Bringing her home..C5 across canada

[marty]

Holy crap guys.... You're not gonna believe what I just did. Pics coming but I'm gonna have to keep you in suspense until I get them loaded from the camera. .... Having a beer in Thunder Bay right now.

Hey velocity, I have plans on being in touch about cruising down to meet everyone in red deer for the ponoka shinding.

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Marty, the question then is did you buy the beer or was the beer part of a jailhouse dinner?

 

[marty]

no jailhouse dinner for this guy, but maybe they should sentence me anyway. i'd plead not guilty by reason of insanity!
ran into some weather between Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder bay.

first it was just some snow in the ditches, no big deal, pavement was wet only. but as the trip went on.....

that in front is a snow plow...

just got worse.. cool ice on the rocks though.

and worse.... sorry this one is sideways.

 

[Rruuff Day]

ummmmmm.... thats looks nerve wracking Marty... My experience is limited to wet roads and that's bad enough... Did she break loose a lot on you? Kudos for getting to TB safe and sound...You deserved that beer

 

[marty]

I think i'm gonna make these pics a bit smaller, sorry 'bout that.

finally got a room (all flights were grounded out of TB) and had to get some help to push the car into a parking lot, waaay to much snow to drive, got stuck, thankfully tomorrow things are clearing up. heading for Winnipeg.

gonna have to treat the car to a nice hot bubble bath and wax her up real nice after putting her through all that! maybe i'll throw in some synthetics to top it off.

 

[Rruuff Day]

I think i'm gonna make these pics a bit smaller, sorry 'bout that.

finally got a room (all flights were grounded out of TB) and had to get some help to push the car into a parking lot, waaay to much snow to drive, got stuck, thankfully tomorrow things are clearing up. heading for Winnipeg.

gonna have to treat the car to a nice hot bubble bath and wax her up real nice after putting her through all that! maybe i'll throw in some synthetics to top it off.

She kept you on the road through that, you best be treating her real nice... Be safe guys...

 

[Jeremiad]

Wow! That sucks! Great pictures though!

I got caught in snow in Montana bringing my TA home (also in April), but it was nowhere near as bad as what you went through. I imagine that the car would have been mostly fine though, right? Traction and stability control plus ABS makes it easy. The wide tires and light weight tend to make corner a bit sketchy on snow, but go slow. The real problem is once you stop, and then try to get moving again. lol.

We had snow bad a couple of days ago, but it's starting to warm up so Alberta should be good by the time you get here.

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Weird, I thought of you the other night when the weather forecasters were predicting heavy snow for Northern Ontario. I have only driven, well attempted to drive, my C5 in the snow once and that was in the driveway. The fact you made any progress forward is just amazing to me and a testament to your driving ability.

Man you are going to have a huge sigh of relief when you finally pull into your driveway. Well done Marty and continue on safely.

 

[VelocityYellowRules!]

That is some frightful looking weather. It reminds me of two experiences I had with my 280ZX, being in Peace River one night and it snowed and coming home. At 3 Mile Corner (north of Grimshaw) I touched the brakes, the car spun fully and I went through the intersection. I parked the car that night! The second was a trip to Winnipeg. I left Manning in good fall weather and then it snowed on the way back. The most challenging trip I ever did. I learned from that point on if the car doesn't have a block heater that it is a hint as to when you ought to be using it!

Still Marty I tip my hat to you for your prudent and skilled driving that got you to you next destination safely. And I'm keeping GP in the above double digits range for your return! And I am looking forward to when we can meet. Maybe we can go autocrossing in Dawson this summer sometime??

On another note, I can't find the map button anymore, I thought it was under Members but it is not there so where did I find it before? I had zoomed in on GP but perhaps not far enough as I never got more than one pin. I'll try to reset my pin too to move it from Peace River to Grimshaw as well.............not sure why I didn't do that in the first place??

When to play kickball with my son and some other kids last night and before we started I was walking around the playground. Some SR high boys where at the basketball court so I stopped to say hello and they mentioned they had seen me out with the Z06 the previous night. One mentioned that he father has a "Black Panther" Camero and i think I have seen such a car. What is the difference between this and the ZL1?? Any ideas as I can't seem to find anything specific..........

Cheers,

Garry

 

[Rruuff Day]

@VelocityYellowRules! Hey Garry.... At the top of the page, hover over the "Members" tab...The last item on the drop down menu is "Map".

 

[Riley P]

The map feature is definitely through the talents of Nik. He just keeps improving and improving this forum!

That is some crazy wicked snow Marty. Wow! I had to drive through Saskatoon last year to get to a car show. That was bad enough. Being on the highway? That's a totally different level. Nice work keeping it wheels side down!

 

[VelocityYellowRules!]

OK, so I'm an idiot. I wasn't logged in so the map feature didn't seem to appear. So now I have that one figured out.

Now how to I change my location? Nothing on my profile seems to lead to how I can do that....................sorry for being so dense!

 

[VelocityYellowRules!]

Just figured it out! So now I'm shown in my current location of Fairview!! I HATE being tech challenged like this!

Speaking of challenged, you should have seen me just trying to install a paper towel rack under a cabinet and above my sink in the games room. Stripped both screw heads. Ye gads they must have been made of soft metal! Had to drill pilot holes and use different screws.

However, after all that, I still stand my ground that outside of Marty there don't seem to be any CCF "members" that have been active on their accounts for like 26 or 52 weeks or more............sort of like living in a Corvette wasteland.

I had hopes that discovering the mapping feature I'd be able to touch base with a whole lot of active members, nope............

 

[Riley P]

Their emails are still linked to their profiles. Send them a message and see if they'll come back on here.

 

[Jeremiad]

If you look on the left side of the screen under each person's handle and stats is "Map".

 

[Jeremiad]

Sorry to sidetrack your thread, Marty!

I hope you don't mind, but I tweaked your photo a bit because I was so drawn to it. It is an epic tale in so many ways! Man blows nature apart to make a road. Nature does it's thing anyway, and gets final revenge by snowing on you when you try to drive your Corvette in April.

From the grooves in the tarmac by the snowplows to the frozen water pouring off the rocks which were blasted with explosives in order to construct the highway, I find this whole image quite fascinating. The water was just gushing out from everywhere when it suddenly got cold enough to freeze like that. Ebb and flow. Just beautiful.

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Both the ice and the rock are very unforgiving.

Hope you are home by now Marty.

 

[Pep]

Holeeeeeee Crap. Which is about what would happen to my shorts if I saw that weather through my windshield. Glad to hear you made it safe and sound and I hope the rest of the trip is uneventfully "boring" after that.

 

[marty]

well, there she sits in my driveway, after a marathon two days drive. we are home.

We left Thunder Bay around 9;00. It was a toss-up what time to leave, really early and make up some lost ground? or hang back till noon and let the roads improve some. letting the roads improve won out, but we got a little impatient. repots were for more snow about 2 hrs north of us so I figured we should just get on with it, it wouldn't be any worse than what we just came through, roads ended up just being wet with the occasional bit of slush here and there, not too bad. By Dryden things had improved greatly, the roads were Dry-den......hehehe. Even had some fun on the twisty bits.

first chance I got we stopped and gave the car a quick bath, rinsed off the grime from previous days adventure.

we still had a bit of a shake at 110km/hr + so just outside of Winnipeg we decided to get another balance but also to rotate the tires, the thinking was that the feathering on the inside was causing the rhythmic vibrations we were feeling. a swap left to right should alleviate some of this. it didn't. more investigation is necessary.

I also had a thought about stopping for coffees or lunch or visits with some members along the way, would have been pretty cool, but time and logistics proved to be fairly troublesome and we were already a day or two behind schedule getting back for work, it was best just to blast right through.

stayed in Saskatoon for a 3 hr 'nap' after driving from Thunder Bay. I had considered not stopping at all, but sleeping in the car was proving troublesome, neither one of us was able to manage any kind of a refreshing snooze. it was dark and raining, I had to slam on the brakes 3 time for deer on the road. Got a room at 3;00am. back on the road at 7;00. after the 20 hrs that was TB to Saskabatoom. I couldn't go any more.

10 more hours of easy running and we made it. man, some of these Canadian highways are rough! and others are smooth as glass.

All in all, had we known what we were in for, I probably would have shipped the car here. or at the very least, waited for better weather. But, that was one Hell of an adventure! one to have some stories about and pictures and memories. but, never again. please.

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Great news that you survived the Great Canadian Adventure.

Question for you about the shake. Are the wheels stock and has the car ever had a brake job?

I ask because many aftermarket wheels do not have a relief cut into the stud holes to clear the sheet metal speed nuts that hold the stock rotors on to the hubs. If the brakes have been done they would have had to remove the speed nuts. The factory wheels do have this relief cut. If not the speed nuts will not allow the wheel to sit flat against the hub and will cause lots of vibrations.

Worth a look and really glad you made it home.