Tuesday, February 6, 2007

The Big Puddle

As Sean promised in the last post, here is a short video of Odyssey plunging through a small water crossing in the Coronado National Forest. Click here or on the photo below to launch the video. (Having trouble seeing our videos? Try accessing them directly on the Blip.tv site by clicking here. The videos are available in other formats there. Apple users may want to try the Flash Video format.)



If you listen closely toward the end of the video, you can hear a metallic scraping, which is the sound of the exhaust outlet hitting the mud. We think this is the result of the bus "porpoising" as Sean hits the brakes. The wall of water completely blocked his view out the windshield and there were three cars waiting to ford the stream, so braking seemed like a good idea. Otherwise, gently coasting to a stop would have been the best plan. Here is the formerly rectangular sheet metal:



And here is one of the shattered halogen headlight bulbs. Hot light + cold water, not a good combination.

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1 comment:

  1. Its easy to give advice from the safety of my armchair but here goes anyway. If you are ever faced with a puddle like that again know that you don't have to hit it hard and fast. Wet sand is about as good of footing as you are going to find. In fact, if you ever get stuck in dry sand on the beach simply putting a lot of water on it may actually get you out. Just ease into it slow and gentle - no porpoising, no splashing, no damage.

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