this last weekend we finally managed to get us out of the boredom of daily life and drive out to Twain Harte to prepare some stuff for the repairs and pick some other stuff up.


I decided to take the Pathfinder this time and not the bike, since I really wanted to learn how it behaves on longer trips and how to use a stick shift in the mountains.

Well while enjoying a nice dinner

• rib eye steak
• sauteed zuchini
• whiskey onions (sadly had to use some nice 16 year old scotch, since I was out of bourbon)
• fresh bread
• a Cabernet Sauvignon

 

It started to snow outside...

Actually to storm is a better description, since this was, what I woke up too in the morning, 12" (33cm) of new snow.

and the surrounding area looked quite nice too

This also meant that the power went out, which translated in wood stove SLOW cooked eggs...

And on the way out I was really happy that I took the pathfinder, otherwise I would had been stuck (actually there are worse things than being stuck out there). But atleast I started to learn how to drive a manual transmission with engaged 4WD in the snow and only skidded once of the road into a 'ditch', when I left the driveway.

 While calculating my gas mileage on the trip, well let's just say that 14mpg (16l/100km) are slightly pathetic and the car has so little power at higher altitude. I mean where the Passat drove 90mph without a struggle I had a hard time accelerating to 60mph. It get's there, but it takes ages....

But I did not get stuck or stranded. Let's see how Tahoe works.