One Points

["Thomas J. Harais" <tharais@domain.elided>]

You all will have to forgive me, I'm way behind in digests:

On the subject of one points. I did mine in my Scout (Terra) on an icy
two-lane mountain road!

I was up at my in-laws place in Truckee, CA, post Christmas 1991. It had
snowed the day before, but the roads were clear now. I kept the hubs
locked but was using two wheel drive on a trip down from Tahoe-Donner
into Truckee for some groceries.

I was returning to the cabin at dusk. The temperature was below freezing
again. I was driving on one of the main roads that has a speed limit of
45 MPH. There was no snow on the road but there was snow melt running
across the road. I had my wife and a good freind in the cab with me. We
were sitting three across.

As I proceeded up the main road at a liesurely 30MPH or so, there was a
Honda following me very closely. This "tailgating" began to upset me and
I found myself going faster and faster. A little warning voice came into
my head and reminded me that the water on the road would be frozen
(black ice) wherever there was "shadow" and that I should slow down or
use 4WD.

As I'm thinking this, I start up an incline portion of the road cut out
of a rocky hillside. On the driver's side of the road, is a steep, rocky
face about 10 feet high. On the passenger side is a similarly steep,
rocky face, but it drops about 10 feet straight down. "No Sir", I remind
myself, "I don't want to skid off this road".

As I round a smooth left curve and begin another uphill climb, I'm going
through water on a shaded portion of the road. The Terra downshifts and,
of course, this breaks traction on the rear wheels on the ice.

I feel the bed coming around, not on the passenger side as the curve
direction would indicate, but on my side.

I carefully steer into the turn. I am drifting at the rock wall to my
left, all four wheels. But, I'm thinking, "At least were not going to
slide off the drop and roll!".

Then, I realize that I have no control over the skid and the backend
just whips around in a nanosecond. I throw my right arm up on the back
of the seat and look out the back window as I return the steering to
straight ahead and negotiate the truck backwards down the middle of the
road.

I am not sure how I pulled this off but I attribute my response to years
of watching Grand National Stock car racers do the same thing. I'm able
to brake to smooth stop, right in the middle of the road without
crashing into the rock wall or falling off the cliff on the other side.
Hell, I'm feeling like Richard Petty the second at this point.

I turn around and look forward out the windshield. 30 yards in front of
me is the Honda and two women in the front seat with their mouths
hanging open and their eyes so wide, all I can see is white.

Now, I'm really pissed off (at myself for taking it out of 4WD and for
letting the tailgating Honda push me to go faster)and there is traffic
coming both ways. So, I reach down and shove the transfer case into 4HI
and throw the steering wheel over to the right lock. I floor the gas and
spin the whole rig (really immature and stuipid I later decide!) around
180 degrees so that I'm pointing back in the original direction of
travel. (I'm lucky that the icy road allowed me to get away with this
childish manuever.)

I pull to the right lane (from the middle of the road) and start driving
as though nothing has happened.

My freind, who is sitting, stradling the transmission tunnel, says,
"That was really cool, can we try it again?".

I look over at him and realize he is entirely serious. He thinks I did
that on purpose to show him how good my 4 wheeling abilities are.

Then, the adrenline rush hits me hard. My heart is in my throat beating
at 20 times normal rate. My head gets a blood rush and the fear factor
finally kicks in.

I look at my friend and snap, "you've got to be kidding!". Visions of
what could of happened begin playing in my mind. As I take one last look
in the rear view mirror, I note that the two girls in the Honda haven't
moved yet and a line of cars is starting to build behind them.

Tom Harais
'76 Terra 304/727