You know how you learn things by
doing something without conducting the proper research first, or being hasty,
or just being stupid? Then, when you get
over the embarrassment, you deposit that little bit of knowledge in your memory
bank to be withdrawn later at a time when similar circumstances call for a
similar response, only this time you want to perform at a higher level. For example, I know a guy who tried to change
out an electric socket without throwing the breaker. After that shocking experience, he now turns
off the electricity to the entire house before performing any electrical repair
or installation. This same guy once attempted
to drive his new bride to South Lake Tahoe for their honeymoon in a little red
Chevy Vega in mid-December. He borrowed
some chains from a the young lady’s father, who assured him they would fit, but
if he ended up with too much chain left over, he could just use some bailing
wire to keep the lengths from flapping.
After visiting with some friends in Grass Valley, he and his lovely
bride decided to drive up I-80 to the north shore of Lake Tahoe, then go down
highway 89 to South Lake Tahoe where their reservations at the Ritz-like motel
awaited them.
In order to keep this from
becoming a multi-page short story, I will skip many of the particulars, jump to
the lessons this young man learned and would like to share with you, and let
the reader fill in the rest.
First, this guy learned that
lines on maps only indicate the location of roads and highways, not the
difficulty of driving them, nor the conditions when snow is falling.
Second, after acquiring chains
for a vehicle, always put them on the tires while you are parked in a nice dry
driveway. That way, if any adjustments
need to be made, like having to have them cut much shorter, you can take care
of that in unhurried, dry, relatively warm conditions. Thus, you won’t be caught out in the cold,
wet rain/snow trying to install chains that simply won’t work.
Third, always carry an old tarp
or similar protection from the dirty, wet pavement and slush.
Last evening the wife and I
headed out in our little Saturn Aura to our timeshare on the south shore of
Lake Tahoe. We hurriedly packed a few
things, and headed up the highway. About
5 minutes down the road, I realized we had both forgotten to pack necessary
medicines. We went back and retrieved
said medications, and headed out again.
This time I was quite a bit more up tight. I had called the Les Schwab in Placerville to
make sure they had chains that would fit our car’s tires. We would barely get there before closing time
if we weren’t slowed down by any unforeseen circumstances.
A little side note here. We like driving up Highway 88 to South Lake
Tahoe, but I had checked the road conditions online and on the phone and
discovered Highway 88 had two different stretches of chain controls. Highway 50, according to the State of
California, had no chain controls. So, I
chose Highway 50 for our trek.
We made it to the store with 4
minutes to spare. I gave the nice young
gal the tire measurements and specifically asked for “tire cables.” Chains on front-wheel drive vehicles are
cumbersome and make for an uncomfortable ride.
She repeated it back to me, retrieved the box, took my money and we were
on our way.
We estimated we were about one
or two miles shy of the chain installation area when traffic came to a
standstill. Two CHP vehicles raced by,
followed by an ambulance and then a tow truck.
About an hour later we were moving once again. We slowly drove past the site of the
accident, though we couldn’t see the object of all this attention (sadly, it
was down the steep bank on the right). A
short drive further and we were in sight of the Cal Trans check point. I pulled over, retrieved the box of shiny,
organized chains and began the installation project. Yes, the box contained chains, not cables. The side portion that holds all the short
lengths of chains in place was a cable, thus the description on the box “Cable
Chains.” Guess I should have looked in
the box before buying them. I would have
paid a chain monkey to perform this task of correctly and efficiently
installing said chains, but none were in sight.
As I was draping the first set over the left front tire my hand touched
something. I got down on the wet, cold,
dirty, slushy pavement (guess I should have brought along a tarp) and looked
just above and inside of the tire. There
was a piece of metal, apparently part of the strut, just a half or three
quarters of an inch from the rubber. It
seemed to me the chains were about a half inch thick. Guess I should have installed them on a dry,
relatively warm driveway first. I went
ahead and partially installed that first set, but was not enjoying myself, and
doubting my work. Karen spotted a chain
monkey and asked him to help us out. He
was very skeptical about the clearance for the chains, but went ahead and
properly installed both sets. There went
$30 of fun money.
I had a decision to make. If I drove on up the highway and the chains
broke due to beating that piece of metal, I could end up stranded, waiting for
a tow truck. Then there would be the
expense of getting that set of chains unwrapped from around the axle. Or, I could go ahead, driving very slowly to
minimize the centrifugal force that sends those lengths of chains banging into
the piece of obstructive metal. I
decided we’d go ahead. With flashers on,
driving as close to the right edge of the highway as I dared, I made it over
the summit and onto snow-free pavement, never exceeding 15 mph. I shudder to think how many epithets were
uttered by drivers wanting to travel at much faster speeds.
We normally make this trip in
about an hour and a half. It was a
little over 4 hours later when we pulled into the parking stall at the
timeshare. We are glad we’re here. It’s lovely.
But I am going to have to recommit some lessons to my memory bank. It seems I didn’t really learn some of those lessons
the first time.
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