Basketball photography and crazy drive
That was Wednesday – and I am still alive, the car is in one piece…
Rarely does it happen when the Met Office warns of dangerous driving conditions, that it actually means something. But yesterday, yeps.. sure was worth the warning.
Decided to head out early, due to the warning, to Kauhajoki – so I would miss most of the rain/sleet/snow, and this paid off nicely as I got to Kauhajoki around 13.00, did the shopping at the local Citymarket (which my Plussa-app tells me I use more than my K-market at home.. not sure what this tells about me or my life???).
Then to the parking lot of IKH-Areena and do some work on the laptop and take a little walk – evening is reserved for the big game of the night with KarhuBasket taking on Seagulls – winner takes top spot in the league table, and thus holding the home court advantage in the possible finals in two months time. Long playoffs coming this season!
Game surely did NOT disappoint, Seagulls holding the lead for about 38 minutes of the 40, but at the final buzzer it was the home team who had just edged it by two points.. with Seagulls still having a last second attempt (a GOOD one!) to take the game to overtime.
Another memorable night at the IKH-Arena in Kauhajoki… back here in two weeks for the second leg of FIBA Europe Cup semifinals!
Little did I know that the biggest adventure of the day was still ahead of me..
When I go to Kauhajoki, where people always seem happy to see me.. the question I get asked every time..
‘Did you stay at Lauhavuori or Kauhaneva’ or ‘Are you staying at Kauhaneva or Lauhanvuori tonight’
Oh, and also ‘ Beware of the wolves!’
Those are the two national parks near Kauhajoki, and I tend to stay at one of them in my mobile home on these trips.. this time I had chosen Kauhaneva, due to it being in the direction of where I am heading to for a game on Thursday. The drive is about 40 minutes from Kauhajoki, and first 30km or so are on a good road, then it gets to a bit smaller for 15km, before getting REALLY small for 3km.
Weather had been atrocious all day, but the first 30km were good driving – empty roads, little wet and wet snow in places. Decided to have a look at the second road before committing to it. Looked OK – so off I go…WHAT A MISTAKE!!
After about 1km the road turned into a porridge, deep grooves, ice, slush, single track (luckily no oncoming traffic) .. traction control was kicking in all the time, wheels were spinning, when rounding a corner… often I was just a passenger, with no control which way the car was going, even the slightest hill and speed dropped to a crawl and you wondered if you were gonna make it up that one.. or had to start reversing in the dark and porridge..
Then got to the turn off for the last 3km…about 20cm pile of wet slushy snow…I am NOT going that way – so, 6 more kilometres of this fun, and some of it even worse, as well as a small hill that I just about managed to get up. Let’s just say I might need a very good massage to get my shoulders moving again.
Then it was time to decide where to go to sleep… decision – to Jyväskylä! So another 3 hours behind the wheel, this time on decent roads, apart from there being huge lakes in any recess .. luckily really no other traffic so it was pretty smooth driving all the way.
Finally got to ABC in Jyväskylä around 1.15am .. close curtains … off to bed, only to be awoken in the night by the snowplough clearing the parking lot… yes.. it was that kind of night.
