Take Another Ride!!!

This time, you're invited to sit in the passenger seat as this California boy drives to Lake Placid in a blizzard.

An hour before I left, I received this email from a friend: "Are you REALLY going to Lake Placid? They're are blizzard warnings north of the City."

While I did consider staying for 0.45 seconds, I needed to get to Lake Placid to get in as many practice runs in as I could prior to races this weekend. (plus...the thought of driving in a blizzard was a little exciting....remember that whole adrenaline junkie thing I'm plagued with...)


So, Keslie (a skeleton athlete...and photographer extraordinaire...who hitched a ride with me to the City for a couple days) and I hit the road around noon on Wednesday.


Picture 1 - A Target tractor trailer off the highway in the guard-rail. Our response: "Why would anyone do this without 4-wheel drive?"

Picture 2 - A 4-wheel drive Ford Explorer in the guard-rail. Keslie's question to me: "What kind of car are we in?" "A 4-wheel drive Ford Explorer," I answered, as I slowed to 20 MPH from 30 MPH.

Picture 3 - A snow plow clearing the road. Two observations as I looked at this picture later:

(1) Wow, the snow being plowed is about 3 feet taller than my Explorer.

(2) Why was I driving in front of the plow?

Picture 4 - What a pretty wintry landscape as we drive through upstate New York!!!
Todd to Keslie "Where did all the cars go?"
Keslie: .....silence....

Picture 5 - Todd's response.

So, this is how I looked for the 8 hour drive to Lake Placid...a drive that normally takes less then 5 hours. We faced a few more obstacles along the way and found out that the roads we were on were closed shortly after we passed.

All in all an exciting trip. And I was so happy to get to Lake Placid in order to practice for 2 days before races. We were welcomed by fellow teammates and this tid-bit of information: "Sliding has been cancelled for the next two days because of the weather."

Note to self: Always call first!