What I Learned on Vacation...

No matter how much you think you know, you really don't know that much (the above picture is NOT of me, but certainly could have been)...

Example #1--as an avid offroader with many years experience on the rocks, sand, snow and mud in various vehicles I initially balked at taking my parents Hyundai Santa Fe (borrowed for its ability to tow a pop-up trailer) out onto the sand of the North Carolina beaches I was visiting. In years past I had taken my Nissan Xterra out on these very same beaches with ease, traversing up and down the coast with nary a worry. But not possessing a true 4WD system and street tires I just didn't want to chance it...Then I spied a Ford Escape coming up at me off the beach in fine form and without pause, also with street tires.

Bah, I said, if a Ford Escape can run the sand so can the Santa Fe--a near identical "soft-roader" of Korean build. So off we went...and promptly ground to a halt within 10 yards of leaving the pavement...Why oh why didn't I listen to my first instinct? The deep soft sand completely and utterly confounded the Santa Fe's AWD system. The only wheel ever to spin was always the one hanging in the loosest of sands, obtaining no grip and leaving the vehicle without the ability to move anywhere. Yes the tires were aired down, yes I tried rocking the vehicle back and forth, blah, blah, blah...The fancy dancy computer system and completely open differentials left the vehicle without the ability to put a single pound of torque to the "ground" where it counted.

I was promptly pulled from the sand by a local driving a nice Chevrolet Silverado who looked at my Massachusetts plates, my Korean soft-roader, wife and kid in the car and pasty white skin and must have thought to himself "Just another Mass-hole getting his dumbass in where he doesn't belong" and I can't say I blame him, though I sputtered a bunch of excuses about the vehicle being borrowed, not being from Massachusetts and having been out on these beaches in my own vehicle in the past...but it didn't really make me feel any better...If you need a vehicle to tow a small pop-up trailer and carry the family the Santa Fe is great...just don't try taking it out on the beach or dunes...