Years ago, a very innocent I and my brother went skiing at
Bear Valley. ON the way up, Friday night, I'm motoring through the dark
and the falling snow. The road rises to the left and turns right at
the crown of the rise. As my green '69 tops the rise, I can see TWO cars
spun-out in the snow banks on the left side of the road- there's black
ice on the road and the un-wieghting of the rise has a predictable effect.
Further, a kindly fellow in a pickup truck is pulling these folks back
onto the road- which he's right in the middle of.
	I jammed on the brakes, and the bus slid gently, and to some degree
under my control, toward the right side of the road, where the nose slowly slid
down off the road and into the ditch. My brother, who had been sleeping in
the passenger seat, wakes up find himself hanging in the shoulder-belts. 
Since I'd been well over 35mph, The complete lack of physical damage was
a surprising bonus!

	Even with my chains, I had no traction and couldn't back out, or
go forward. Fortunately, fellow with pickup finishes pulling his first
helpee out of the other side ditch, then ties onto my front suspension and
pulls us out of the ditch. I thank him profusely. We continue, at a slower
pace. Ian stays wide awake for the rest of the trip.

	On the return of this trip, I learned the third practical bits of
wisdom I accumulated about cars: the first being starters, solenoids,
bendix-parts and ring gears, learned on a Corvair with bad compression on
five cyclenders I later bought for $0.02, and the second being the carburetor, 
the 28 PCIT, of said Bus, which I am amazed to report that I rebuilt 
successfully, on my first try.

	Anyway, the bus seemed to be loosing power, and I had to keep revs
up on this winter trip. Returning, thankfully below the snow level, it
finally would go no further. It faded and expired as I drove toward
Stockton, leaving us in a parking lot at the side of the road. I was 21 and 
knew nothing, so I did the right thing and called a local tow-truck who
would take my check, and towed us to his service station. There, the tow
truck driver became mechanic and diagnosed utterly worn out points- no cam
rider left. He found something he thought would fit and installed them.
We hadn't been very close to Stockton, and so I took my thoroughly frozen
brother across the street to Denny's and fed him. It was obvious that I
needed to know more about the beasts that bore me.

	All things considered, its surprising that my brother
still will ride with me... :-)

	Bill