My step-grandfather was an engineer at Douglas Aircraft. My grandmother was a welder there during WWII
Hemidav these pictures take me back to walking through Holyoke, lots of good memories of the old industrial city and family, good stuff, thanks greatly appreciate it.
Hello, The road is a rough one but the slight off camber curve will be the most difficult on a sunny day, so obviously a slow speed drive mode is best. But, the danger is not during the summer or on clear weather days. When the sun is at a certain angle, the shadows created by the rock outcropping makes a a relatively sharp curve, extra dangerous. Now, add in a clear road, but after a pelting of snow. The snow may be on the sides of the road, but the road in the relatively open areas is dry and clear. Once the elevation appears as in the old truck photo, there is a shadow covering the roadway. Despite the sun being out and the road being dry, the left over snow and shadow allows a sheen still on the darkened area of the road. The rock outcropping is high enough to cast a shadow and that is now ripe for the cold to keep the snow and ice on the surface of the road. Jnaki My wife and I were on the winding road going up hill and down on the way to her parent’s house + property on the way to Lake Isabella on a funky road called Caliente-Bodfish Road. We had been on that particular road in the summer, spring and during the winter months. The summer time was a nice drive both ways. The winter, not so much, although everything is green. One would think going up hill is less scary than coming downhill on a winding road. But, it depends on what is on the road. Coming downhill during the winter was extremely slow going as the road was sometimes icy. When the sun is out, it clears up and dries the road. Rounding corners like the one in the old photo caused us some anxious moments. We were driving the El Camino and it was slow going in the winter morning. The winding road kept our speeds slow and the curves were daunting with the moist surfaces. When we came to a sharp curve, it was sunny and clear. But, the road curved around the bend. When we got to the bottom of the curve ready to go uphill on the next portion of the road, the rocky cliffside had created a shadow and the sun had not melted the icy surface. It looked wet, so we slowed down in the sharp curve. In an instant, the rear of the El Camino started its sideways slide and now, we were facing a small cliff side drop across the road, on the left, which we did not want. The right side had a culvert for drainage and our tail end slid right into the ditch. The El Camino front end pointed up in the air and we sat there thankful we did not slide across to the cliff drop off. The slow speed power and icy road started the momentum we could not stop. Despite all of the “gas off the pedal and no slamming the brakes, automatic motions, the rear end started and we could not stop it from falling into the culvert. Getting out of the El Camino was an effort of over coming a steep angle. But after we both got out, we looked for rocks to put under the rear wheels. For 30 minutes we had a nice pile of rocks in the culvert. Another driver in a 4 x 4 truck came rumbling around the bend and helped us get the El Camino out of the culvert. A simple fat tow rope and the power of the 4x4 backing up pulled our El Camino out of the ditch, onto the dry road surface, all intact. Whew!!! We lived to tell the story another day.
The Jalopy Journal
