BeerBorg

lol Wings! Brought back memories of driving a borrowed Pinto across the BigMac time and time again in exchange for a couple cases of beer and a full tank of gas. Return trips were always easier as the back was weighted down with more than a couple of cases of beer. Easy peasy except for the one time I partially drifted under a semi. I was fine, but the passenger staring at the dualie wheels in front of him no so much.

That bridge can be a scary MF when it's storming or windy. I can recall driving a catering truck across her more than a few times when the wind was howling and wondering if it was going to go up on two wheels. Somewhere in my stored stuff I have photos of the underside of it.......an angle most people haven't seen. I ran a 34 footer all over the straits when I was younger.........had an experience with a Great Lakes freighter on the Lake Michigan side during a foggy night one summer........scary sheeeeet. We shouldn't have been out in that fog but it rolled in fast.

The freighter hailed "the unidentified small vessel just West of The Mackinac Bridge" on the VHF and when I answered (figuring it had to be me he was talking about cuz no one else was crazy enough to be in the Straits that night), he said "we picked you up on radar and we are approaching you from the East, maintain your course and speed without deviation. We will pass on your port side shortly - please monitor channel 13 for further instructions."

I'm damn sure I never SAW the freighter but holy shit, we could HEAR & FEEL it going by in the murk. Like a pressure wave from the displacement of so much air. The wake it threw was pretty killer too and after the "wind" from the freighter had faded, he called back on CH13 and said "All clear....we've passed you, but you should probably bear to the northeast for a couple minutes to get lined up to go through the spans and then get your boat back to the dock."

I thanked him profusely and we eventually got back to the marina (which is east and then south of the bridge) in one piece thanks to the GPS. I still get goosebumps thinking about that night.

mtsoxfan wrote:So the snow and bitter cold is here in CT..... Didn't get as much snow as predicted, maybe 7-8", but work called off. Started the day by shoveling the roof, 75x15 to get snow off solar panels, a quick breakfast and then onto the driveway, walkway, neighbors driveway.....I even shoveled the residual snow off the driveway so the sun would clear it all up. Not too OCD....
3 hours later, and sweaty, I feel good.... gonna build a fire to keep my princess happy, and maybe a pint or two for me. Depending on who you listen to, -10* overnight, daytime windchills to -20.... I like it, wife.... no so much. I'm sure for FIT and other Northern neighbors, this is just another day...

I just caught the part about shoveling the snow off the roof with solar panels. Do you have to use a special tool or something or are the solar panels pretty sturdy? The few times I have cleared snow off the roof I did it with a metal roof rake and I can't imagine that being good for the solar panels.

As for the bridge talk I went over the bridge once on a motorcycle. I should probably start off saying heights and I are not exactly friends. When I get to the bridge there was a MSP trooper directing traffic into the inside lane. Now the inner lane being a grate isn't exactly the easiest thing to ride on a motorcycle and then you combine that with the fact that I could see through the bridge the stress level went pretty high. Then the wind started up. I was riding at about a 45 degree angle sideways just to keep straight in my lane. The traffic in the going the other direction was using both lanes but the cars on the inside lane kept blowing towards my lane with the wind. When we finally passed a van that had run into the wall on our side and they opened both lanes back up to us I was in the outside lane the first opportunity. I had to go to the visitor center and sit down for a little bit just to calm down after that. The toll bridge attendant never warned me but apparently when my brother went through later they had closed the bridge to trucks because of the wind.

As for people driving in the snow in areas that don't usually get his much snow or no snow at all, I don't really blame the drivers too much for not being able to deal with it. Even the people from Michigan forget how to do it every summer and the first snowfall of the winter is a mess. Some of these places see snow so rarely they have no clue how to drive in it nor do they have the equipment to deal with it. A friend of mine recently moved to Texas for work and they got an inch or two where he was. He figured what the hell I drive in this all the time in Michigan I'll just go out and run some errands. He made it a couple of lights before turning around to go home because the roads were so bad.

I made a "snow rake" using an extendable pool skimmer pole, and I rigged a 6" x 40" plywood "rake" on the end. I then tied a black foam pipe insulation piece to protect the panels.

I did the math, and it's reall not worth my effort to climb up there. At the most, I produce 40kwh per day during Dec - Feb. multiply that by .195 per kwh..... but, I want to get all the power out as I can. I will think twice on those rough days though.... My wife says I'm nuts.... who am I to disagree?