My family has a seasonal cabin well north of Lake Tahoe that has to be closed for the winter. Well, winter is fast approaching so I raced the 9 hour drive up there to shut 'er down.
Thankfully I was handed the keys to the Veracruz. It had plenty of cargo room to stuff the extra anti-freeze, mouse traps, our extra warm blankets and food for our weekend in the mountains.
I got a late start, but the comfortable seats and quiet ride of the Veracruz were welcome luxuries. Also having XM to entertain me as my lady slept the entire way up was nice too. I got to listen to the ballgames and some political analysis from various sources. It might be rather desolate where my cabin is, but satellite radio keeps me in touch with the world.
Driving up the last of the mountain passes to my cabin, I kept my eye on the outside temp gauge which kept dropping. We arrived pretty late in the day to temperatures in the teens. The ground was frozen, the deck was covered with ice and it was windy.
I quickly went to work on what needed to happen on the exterior of the cabin before it got dark. When I stepped inside the cabin, it was noticeably colder. This wasn't going to be fun.
After draining all the water from the pipes and flushing them with antifreeze, dropping the mouse traps, shutting off the power and buttoning down the storm shutters we decided to ironman it back. We'd rather suffer for a little on another long drive than freeze the entire weekend in a cabin with no insulation.
Thank god those seats in the Veracruz are damn comfy with the added bonus of being heated.
Scott Jacobs, Senior Photographer
joefrompa says:
10:37 AM, 10/15/08
I had heated seats on my 2005 Saab 9-2x Aero....but I never appreciated them until we bought our 2008 Subaru Legacy GT....the seats get the perfect amount of toasty and it just radiates through the perforated leather into our buns AND up the lower back/lumbar area.
I do some heavy lifting, including sets of low rep deadlifts. I don't use weight belts or braces or anything else. Sometimes, when I get in the car my lower back is just knotted up in tension. I would realize it when I went home and my body got cold. But when I took the Legacy from my wife and drove home after a tough night of lifting....it was amazing. My body felt loose and limber AFTER cooling down.
God bless good heated seats.
Joe
P.s. Your friend should install some low-cost solar panels and/or windmills connected to some sort of capacitor that can meter out some electrical current into that house. You'd be able to keep the pipes unfrozen and maybe keep the heat above 40-45 for when you arrive :)
rick8365 says:
10:40 AM, 10/15/08
Should've toughed it out.....kidding.
I think it's a bizzare phenomenon that 20 or 30 deg in a house feels like 20 or 30 below compared to how the same temp feels outside.
Nice place.
autoboy16 says:
01:06 PM, 10/15/08
Nice house(Again...Again...)! Sure wish I had heated seats... My next car surely will!! Those cool misty mornings are nothing to play with in the winter.
Anything Below 70ยบ is nothing to play with and is consider freezing to many in Miami! 65 and you see chicago style winter coats. Also less Applebottom jeans and more boots with the fur... lol.
-Cj
joefrompa says:
01:15 PM, 10/15/08
Ugh. Uggs.
jaguar36 says:
05:30 AM, 10/16/08
You drove 18 hours round trip to put some anti-freeze in the pipes and close some shutters? Ouch. Couldn't get a neighbor to do that for you?