<VV> Corvair story

[kwoodke at comcast.net]

Well I said I had another snow/Vair story and they seem to be slowing down maybe this will start them back up. Winter: sometime in the mid 70's Christmas day. Went to parents house in northwest Indiana. Only 17 miles but took 1.5 hours. Roads horrible. 8" snow on ground (I measured). Coming down the last road to their house I lost momentum in the rutted thing that passed for a road and stopped 3 times. As I always say as long as I can move I am not stuck. Backed up and got going each time. My wife is mildly freaking out as she didn't dress for hiking in the snow. Of course this was before cell phones. I didn't know the plows hadn't been in the neighborhood for two days of snow. I started calling ahead for local road conditions after that.
 Quick review: 65 cpe, 4spd (no Posi)  B60-13 tires and I am not exagerating when I say about 3" of ground clearance.
When I got to Mom and Dad's house all were amazed we got there at all. I might have started bragging about how I had never  been stuck in this car. Well the next thing I know my nephews have challenged (taunted, harrassed?) me to drive through the yard and circle the house. OK I was bragging. Alcohol was not involved and yet there I was driving between the garage and the house headed to the backyard. In a brief moment of clarity I realized that the backyard has a considerable downhill slope. If I don't carry the correct amount of speed at the bottom of the hill this could be my downfall. Too slow and I don't make the off camber turn and gentle slope up to the side yard. Too fast and I will find myself parked on the rubharb in the garden till spring.  
 I'll never forget the sight of my family following my progress from window to window in the house or the sight of my wife on the back porch. I know what she was thinking "what the hell were you thinking". If you are married and into Corvairs you've probably seen that look too.
The trip through the yard was anti climactic as I bulldozed through the snow bank at the side of the driveway and parked it.  However at 11:00PM when I went to drive home it was 15 degrees and I found everything was frozen solid, brakes and wheels and of course packed with snow and ice. I managed to get it into the garage and turned up the furnace. We stayed the night. At 9:00 AM as I was shoveling slush out of the garage a county plow truck went rumbling by and took away the final challenge to get home. Although by the time we got home the doors had frozen shut. We had to climb out the window . A couple of  cans of warm WD-40 was enough to open one door so I could get to work the next day. Even after spending all day in the shop it was still dripping when I left for home that evening.
Thanks for letting me share my Vairy merry Christmas, Keith Woodke