<p>omg deb–what stress! I hate to start off for anything already behind.</p>
<p>Tookie:
The Mach I is Jade Green with the black hood. I restored it to original condition after driving it for 144K miles. </p>
<p>MKM:
I drove the Mach I through Raton Pass NM from Colorado a couple of hours after they opened it due to a bad snowstorm. I drove about 10mph for several hours. I used to keep a 50lb sandbag in the trunk over each rear wheel to help with traction due to the light back end of the stang. At that, it was dicey.</p>
<p>^^
I’m impressed with your driving abilities. Growing up in a rural somewhat snowy area, I know your stang would be difficult on slick roads–my H. drove a trans am when we met and it wasn’t the greatest on snow (we usually used the VW when roads were bad—but you had to drive and scrape inside of windshield at same time)</p>
<p>No. The Alligator Alley section of I-75 is the most boring stretch of road in the U.S. Where I had a tire explode, going 80 mph. While enroute from LEAVING my child at college, freshman year. Barely made it over to the non-shoulder. Barely had cell phone reception. Called FHP, but no one arrived. Lucky for me I have 100 mile free towing roadside service. </p>
<p>But Alligator Alley is a scary place too. There’s real alligators. I’m not kidding. And there’s no shoulder to speak of. And the speed limit is 75, which means everyone does 90, with the exception of tractor trailers, and they do, like, 120. After all, it’s in the middle of the Everglades, and there’s no police to speak of. </p>
<p>So I get out of the car and go walk to stand about 20 yards ahead of my car on the non-shoulder, waiting for the tow truck, figuring it’s not safe to wait in the car. But then - a thunderstorm, with hail, lightening, thunder, etc. arrives. My choices are stay back away from the road, closer to where I know there are alligators, or get back in the car and hope no one slammed into me, or stand outside in the mini-hurricane. I’d left the umbrella either with D, or somewhere else. But I decided to remain standing outside. </p>
<p>After dropping off my child at school and making it through two days on that campus, helping her move in, meeting the roommate, going to all the parents orientation stuff, finally saying goodbye, bravely smiling the whole time, never shedding even one tear, I’d had enough, and started to cry, partially because I was frightened, but mostly because I missed my child and couldn’t imagine weeks and weeks without her at home. Kept crying even when the tow truck showed up, and even kept right on crying as the nice man drove me 30 miles up the road to the nearest exit.</p>
<p>Got into Sears auto repair, then went wandering around the shopping mall waiting for them to put on a new tire - actually I think they suggested two, and I just nodded. Went to the food court in the mall, bought McDonalds, and sat down to eat, and cried in all the french fries. I couldn’t help it because I found myself surrounded by happy, giggling high school aged girls who were having lots of fun, and clearly going home to their families that night. </p>
<p>I swore I would NEVER drive that stretch of road again, but of course I did, the very next month, and several times since. </p>
<p>There was a benefit to it all as well - by the time Sears finished my car and I drove several more hours the rest of the way home, I was all cried out, and the big empty house didn’t bother me at all. </p>
<p>BTW I did stop crying long enough to ask the nice people at Sears why my tire exploded, since, it was nearly new, and I’m pretty careful with car maintenance. They explained to me that packing the car for college, putting so much weight on it, and then driving at high speeds on very hot road surfaces for a long period of time will cause tire failure. And we DID pack that car very heavily…so…</p>