Vermonster 4x4 - SnowBog - February 2013

 Kevin, Anthony and I headed to the “Vermonster Snowbog” around 8AM.  On the way we stopped at Dunkin Donuts and the store for snacks.  With a winter storm warning and snow on the way we stopped for gas as well.  We arrived around 10:30AM and parked in a snow covered field.  We looked at some of the trucks before finding a place in the stands to sit.  The weather said it wasn’t supposed to snow until 3PM.  A wet fluffy snow started soon after we arrived. 

The head to head drag racing was fun.  A couple trucks lost control winding up on the guard rails or on their side.

The rock crawling course was snow covered so made things slippery.  There were several rock crawling trucks that made the course look easy.  More normal looking rock crawling trucks made the same attempt and were dragged off the course after breaking drive shafts, transmissions, or getting so stuck they couldn’t continue. 

The Tug-O-War event was great.  The ice had an effect on traction so some of the trucks were standing still with engines roaring.  A couple trucks limped away with strange sounds coming from under the hold and smoking engines.  I would like to see the same thing done in the mud.  Much more traction, first one to break the strap wins.    

Mid afternoon we headed for home.  As the temperature dropped to 30 degrees slush accumulated on the roads.  My Silverado has 4 wheel drive.  I slowed down!  Why don’t people slow down??  We saw several accidents.  We stopped to pull one car out of the snow bank.   They slowly headed for the next exit to a gas station with blue and green fluids dripping underneath.  Saw a minivan between the highway way into the woods with police already there as we continued our drive.

Two streets away from home I turn a corner and Anthony turns around saying “Did you see that”??  I stop and am looking in my rear view mirror thinking fox, coyote, fisher cat, you know … critter stuff as I guess that’s how I’m wired.   

He sees strange white, green and brown smoke coming from the back of the neighbor’s house.  Anthony said not normal colors that should come from inside a house.  Anthony, being a fireman, is wired that way.  I spun the truck around and pulled up to the house. 

Anthony jumped out, knocked on the door, rang the door bell.  No one answered.  He didn’t see smoke through the windows so he headed around back where the smoke was coming from.  Sitting in the truck with Kevin it looked like smoke was coming from some kind of pipe on the side of the house.  Anthony said the siding didn’t feel warm, doors not warm, but the smoke didn’t look right.  The fire station was 1/3 mile away so we drove there.  Anthony jumped out and told them the situation. 

They sent a fire truck over.  Turns out the house had a pellet stove that wasn’t feeding right so a fire started in the hopper and the exhaust pipe.  The family was gone for the weekend.  The fire department put out the fire and called the family.  They said in another 20 minutes it probably would have started a house fire.  I bet a fire in the hopper gets pretty hot … They had to take apart the pipe and all. 

Anthony helped them ventilate the house as smoke had started to accumulate.  Imagine being gone for the weekend and receiving a fire department call like that??  Definitely a bad news/good news call with good far outweighing the bad that could have been.   Great job Anthony …

Fun at Vermonster … excitement in the neighborhood … home safe …

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