to the biggest emptiest parking lot you can find and slide around. Don't need to go crazy trying to do donuts or anything, but if you learn at which point in the turn you loose traction, and how to counter steer, you'll be 90% of the way there, and yiur confidence should greatly improve. The most important thing is learning to turn where you want to go instead of just hitting the breaks. Sliding a bit will no longer phase you. After that it's as simple as reducing speed, breaking much earlier, and increasing space between other drivers.
He is knowledgeable, and a very good teacher. Learning to drive as a teenager was not a very good experience (not that my dad could've taught me to drive in snow or ice anyway; I doubt he saw snow more than three times in his life). This will be better. It took a lot to leave my comfort zone enough to ask, but I'm very glad I did. :-)
I bet he is, infact I've learned plenty from him north of the boarder and at the opposite side of the continent. I was privileged (in a cold sort of way) to have grown up 4x4ing on frozen roads well before I had my license. If the sliding around the parking lot thing is outside your comfort zone I promise you won't need to do it at speed. You can really ease into it. Just accelerate and turn, learn when it breaks, and try to straighten yourself out.
Also at basically no speed you can figure out how hard you need to hit the accelerator before you start spinning, or how hard you need to hit the brakes before they lock out.
It’s also a good idea to accelerate and then stomp on the brakes to get the feel for your ABS system before it’s a real situation.
Ha ha Josh told me to do that...but I haven't had the nerve, yet.
Biggest empties parking lot. As slow as possible till you feel it.
Correct. Jam them down full emergency stop to see how your car handles.
I learned to drive before antilock brakes. Entirely different technique.
ABS is wonderful.
I'd like to add that you should pick a couple of parking lot options and check them out when it's not snowy. Those concrete parking barrier things are a nasty surprise under snowfall... 🤪
This is very good advice.
Really enjoying your creative writing. Wonderful!
Thank you!! :-)
I love this. Two thoughts came to mind while reading:
I, too, live in a small New England town, where the speed limits on the winding, hilly roads vary between 30 and 45 depending on how “Thickly Settled” the area is. I depend heavily on my car’s cruise control to keep me just under the limit. Speeding tickets suck.
And also, when I was little I liked to pretend that I was riding in the Millennium Falcon when I got to sit in the passenger seat while going somewhere in the snow at night. But the Enterprise is cool too. :)
:-) It's a lovely experience, and I'm happy I get to have it for the first time as an adult.
Reading this piece was a brief little adventure. I just started reading with no pre-conceptions of what "a creative writing edition" was. I quickly found myself immersed in the narrative and intrigued by how it read like a novel that brings the reader right into the setting. Then, just as my anticipation of what was coming had my full attention, it ended! Awww. Good writing!
Thank you; this made my morning! :-)
Unbelievable.
Star Trek TNG was airing as new when I learned to drive. I always thought the snowflakes whizzing at the windscreen in the dark, illuminated by the headlights, looked just like stars at warp traveling on the Enterprise.
I bet there's some version of the TNG music in the Apple music store; imma find it for next time we go out after dark!
*lmao*
Vermont was the **one** state I did not traverse at all during the year I drove a tractor trailer. (Nov 2020 - 2021) 364 days into my first (and hopefully only) year as a driver, I *finally* got a load to Florida, which put me at 47/48 CONUS states. Hit Maine, did New Hampshire twice, and a truly unfortunate amount of time in New York, but never ended up with a route that went through Vermont.
And yes, driving a tractor trailer in the New England winter sucks just as much as you're thinking it does. 🤪
Actually, driving a rig in New England sucks in general, because the roads were *really* not laid out for it. The day in PA I ended up on "Cowpath Lane", for example...
Of course, the weather everywhere can be crap. I was driving as hard as I could at my governed 65 mph through NM, AZ, and CA to stay ahead of that ice storm that flatlined TX last year. So *I* only had to worry about the really heavy crosswinds, and clouds that looked like potential tornados.
And on one load in WY, the signs on the freeway were helpfully warning me that the crosswinds were, in fact, faster than I was going down the highway forward. Fortunately, I was a flatbedder, and that load was part of one of the really really big cranes they use to put up the big windmills, so it was all very open round tubing. And not a huge sail.
I guess your stories inspired some back? 🤣
And, of course, I'm from New Mexico. So while I *have* driven in snow occasionally, well, we get about one big snowstorm every ten years or so. By which I mean "six inches" and "sticks on the ground for a whole week". So I'm not *well* experienced at driving in the snow. 😁