A Unique Mother's Day Was Had By All. Oh. My.
Good Morning, MMMLOG fans!
Mercedes M-Class Drive Party
Remember I said that I was going to spend my Mom's Day at the drive party at the Port of Seattle with my son and DH? Oh. My. That we did and it was one to remember. But then, most of mine are.
First, the directions to get to the drive party are always wretched. MapQuest sends you off on its own misdirected adventures and we arrived thirty minutes late to the appointed time. No problem as it was early Mother's Day, Sunday and raining. We lined up to drive the M500 (all wheel drive SUV) as there was certainly no point in driving the 350 when there was that V-8 waiting to be taken through its paces. I drove first and pushed it as much as I dared through quite a course that even featured a mechanical pop-up elk for a brake test. The vehicle's nose dipped which does not happen on my Red Therapy (SLK roadster) that squats to a stop RIGHT NOW. The ride is soft and pleasant which isn't that thrilling of a feel when cornering an SUV.
The DH drove next and got into it as much as felt comfortable as the Mercedes demonstrators that were posted at the start and end of the course to "watch over you" had advised to "have fun but not get crazy." That's sooooo subjective, you know? As will be shown when I tell you about my son's . . . test flight.
My son, Extreme YeeeeHaaa Air Force Officer, climbed behind the wheel with me in the backseat and DH in the passenger seat. Now remember I taught this boy to drive back in the day and I'm still barely able to unkink my fingers from the leather when he's at the wheel and I'm not. I should have really paid attention to what was to come. He climbed into the driver's seat saying, "Well, this is going to be our last run of the day."
From the guy guarding the line, we got a smiley faced, "have fun." Here comes the subjective part--my son grinned back and said, "But don't get crazy, right?" Then he floored the throttle, smoked the tires off the line, hit some huge MPH down the way too short straight away before screeching into the first set of curves. I didn't see how fast we were going because I was gritting my teeth until my eyelids closed tight and my fingers grabbing leather. I understand I was a bit vocal as well. I think at one point I do recall saying something to the effect of "Please, don't roll this *@&^%$)#@ car!" The popping up elk brake check was equally as eventful, and yes, that car will stop even with wet pavement.
When we bumped over the 5MPH rough road at the end of the course covering almost a mile that we ran in 20 seconds, or so it seemed, I looked over at the start line. ALL of the other test vehicles were parked and the entire crew as well as all the test drivers waiting under the tent were staring our way. As we rolled up to park in the only vacant staging slot, the crew converged upon us.
"You over-rolled the tires!" were the first words out of her mouth. "We want you to have a good time, BUT--blah, blah, blah, glennie." She went on to say something to the effect of--if we were very, very good we could still drive but we had to agree to drive more carefully. As my son said--that was our last run of the day. After that test drive, there was not really anything else of interest to do there. We left.
Sometime I will have to tell you about another ride with my son after I'd flown almost 20 hours from Seattle to Auckland, NZ, arriving at 5:00 a.m. My son picked me up in his beater Honda and flew low to Hamilton on the "wrong" side of the road, in the dark, the fog and drizzle . . . Good times.
We're off to do some local touristing.
Ciao, Ciao mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmelinda
Mercedes M-Class Drive Party
Remember I said that I was going to spend my Mom's Day at the drive party at the Port of Seattle with my son and DH? Oh. My. That we did and it was one to remember. But then, most of mine are.
First, the directions to get to the drive party are always wretched. MapQuest sends you off on its own misdirected adventures and we arrived thirty minutes late to the appointed time. No problem as it was early Mother's Day, Sunday and raining. We lined up to drive the M500 (all wheel drive SUV) as there was certainly no point in driving the 350 when there was that V-8 waiting to be taken through its paces. I drove first and pushed it as much as I dared through quite a course that even featured a mechanical pop-up elk for a brake test. The vehicle's nose dipped which does not happen on my Red Therapy (SLK roadster) that squats to a stop RIGHT NOW. The ride is soft and pleasant which isn't that thrilling of a feel when cornering an SUV.
The DH drove next and got into it as much as felt comfortable as the Mercedes demonstrators that were posted at the start and end of the course to "watch over you" had advised to "have fun but not get crazy." That's sooooo subjective, you know? As will be shown when I tell you about my son's . . . test flight.
My son, Extreme YeeeeHaaa Air Force Officer, climbed behind the wheel with me in the backseat and DH in the passenger seat. Now remember I taught this boy to drive back in the day and I'm still barely able to unkink my fingers from the leather when he's at the wheel and I'm not. I should have really paid attention to what was to come. He climbed into the driver's seat saying, "Well, this is going to be our last run of the day."
From the guy guarding the line, we got a smiley faced, "have fun." Here comes the subjective part--my son grinned back and said, "But don't get crazy, right?" Then he floored the throttle, smoked the tires off the line, hit some huge MPH down the way too short straight away before screeching into the first set of curves. I didn't see how fast we were going because I was gritting my teeth until my eyelids closed tight and my fingers grabbing leather. I understand I was a bit vocal as well. I think at one point I do recall saying something to the effect of "Please, don't roll this *@&^%$)#@ car!" The popping up elk brake check was equally as eventful, and yes, that car will stop even with wet pavement.
When we bumped over the 5MPH rough road at the end of the course covering almost a mile that we ran in 20 seconds, or so it seemed, I looked over at the start line. ALL of the other test vehicles were parked and the entire crew as well as all the test drivers waiting under the tent were staring our way. As we rolled up to park in the only vacant staging slot, the crew converged upon us.
"You over-rolled the tires!" were the first words out of her mouth. "We want you to have a good time, BUT--blah, blah, blah, glennie." She went on to say something to the effect of--if we were very, very good we could still drive but we had to agree to drive more carefully. As my son said--that was our last run of the day. After that test drive, there was not really anything else of interest to do there. We left.
Sometime I will have to tell you about another ride with my son after I'd flown almost 20 hours from Seattle to Auckland, NZ, arriving at 5:00 a.m. My son picked me up in his beater Honda and flew low to Hamilton on the "wrong" side of the road, in the dark, the fog and drizzle . . . Good times.
We're off to do some local touristing.
Ciao, Ciao mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmelinda
posted by MMMelinda at 9:14 AM
