Got up early and spent 4 hours detailing the snake. With the **** weather we've been having in SoFla, 5 weeks so far with no real end in sight, the car was a mess.
Wait, let me back-up a few hours. The coolness actually started yesterday evening. I was leaving the class I'm taking in Dania Beach to head back to Homestead a little after 4:00. Go onto I-95 from Sheridan Street and ran smack into a traffic jam. Couldn't figure it out as it was only 4:00, and though it was overcast it wasn't raining. After about 5 minutes I see the problem.
This section of I-95 is 5 lanes wide. In the center lane, a fiberglass ladder had fallen off a truck and was laying across the lane. So, of course, everyone decides that the best way to deal with it is by leaving it there and driving around it...
The cars from the center lane are trying to merge into the parallel lanes, which forces the cars there to the outside lanes. So you have 1 ladder effectively choking 5 lanes of traffic on a very major interstate. The car directly in front of the ladder, and at a complete standstill, was 2 cars ahead of me when I managed to get into a parallel lane. Instead of driving past like the rest of the ********, I pulled around the ladder, into the center lane, then backed-up to the ladder. Hit the emergency flashers, got out of the car, grabbed the ladder and carried it over to the emergency lane to discard it.
So here's the scene: a black Viper with emergeny lights on in the center lane of I-95 blocking traffic, with me, in a rather foul mood, carrying this beat up ladder across two lanes of traffic to the emergency lane. Those two lanes stopped completely while I crossed, and the opposite two lanes stopped completely for all I can figure is to watch the show. Walked back to the car, was getting honks and waves of appreciation on the way, and when I slide in I look forward and see NOTHING. Center lane, I-95, ABSOLUTELY WIDE OPEN. None of the cars would proceed until I left, and in the time it took me to move the ladder and get back to the car, the road ahead was completely empty for about a half mile. I looked back and the cars were bumper-to-bumper as far as I could see still in the jam. I could kick myself for not taking a pic with the Viper in front and hundreds of cars waiting to proceed behind it
So I ask, what would you do with hunreds of eyeballs on you and a half mile of wide open I-95 in your way? That's right, baby. LIGHT 'EM UP!
For those who live near the Sheridan St. exit, I'm sure you can still see the LOOOOOONNNNGGGG, deep, black rubber marks I burned into the asphalt on northbound I-95. The jam disappeared in my rear view as the other traffic came up quick. Hit 120 before I had to slow down, tho
So back to the detailing. Four hours of it and the car is looking great. And holy crap, what's this? SUNNY SKIES?!? For the first time in 5 freakin' weeks we had a sunny day. Off comes the top, pick up a friend and we head to Coconut Grove for lunch. Tortilla soup and Coronas at Señor Frogs with a parking place right next to our outside table; an extremely difficult feat for those familiar with parking in the Grove. Waitresses flirting, girls on the sidewalks smiling and waving - and I was WITH a girl! A little shopping at Banana Republic, get some clothes for my trip to Europe, back in the car and head home down Old Cutler Road.
Old Cutler Road is, hands down, the best road in Miami to drive for pleasure. It's flat and winding, with much of it covered by a canopy of trees. It was the evening so it was relatively cool. Just a very nice, top-down drive on the way home. Hanging out with an old friend, light buzz from the Coronas, belly full of tortilla soup - nice time
Drop her off and start to head back home down US1. Lots of traffic, so lots of fingerpointing, waving, etc. Classic Ford roadster pulls up next to me, we swap thumbs-ups; a few Harleys keep pace while the rider eyefucks the car. Turn off US1 to a backroad that goes through farmland out towards Homestead race track. Wide lanes, sparse traffic, time to open her up. Cruise up to 100MPH and make the run towards Homestead. A few more turns and I get on Speedway Blvd - the road that takes you to Homestead Motor Speedway. Posted speed limit of 40 MPH, but hell it's Saturday evening and no one is around, certainly not the cops way out here, right? Wrong. Going 60 and I come up on a cop. He sees me coming and pulls out into the lane next to the one I'm traveling in. Great way to the end the day, with a speeding ticket 3 minutes from home.
He keeps slowing down until I'm right next to him. Just me and him on the road. He rolls down the passenger side window and shouts, "If you don't floor that thing, you don't have a hair on your ass!" RIGHT AWAY, SIR!
I smiled, dropped into second and roared away from him. Pulled into the garage about a few minutes later with a thunderstorm heading in over the Everglades.
Good Viper day. And not all cops are assholes
Wait, let me back-up a few hours. The coolness actually started yesterday evening. I was leaving the class I'm taking in Dania Beach to head back to Homestead a little after 4:00. Go onto I-95 from Sheridan Street and ran smack into a traffic jam. Couldn't figure it out as it was only 4:00, and though it was overcast it wasn't raining. After about 5 minutes I see the problem.
This section of I-95 is 5 lanes wide. In the center lane, a fiberglass ladder had fallen off a truck and was laying across the lane. So, of course, everyone decides that the best way to deal with it is by leaving it there and driving around it...
The cars from the center lane are trying to merge into the parallel lanes, which forces the cars there to the outside lanes. So you have 1 ladder effectively choking 5 lanes of traffic on a very major interstate. The car directly in front of the ladder, and at a complete standstill, was 2 cars ahead of me when I managed to get into a parallel lane. Instead of driving past like the rest of the ********, I pulled around the ladder, into the center lane, then backed-up to the ladder. Hit the emergency flashers, got out of the car, grabbed the ladder and carried it over to the emergency lane to discard it.
So here's the scene: a black Viper with emergeny lights on in the center lane of I-95 blocking traffic, with me, in a rather foul mood, carrying this beat up ladder across two lanes of traffic to the emergency lane. Those two lanes stopped completely while I crossed, and the opposite two lanes stopped completely for all I can figure is to watch the show. Walked back to the car, was getting honks and waves of appreciation on the way, and when I slide in I look forward and see NOTHING. Center lane, I-95, ABSOLUTELY WIDE OPEN. None of the cars would proceed until I left, and in the time it took me to move the ladder and get back to the car, the road ahead was completely empty for about a half mile. I looked back and the cars were bumper-to-bumper as far as I could see still in the jam. I could kick myself for not taking a pic with the Viper in front and hundreds of cars waiting to proceed behind it
So I ask, what would you do with hunreds of eyeballs on you and a half mile of wide open I-95 in your way? That's right, baby. LIGHT 'EM UP!
For those who live near the Sheridan St. exit, I'm sure you can still see the LOOOOOONNNNGGGG, deep, black rubber marks I burned into the asphalt on northbound I-95. The jam disappeared in my rear view as the other traffic came up quick. Hit 120 before I had to slow down, tho
So back to the detailing. Four hours of it and the car is looking great. And holy crap, what's this? SUNNY SKIES?!? For the first time in 5 freakin' weeks we had a sunny day. Off comes the top, pick up a friend and we head to Coconut Grove for lunch. Tortilla soup and Coronas at Señor Frogs with a parking place right next to our outside table; an extremely difficult feat for those familiar with parking in the Grove. Waitresses flirting, girls on the sidewalks smiling and waving - and I was WITH a girl! A little shopping at Banana Republic, get some clothes for my trip to Europe, back in the car and head home down Old Cutler Road.
Old Cutler Road is, hands down, the best road in Miami to drive for pleasure. It's flat and winding, with much of it covered by a canopy of trees. It was the evening so it was relatively cool. Just a very nice, top-down drive on the way home. Hanging out with an old friend, light buzz from the Coronas, belly full of tortilla soup - nice time
Drop her off and start to head back home down US1. Lots of traffic, so lots of fingerpointing, waving, etc. Classic Ford roadster pulls up next to me, we swap thumbs-ups; a few Harleys keep pace while the rider eyefucks the car. Turn off US1 to a backroad that goes through farmland out towards Homestead race track. Wide lanes, sparse traffic, time to open her up. Cruise up to 100MPH and make the run towards Homestead. A few more turns and I get on Speedway Blvd - the road that takes you to Homestead Motor Speedway. Posted speed limit of 40 MPH, but hell it's Saturday evening and no one is around, certainly not the cops way out here, right? Wrong. Going 60 and I come up on a cop. He sees me coming and pulls out into the lane next to the one I'm traveling in. Great way to the end the day, with a speeding ticket 3 minutes from home.
He keeps slowing down until I'm right next to him. Just me and him on the road. He rolls down the passenger side window and shouts, "If you don't floor that thing, you don't have a hair on your ass!" RIGHT AWAY, SIR!
I smiled, dropped into second and roared away from him. Pulled into the garage about a few minutes later with a thunderstorm heading in over the Everglades.
Good Viper day. And not all cops are assholes
