December 21, Saturday – Yes, no, yes, no….. (California)
When I left my Circle Tour in November, I knew that within six weeks that Snee-Oosh, the recreational vehicle, was going to cast off the homeport mooring lines and head south to the coast of California. For years we have celebrated the holidays in the comfort of La Conner but this year the La Conner family had been invited to the parents of Caitlin’s fiancée in Sea Ranch on the coastal highway.
Caitlin and Will in Portland were going to drive down in their own car while Hannah, Joan and I were in the RV for the trip in the 29 foot Winnebago Outlook.
The schedule was to leave the Skagit Valley on Saturday, the 20th and even though it had snowed four inches seven days before we were to depart, I wasn’t worried because in the valley snow comes but doesn’t stay. Wednesday it snowed again and the forecast called for more snow on Sunday. I kept checking the highway cameras from Everett to Redding several times a day. I talked daily with Joan and Hannah about the trip. Weather was becoming a major concern. Questions started being asked about the trip: go; don’t go. Yes, no.
Hannah called saying that Joan had cancelled her appointment on Friday and within two hours our small group decided to leave a day early. This decision brought a major shift in activity. Because the temperature lows were in the teens and the highs in the mid-twenties, I had waited until the last minute to put water into the system which had been drained down for the winter.
On Friday morning Hannah showed up to help with the trip preparations. We put into service the indispensable radios. While I controlled the hose faucet, she monitored the filling process. I was edgy about putting in 44 gallons of water on board and then not going on the trip or finding a pipe leak. But all went well after thawing a frozen water filter with a heat gun.
From there we split up: Hannah chained up the outside duals while I disconnected and stowed the shore power. The chore was to safely descend the hard packed snow road to the bottom of the hill and getting out of my settlement to La Conner across the Rainbow Bridge.
I parked on the flat in town while Hannah drove up the La Conner hill to Joan’s to get luggage and food. Then we quickly headed as fast as chains would allow out of town in the full sunlight toward Interstate 5.
The interstate appeared twelve miles later where we stopped, removed the chains and joined the masses of vehicles heading south on the interstate. I-5 was a total surprise: bare and dry. We were delighted with the highway conditions and the traffic speed. Portland here we come.
The conditions changed within four miles to compact snow and ice between the lanes. Cars and trucks were flying into the ditches. I was glad that I had the added weight of a full water tank. The rig itself weighed in a 22,000 pounds. Together the RV handled extremely well. Thank god that the highway conditions improve after 45 minutes of freeway driving. I kept chanting, “No one panic; everyone stay focus and we’ll all get through it.”
We went from snowy freeways to packed traffic through Seattle area. Finally, finally we were up to highway speeds near Sea-Tac airport.
Hannah took the second shift and drove us down to the City of Roses. Thirty minutes from Portland a blizzard socked everything in. We gladly stopped for the night in front of Caitlin’s home.
Again the weather edge set in. When we awoke Saturday morning there was two inches of snow on the street and the rig. Saturday was supposed to be another good day. Why the snow?? As I pulled out of the residential district onto the many bridges of Portland trouble was evident everywhere that the conditions for being out on the roads were a mess. We crawled southbound. Northbound was shut down with an icy bridge as the cork. Traffic was backed up for miles. It was stressed out driving for an hour and a half then bare and wet pavement. After that, it was open road to Ashland but the Siskiyou Summit still hid in the wings for tomorrow. Saturday night found us parked it in the front of a friend’s house for the night. Snow was on the ground but the rain was coming down.
No comments:
Post a Comment