apparently they've declared Hood River a "snow emergency" today... asking that people not leave their homes unless "absolutely necessary!"
In the famous words of Pa Grape Mr. Lunt, "Ain't dat da truf!?"
We made it to Buck & Mary's for the wedding, as did a handful of other hc locals, the best man, and such... but many family and friends who would have traveled from near by areas, were quick to say, 'neigh' and/or turn around about halfway through the agonizing trip.
I was lucky enough blessed to have hopped in the Rav with my folks, so my baby blue wasn't out there in this mess. The scariest part of driving in this stuff is the possibility of others whapping into you without much recourse to get out of the way in time.
As we began to make our way out if the driveway we soon had the best man, in Kyle's truck, hot on our tails... under the pressure, and thanks to the quickly warming weather, we were driving on "whale snot" (according to my mother.) We spun a bit and stuck ourselves into the bank... and the next thing I knew, the big red truck was coming right at us, slip slidin' the same way...
Praise God, he actually sort of jack knife/forked it into the bank and actually whapped it into a metal guardrail/fence, as opposed to the other option which was to careen into the passenger side where mom& I sat wide-eyed waiting for it to happen. The look on Kevin's face, once he was stopped, was priceless... a little too much for the alaskan guy, eh!?
Knowing he wasn't going to hit us, we revved the Rav up again and Colin got it out of the bank. Yet we were suddenly going backwards, "We can go in reverse!" I said encouragingly, imagining us simply backing out the rest of the way. As I contorted myself around to help guide the way, suddenly we were spinning again, "Or we can go forward!"
And then back into a bank/almost ditch again.
We decided it was high time to call the home owners and get some assistance/notify them that none else should try leaving anytime soon. Buck came, walking/sliding, down to help us get out (we were almost to the end of the drive way by then) and no sooner were we out, we were spun around again! Buck actually hopped in and did a bit of reverse psychology on the vehicle, running it in 2nd as we went down backwards, fighting it's slips and slides until we did our final 180 into the perfect position to make it out onto the actual road.
Colin got back in, and we headed off, leaving them to deal with the alaskan and Kyle's truck. Little did we think the the road would be just as bad, if not worse, a complete sheet of slicker than snot ice. They've decided not to gravel any of the roads today, barely even plowing many of them (especially not the back roads betwixt our house and Buck & Mary's.) We rode all over the place as I simply prayed we'd continue to go head first. Opting to go an off route, to avoid further hills and curves, we slowly made our way home... and here I am. I'm not sure if or when my folks made it to their house.
We've gotten a good foot of fresh powder today alone! it was all the way up my Sorels as I trudged out of the vehicle. It beautiful, really! I'd like to trek around and snap loads of pix, alas my batteries are both dead, and my charger is at the Vande's somehow. I'll have to live with what little I've already captured.
*hbw* I'm gonna make some cocoa with itty bitty marshmallows!
