Monster MX-3 one day whirlwind road trip!!!
Posted: February 10th, 2008, 4:15 am
OK so...I bought "93-Spec-Edn"s 93' Raspberry Metallic SE. Smokin car, great guy, excellent deal. Sooo happy.
I thought, maybe you'd all like to hear about my amazing adventure today. You would?!? That's great!!!
Here goes...
Up at 05:20MST. Shower, breakfast, dressed, out the door in a cab (because my lovely wife couldn't get her a-- out of bed to drive me) to the airport for my 07:30MST flight from Edmonton to Vancouver. Approximately an 85min flight but we're a little late getting off the ground due to de-icing the plane. So I land in Van at about 08:15PST and the seller is there to pick me up right on time. After figuring out the seriously convoluted Vancouver airport arrivals parking zone, we're outa there at 08:30PST (keep in mind that it's 09:30 in my head...and the Mountain Standard Timezone). Drive to his place, give the car a good once over, have a little talk about the datails, take it for a test drive, sign the papers and I'm gone by 09:45PST.
OK so I'm on the road.
NOW, it's 1250km home...and it's already 10:45 (at home)...and it's February...and the Rocky Frickin Mountains are between me and my bed. We ride (well, I ride, the seller stayed home with his new RX-8).
It's about +5C and raining in Van, so stage 1, Vancouver to Hope BC is pretty dull. I arrive in Hope at about noon. The highway to Hope is basically one outlying suburb after another. Hope is where the fun starts though...
OK we're in the mountains now. Not like the full size proper mountains yet, but they are mountains and this road is seriously NOT straight. Stage 2 from Hope to Cache Creek is the most fun I've had in a car in many years. About 30mins out of Hope the rain stopped, the road was dry and traffic was not too bad...it was frickin AWESOME!!!
closer view of said road...
and that's only the first 45 mins worth of Stage 2!
Stage 3, Cache Creek to Kamloops was fine. Uneventful. I arrive in Kamloops at about 3:30PST.
Stage 4, that's where it get's hairy.
Kamloops to Valemount is about 3 hours. They call Valemount "The Snow Belt". It is to snowmobilers as the Netherlands is to dope fiends. There's 4 - 8 feet of snow everywhere the eye can see. The first couple of hours of Stage 4 were OK. Just a little snow on the road but still a very nice day. But then the sun went down. Do you know how dark it is at night in the mountains? Oh and these aren't the fluffy little mountains like before. These are the serious Rocky Frickin Mountains.
So the sun is setting and it's getting progressively snowier the further North I go. Luckily though, I don't see a soul for quite a while, so I make pretty good time. Until I come up behind a Semi about 100km out. The problem is that the snow is light, because it's cold, so the trucks really kick it up as they go through it. There isn't alot of snow on the road at this point but each truck that passes me in the other direction has a trail of blowing snow behind it for about 200meters. Now I'm stuck in the snow rooster of this one ahead of me...and I can't see a damn thing. Let me tell you it's pretty scary...and twisty...and dark...and did I mention it's getting slippery? Passing this dude is maybe the scariest moment of the last few years of my life. I arrive in Valemount (thankful for my life) a little before 7pm.
From Valemount to Jasper and then from Jasper to Edmonton are pretty straight forward. About 5 and a half hours of blind, snow covered highway. You can't see the lane markings, it's the darkest darkness you can imagine and it's snowing to beat hell so with the low beams, you can't see far enough and with the high beams all you can see is billions of bits of white stuff flying staight at you. I finally arrive home at almost exactly 24:00hrs. 16 and half hours since I got on an airplane this morning. 1250km in 13 hours for the nicest MX-3 I've personnaly ever seen.
Man it was a trip. This car is so nice. The leather seats. The leather steering wheel. The engine has almost 300,000km on it and it runs like new. No squeeks, no smells. Awesome.
So, what did you guys do today?
I thought, maybe you'd all like to hear about my amazing adventure today. You would?!? That's great!!!
Here goes...
Up at 05:20MST. Shower, breakfast, dressed, out the door in a cab (because my lovely wife couldn't get her a-- out of bed to drive me) to the airport for my 07:30MST flight from Edmonton to Vancouver. Approximately an 85min flight but we're a little late getting off the ground due to de-icing the plane. So I land in Van at about 08:15PST and the seller is there to pick me up right on time. After figuring out the seriously convoluted Vancouver airport arrivals parking zone, we're outa there at 08:30PST (keep in mind that it's 09:30 in my head...and the Mountain Standard Timezone). Drive to his place, give the car a good once over, have a little talk about the datails, take it for a test drive, sign the papers and I'm gone by 09:45PST.
OK so I'm on the road.
NOW, it's 1250km home...and it's already 10:45 (at home)...and it's February...and the Rocky Frickin Mountains are between me and my bed. We ride (well, I ride, the seller stayed home with his new RX-8).
It's about +5C and raining in Van, so stage 1, Vancouver to Hope BC is pretty dull. I arrive in Hope at about noon. The highway to Hope is basically one outlying suburb after another. Hope is where the fun starts though...
OK we're in the mountains now. Not like the full size proper mountains yet, but they are mountains and this road is seriously NOT straight. Stage 2 from Hope to Cache Creek is the most fun I've had in a car in many years. About 30mins out of Hope the rain stopped, the road was dry and traffic was not too bad...it was frickin AWESOME!!!
closer view of said road...
and that's only the first 45 mins worth of Stage 2!
Stage 3, Cache Creek to Kamloops was fine. Uneventful. I arrive in Kamloops at about 3:30PST.
Stage 4, that's where it get's hairy.
Kamloops to Valemount is about 3 hours. They call Valemount "The Snow Belt". It is to snowmobilers as the Netherlands is to dope fiends. There's 4 - 8 feet of snow everywhere the eye can see. The first couple of hours of Stage 4 were OK. Just a little snow on the road but still a very nice day. But then the sun went down. Do you know how dark it is at night in the mountains? Oh and these aren't the fluffy little mountains like before. These are the serious Rocky Frickin Mountains.
So the sun is setting and it's getting progressively snowier the further North I go. Luckily though, I don't see a soul for quite a while, so I make pretty good time. Until I come up behind a Semi about 100km out. The problem is that the snow is light, because it's cold, so the trucks really kick it up as they go through it. There isn't alot of snow on the road at this point but each truck that passes me in the other direction has a trail of blowing snow behind it for about 200meters. Now I'm stuck in the snow rooster of this one ahead of me...and I can't see a damn thing. Let me tell you it's pretty scary...and twisty...and dark...and did I mention it's getting slippery? Passing this dude is maybe the scariest moment of the last few years of my life. I arrive in Valemount (thankful for my life) a little before 7pm.
From Valemount to Jasper and then from Jasper to Edmonton are pretty straight forward. About 5 and a half hours of blind, snow covered highway. You can't see the lane markings, it's the darkest darkness you can imagine and it's snowing to beat hell so with the low beams, you can't see far enough and with the high beams all you can see is billions of bits of white stuff flying staight at you. I finally arrive home at almost exactly 24:00hrs. 16 and half hours since I got on an airplane this morning. 1250km in 13 hours for the nicest MX-3 I've personnaly ever seen.
Man it was a trip. This car is so nice. The leather seats. The leather steering wheel. The engine has almost 300,000km on it and it runs like new. No squeeks, no smells. Awesome.
So, what did you guys do today?
