Anyone have to motor out in the blizzard today?? I thankfully didnt have to leave the house today, but couldnt even get halfway down my driveway if I tried now....

I hope everyone was careful today!!

 

yup - no driving today (or probably tomorrow even). anathema, keep that sweet MINI off the streets. Can you just imagine all the idiots in 4-wheel drives that think they are supermen.

 

Here's the view out my garage, with 2 FEET of snow on the ground, plus drifting at 9 AM on 12/21. Of course, this MINI is not going anywhere (no reason to). The location is in the southwest portion of the Denver metro area. Now it's time to shovel!

 

I measured 26" where there was no drifting. Not too bad for December.


Centennial is South of Denver and North of Highlands Ranch.

 

Nice pics!! And I took almost identical pictures pauhana about an hour ago!

 

Hey, your car is still very Zaino shiny!
See how the Epic beads the water on my MINI!
Actually though it looks like I wiped the snow off but all I really had to do was get it started and the rest just slid off. Didn't work too well on the canvas top though.

 

Man, you do a great job shoveling. Just so you know, I have been in KC this week and the weather is....50 and balmy. Won't be home until Sunday.

And Darcy and Berk have been 'Home Alone' having to shovel all this mess all by themselves.....ouch!

See if you can round up about a dozen guys and go do my place. The snowblower should be gassed up and ready to go in the garage. Help yourself.

JPS

 

More garage shots! I live in historic Highlands (northwest) where the garages are all in the alleys. The snow is drifted HUGE behind my garage and, of course, the alleys do not get plowed. I'm hoping some SUV neighbors will get out and about this morning and mush it down for the MINI.

Roxy went into the dealer on Tuesday for a ragtop repair. They took her down to Crestone Collision because she somehow sustained a nasty scratch in the process . So, my car has been tucked in at Crestone during the blizzard and I have a loaner MCSC from Schomp in my garage. It doesn't have snow tires, so wish me luck!

Holly

PS - Sorry to be lame about this, but how do you guys get the photos into the body of the message? I tried everything I could think of and couldn't make this dang editor "paste" the photos in!

 

Made it to Littleton Wednesday morning for work and havn't made it home since. It took me 40 mins to get to my parents .8 miles away when they closed the store at 3:00pm. I have been staying with them since then.





More pictures here:
http://aaamini.smugmug.com/gallery/2260686

 

Holly,
You need to upload photo(s) to your NAM gallery, then make a link to them in your post. Click here to get to the NAM instructions.
Rick

 

This is my 1st winter in Denver. My flight from Iowa (where I currently work) to Dever was cancelled on Thursday and United couldn't guarantee a flight home until 12/26, so I rented a car and drove home. Got home Saturday afternoon --- what a mess, people wiping out, cars turned over on I76, etc.. Why doesn't the city of Denver plow any side streets? I grew up in upstate NY and lived in New England for 15 years and have never seen a town/city demonstrate such ineptitude and unpreparedness for snow in my entire life. I still haven't seen a single city snow plow on the streets doing its job.

 

out here in the 'burbs, experience tells us that:

• For a light snow, just a few inches, there will be no plow. That is why we buy our wives just what they want, an SUV. No questions asked.
• And in turn, we get ourselves great big snow plows to do our domain with. No questions asked.
• When it is this deep (only every few years) we know to expect a plow. According to my wife, she saw it. Then it snowed another foot after that
• The bigger issue is ruts, which small cars seem to get stuck in. It is proving true today with the melting.
• And according to the mayor of Denver (hizzoner) they have indeed plowed all the streets, at least once. I have seen plows out in our area continuously, trimming things up.

Hey, it is an inconvenience for us all, no doubt. But then, the moisture is something to be thankful for. In a few days, back to normal, and we forget it all.

Welcome to Denver. A little prep goes a long way.

JPS

 

...as of late with oil prices...

However, my Durango is the only thing that got me around my streets for the past 5 days. Still, my streets are awfully rutted and the snow plow has been no where near central Denver/Aurora.

I miss driving White Lightning Please melt away darn snow! :impatient

 

got me an extra day and a half off work, so it was worth it to me. My employer almost never closes, so 2 ft of snow was a welcome sight as we were sent home. My wife almost never bakes cookies, but she did this time during the blizzard. I do miss driving the MINI during the holidays and the extra time off work, however. I'll have to be content with virtual (Internet) motoring, for now...

--Pau Hana (means celebrating the end of the work day)

 

I've put some snowstorm photos in my SmugMug album (click here to view). These were taken after both storms during the past week or so. Most are in the neighborhood, but a few are of the "garage queen" MINI, which didn't venture out in the white stuff. I did back it out of the garage a bit, to let it idle and charge the battery, as it's been inactive during these snowstorms...
Rick

 

I too am near littleton and though I didn't take any pics, I was the same place as the rest of you who don't park indoors. My poor girl was buried alive!

It only took an hours shovelling to get out of my parking space, and thereafter we didn't really have any problems with the snow.

Ice, on the other hand is responsible for a bent rim as I hit a volleyball size chunk at 40 christmas night. Sad to say I'm in the market for new rims, hope the rest of you fared better.

 

I might suggest looking for a set of used snows mounted on some plain old steel rims. I found a set of Blizzaks here on NAM for $350 on rims. My good rims are all warm and toasty in the garage until spring. Too bad about your wheel.

 

Ventured out a few days after the blizzard and noticed that my mini with factory tires did not do very well. Any suggestions for improving driving on ice and snow? I do use my mini as a primary transportation vehicle to/fr work. Any tire or chain suggestions would be very helpful. flyboydenver@msn.com

 

Many, many discussion on this in the tire forum, but I went with the Blizzaks and they are working well on my MINI which is a daily driver. My only issues is with bottoming out in these damn ruts. Maybe I need a lift kit!

 

As for me, I'm currently using Kumho Ecsta ASX tires on my 17" rims. They've done me just fine in the recent weather, including a 30 mile round trip on the first day of the huge blizzard. Only problems I have is being too short, like MiniMaybee, I've been skimming the high snow often with my undercarriage.

I got stuck only once and that was stopping in snow taller than the undercarriage. A little maneuvering soon got me underway again and I avoided more deep stuff like the plague and had no problems since. Best of luck.

 

Can any fellow Coloradans recommend a place/ carwash that does undercarriage washes, so at some point I can get the Magnesium Chloride off my undercarriage? I'd prefer that ONLY the undercarriage is washed and not the rest of the car to avoid swirl marks on my black roof and black bonnet stripes from an automatic carwash.

Many thanks.

 

I was up there and got caught in Blizzard #1....."stuck" in Denver Wed-Friday. Nice part was they flew up the corp jet after us from Dallas.





Missed Blizzard #2...but was there for snow storm #3! Woohoo!

 

Sure glad we did MINIs in the Mountains during the summer months. How are you all? no snow to speak of here yet.

 

My MINI has not been out of the garage since the first blizzard. There is still a HUGE pile of snow behind it. Now, as in tonight, 1-6-07, there are high winds, blowing snow, and wind chill near zero. I can already see new drifts forming in front of the garage where the MINI parks, the drive is covered in a few inches of the blowing snow already. Another storm is headed our way, 4th one, this coming weekend. Predictions range from not much to about 18" in the metro area. But after that, long term shows that we will dry out a bit.

Thank goodness I also have a daily driver that is all wheel drive. Since the pre Xmas blizzard, our part of town, South West Parker, has officially had 57" of snow in 3 storms. I have to admit...all the shoveling is helping me to get into shape, haha. Every time I go out to shovel the drive, it gets a bit easier.

 

Havnap -- Nice ride back to TX! In my area, we only received 8 inches of snow with the 3rd storm, but it's piled on top of the other two storms. Shoveling is good, forced exercise for me. Like 03Indigo, my MINI has had the luxury of staying in the garage during these storms. It hasn't been out since the MINI5280 Charity Drive to Children's Hospital (12/10) and the club meeting on the 12th. Since then the snow continues to pile up in front of the MINI's garage door. I'm already looking forward to spring, then summer for MINIs in the Mountains! If you haven't seen enough snow photos, click here for more.
Rick