Monday, February 12, 2018

Blow me

I was driving west at about 70 miles per hour. The wind was blowing out of the south at 20-25 miles per hour. For those of you not in the United States, Liberia or Myanmar, I was driving about 112.6 km/h and the wind was 32-40 km/h. And if you’re a sailor or pilot or both, I was going 60.8 knots and the wind was 17-21 knots.

However you measure it, the effect on the Rolling Steel Tent was the same. But not exactly the same as other times I’ve had to cope with strong sidewinds. Today the wind strength was fairly constant. A steady push rather than a horizontal rollercoaster of lulls and gusts blowing me all over the highway. So it wasn’t all that bad. I just held firmly to the wheel, steering slightly left for an hour and a half.

Earlier, I’d been driving north, with a tailwind. That’s good for fuel mileage, but it makes for more erratic driving as the wind keeps changing its mind about which side of the van it wants to slip around.

We were supposed to have flying cars and rocket belts by now. I’d settle for all highways being encased in clear windproof tunnels.

3 comments:

  1. "I just held firmly to the wheel, steering slightly left for an hour and a half." If you're a pilot that's known as a crab. Doing that for any length of time certainly makes me crabby.

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  2. Hmmm... driving at 70 mph with a 20 mph tail wind should be the same as driving at 50mph with no wind at all. How the heck did that affect your van?

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    Replies
    1. Hmmm, yeah, you're right. It must've been erratic for a different reason.

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