Friday OT #1 - Ungrateful Dead

[NWICY]

Five of us in a 74 Malibu going up what was called "rush hill" steep going up and steep going down. Well our friend that was driving didn't know about it so kept asking us were it was at and we told him to keep going. We were doing around 65-70 on a gravel road and when we got to the top me and another guy put our hand on the roof and kind of braced ourselves for the landing. Well.... in General Lee fashion we had to have been at least 5' if not more off the ground which seemed like we were airborne for at least 5 minutes. When we hit, it shook us all up, guy if front beer can went all over. Us to that were braced were fine. It was one of those, "Holy Sh#t!!" moments.

Next day the we found out that the guy's car had two broken shocks, two broken motor mounts and three cracked spark plugs. I guess when we got in the car we had the weight distributed pretty well as when we landed, we hit on all four tires about the same time. The good Lord was with us that day as it could have ended badly for us.

Does that hill happen to be in the Traer/Clutier area? I was over that way this summer and was cutting cross country and went up a pretty steep hill that was way steeper on the other side, west side if I remember right, when I got to the top and saw the drop I was glad I wasn't going any faster and that it wasn't winter.

 

[cycloner29]

No, it is in western Iowa in the Loess Hills area. Pretty funky roads there.

 

[diaclone]

1. Biking to the start of Ragbrai in Hawarden 1975.....three of us on a county road in single file....a damn semi came flying right past us not moving over at all. Plenty of room for him too...I was freaking furious at that ******** driver

2. While in high school, coming home from my part time job during a storm, a tree in the yard fell right after I walked past it. That was close.

3. About a decade or so ago biking on a tandem on another county road..some jacka$$ in a pick up didn't move over even though there was plenty of room and no one in the opposite lane. I flipped him off and yelled get the f over. He must have seen me as he then stopped and got out of his truck to wait for us....as we passed him I told him to get over when there's a bike. He got back into his truck and actually moved over when he passed us.

 

[AgronAlum]

Does that hill happen to be in the Traer/Clutier area? I was over that way this summer and was cutting cross country and went up a pretty steep hill that was way steeper on the other side, west side if I remember right, when I got to the top and saw the drop I was glad I wasn't going any faster and that it wasn't winter.

There are some fun hills to drive in that area (fun for someone that drives around in Iowa). There’s one just north of Garwin that’s pretty friggin sketchy. Especially since it’s washed out on both sides of the gravel. There are some in the hills NE of Toledo as well.