I decided that it would be a good idea to drive the Bentley Arnage from Seattle to Ottawa. I set out on a beautiful morning in Seattle in early October. I made it through to Missoula, Montana without incident – and saw some extremely beautiful sights along the way.
Between Missoula and Butte, record-setting snow set in. The Arnage is a rear-drive car. It does not handle snow well. It uses tires that were designed specifically for it – and there are no snow tires available that will fit. The traction control proved to be useless – all I ended up doing was losing all power – and having to turn it off.
After spending the night in Butte, I ended up flying back to Seattle, via Salt Lake City – on the sole flight per day that comes in and out of Butte. There is no ILS nor control tower, so the pilot had quite a challenge getting in and almost had to turn back. (He eventually made it, but landed with the wind versus against – given a clearer approach flying in the opposite direction.)
The car was retrieved a week later after the record-setting snow thawed out – and the roads were again passable.
Given that I live now in a city that is under snow almost half of the year, this requires some re-thinking. Hmm…in the meantime – enjoy the snapshots from earlier in the day at: http://flickr.com/photos/rdonovan/sets/72157608189691237/.
rdonovan.com 