My Grand Marquis Diary

Picked up the car from the mechanic today. During one of the most intense rainstorms I've ever driven in. Thank goodness the mechanic had replaced the headlamps! Because the old, fogged-up ones would never have gotten me home alive! As it was, I could barely see the street more than 15 paces in front of the car. At the start, I fuelled-up at a local gas station and chilled there (literally) under their roof while I waited for the rain to lessen.

It did not lessen.

I drove the rest of the way home well below the speed limit. Some other cars decided that these conditions were actually totally fine and I was going too slowly. They tailgated me for a while before realizing that I was sticking to my guns and driving as safely as possible and passing me around blind turns, entering the oncoming lane to do so.

Turns out flash flood warnings are not a joke! Some segments of the road were flooded with an inch of water. My car did not like driving through that. My old Pilot would have been able to barrel right through without even noticing, but the Grand Marquis is a more sensitive creature. Losing control for even a brief moment during that heavy rain was, in a word, terrifying.

That's not even to mention the splashes from the other cars that would soak the windshield and take out all visibility for a few seconds. Glad I got new wipers too. Those tiny things need all the help they can get!

I arrived home fried. And also having to worry about the leak in the tailgate seal. With the rain, I couldn't put the cover back on and just had to leave it for the night. So, I put a towel below the leak to catch the water. In the morning, the towel was still soaked, but the leather seemed fine! What a night!