For My Readers in the Netherlands

For my readers in the Netherlands:
      It seems like most of the blogs I read are written in the Netherlands. Very good blogs. This week most of them wrote about their winter. Here in my part of Canada it seems that is all I can write about. Because our winter lasts longer and gets colder we have learned to adapt. As Matthijs Leegwater wrote in one of his blogs as far as I could translate, the cold could freeze pipes and make much work. In our part of Canada our pipes are well protected from freezing. Of course we spend more money on heating our homes and buildings. So this week I want to talk about how we prepare for winter driving. When it starts to freeze in early October we prepare the wife's car for winter. The tires get changed to winter tires. These tires are a special rubber and tread that grip the ice and snow better. They stop the car in a much shorter distance.

Winter tire for wife.

Snow Brush

Battery jumper cables

We also put a shovel and a snow brush in her car. Now please comment if I'm wrong but I don't think snow brushes are that common in the Netherlands. Here every car has at least one in the winter. One end is used to brush the snow off the car and the other end has a plastic scraper on it. On most mornings you would use the scraper to scrape the frost or ice off your glass. Very important if the car is not in a garage. We also carry a set of battery jumper cables in case of a dead battery in the cold winter weather. Batteries loose much of their strength in the cold so sometimes they can be good to have. 

 

 

Lots of room at the bike rack today.

Of course I have all this in my old truck. Now that I have the Quest, my old truck does not get used very often. My old truck gets parked outside all the time. If I need to use it I plug it in. All our cars and trucks have an electric heater to heat the motor's coolant up. It makes for better starting when it's cold out. The Quest and the wife's car stay warm in the garage.  And the Quest needs no snow brush or battery jumper cables.  The only problem I have so far with winter riding is the high snow banks. The snow banks are so high, cars have a hard time to see the Quest. I have to be very careful entering a street. I am having fun riding the Quest, but Monday's forecast is for -35C low temperatures so that might be a test for me as well as the Quest.  Maybe I need a Tour Cap...