Neil:
Thanks for the nice statement on the WPC's 1986 Meet in Colorado. I still
remember the impeccable timing with the thunder...
Speaking of thunder and your request for experiences with windshield wipers...
It was on the return from a trip to the Hershey AACA swap meet in 1975. As 4
of us traveled west towards home in my 74 Plymouth Sport Suburban pulling a
car trailer with my 33 Chrysler in tow, we were approaching Tucumcari, New
Mexico during an incredible storm. As thunder and lightening echoed and lit
up the ground with bolts of lightening hitting the ground within a hundred
yards of us we carried forward on a highway under construction.
There was one lane going west and one lane going east with a double line to
the left of me and to the right was a drop off where excavation had occurred
preparing to put a subbase for the pavement. The drop off was more than a
foot.
It was pitch black outside, rain the likes of which I had only encountered
once before (a cloud burst in Arizona with a patrol car behind me and closing
fast...) and traffic behind me and no one in front and the aforementioned
thunder and lightening all around us when my lights and wipers (variable)
stopped working. To top it off, there was a news bulletin warning travelers
that there has been a prison break of a number of dangerous characters in
Tucumcari.
I switched everything off, guided myself with the frequent bursts of light
nearby -- some within 50 feet -- kept the speed up and headed west. After
several minutes like this (seemed like forever) I turned on the light and
wiper switches and voila -- we were back in business. Evidently, the relays
had overheated at a most inopportune time.
We checked into a well-lit motel in Tucumcari and later that evening the
escapees were captured nearby.
That was a trip to remember...
Sherwood Kahlenberg
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