So the forecast for Wednesday is freezing rain until 9am, then snow in the afternoon. I decide I must leave between 10am and noon, getting to Ohio, about an hour south, will get me out of the bad weather.

Well I wake up at 6:30am to find it snowing heavy. I move my car about a mile to get it out of the subdivision and right by the freeway that leads all the way to Florida (I-275 to I-75), put my spare keys in the car, since I'll be leaving them and the car with Bazza, lock the car up and head back home.

Pack the bags, get in my wife's car and go to the ATM. On the way to the C2T, I say to Mary, "I don't have my key, we need to go home to get it".....

Two hours later, no key. Police are called but they cannot get into the car. getting desperate now, snow is now 3" deep on top of car and more falling.

Oh, did I mention, I have R-compound tires on the car since I'll be doing a track event in a month down south?

Call Jeff Jones of Automotive Techniques in Farmington Hills, MI and explain the story to him. Did I mention I'm having a nervous breakdown about getting snowed in?

Jeff says he's managed to get the rear quarter panel window out of 15 cars and only broken one. And that was in the cold. "Do I want to try it?", he asks, "I can make you a lexan replacement if it breaks". "Jeff, do whatever you need to do" I respond. By now I need hospital treatment.

It's now 9:30am and the snows still falling.

15 minutes later he's at the car and 10 minutes after that we're in. Now got the spare keys. Lock car, give keys to Jeff and get ride back to house. Get bags and get ride back to car. Drive SLOWLY to Jeff's place about 10 miles north. Amazingly, there's not too much snow.

Jeff puts window back in and while he does that, I go get a spare key from the Porsche dealer - thanks Brian of Bill Cook Imports for getting the key quickly.

I get going at 11am and am on my way down south on I-275 a few minutes later.

Once I get to the Ohio border after 50 minutes, the snow has stopped. But it buckets down with rain until I get to Kentucky 3 hours later. Averaged 70mph for the first 4 hours, though near Dayton I had to slow down because I was aquaplaning at 65mph - remember those Kuhmo Victoracers?

Further south, as I get to Tennessee, the sun comes out. It's now 65F and I have dinner in Knoxville, TN outside! And I'm still playing phone tag with Rick Roll who lives in Chattanooga about 100 miles down the road.

Never did meet up with him until Saturday at the track.

Day ends at 12:45am in Cordele, GA where I manage to find a hotel room in the middle of a train yard - at least that's what it seemed like. Every hour I got woken up by a train and its horn sounding. In the morning when I checked out, the lady asked if they mentioned the trains ("No") or if they gave me ear plugs ("No"). Well thinking quickly, I snagged a few sets from her for the race.

Got to Daytona at 11:15am where I met Barry.

Click on the link for photos from Wednesday's snow