Perils of the Road

Driving can really suck.

Yesterday I drove from Portland to Penn Valley (a bit Northeast of Sacramento.) This is a drive that can be rather pretty, but isn't ever "great" as it is at least 9 hours even if you don't stop to stretch, pee, get gas or run into any traffic, detours or inclement weather.

I was a little tense before leaving as it is December and there is one significant mountain pass along the way with several smaller passes before and after. The weather report was showing some pretty foul weather all through Oregon with snow in the mountains, in the Columbia Gorge and maybe even in and around Portland. Wednesday night there was snow in Southern Oregon towns and while it was supposed to warm up slightly Thursday, there was still a chance it could turn icky. I contemplated waiting a little while, but after Thursday it was supposed to get truly nasty for several days so I figured I'd try to sneak through that little window on Thursday where it was supposed to be a warm 40 degrees and just raining.

The weather in Oregon definitely wasn't great. It wasn't as bad as it could have been so I was feeling fairly optimistic. Despite a couple of hours of foggy, misty, rainy, grey in which I could barely see the car 20 feet in front of me (never mind anything looming ahead of that) I was feeling okay. Even when I was driving up the icky mountain pass at 35-40 mph in a torrential, foggy, downpour that I couldn't see through I was okay. I just kept thinking, "I'm almost through it, I'm almost through it." Just a little while longer and then it will be an easy drive the rest of the way.

WELL... a bit South of Redding, right around sunset and right around the time I had to start navigating off I-5 along the circuitous route of back highways and back roads that would bring me to Penn Valley, the weather got friggin' ugly. I'd been on the road over 7 hours already and still had 2 or 3 hours ahead of me (and that was if conditions were fine) and here I was on strange roads, at night, with buckets and buckets of rain pouring down and large swatches of fog that would pop up out of the rain and unexpectedly reduce your visibilty to nothing. I couldn't see a thing, the roads had several inches of rain covering them in places, I didn't know where I was going and the traffic going the opposite direction was blinding. Later I learned that there were severe weather alerts for just about all the areas I was driving through, winds up to 45 mph along my route and as much as 3.55 inches of rain in places. Fun fun fun. When things got really bad I resolved to pull over and wait or find a motel to stay in for the night. However, the reports on the radio made it seem like it was going to get worse through the evening so pulling over didn't seem to be wise and since I was in the middle of nowhere I hadn't the foggiest notion of where I might be able to find a place to stay for the night. So I kept driving - sometimes as slow as 20 or 25 mph, despite speed limits of 55 or even 65 mph - and amazingly I didn't get lost. I was already super stressed and I don't know what I would have done if I'd gotten lost on top of it all. I probably would have cried.

It felt like it took forever but eventually I made it to Penn Valley where I found a very cold house with nothing but dried, packaged soup to eat, no hot water (the water heater had been turned way low) and the cable TV gone. Whoo hoo. I feel much better though after a long sleep, a sunny morning and a quick stop at the grocer. Now all I have to do is unpack, do laundry, take care of businessy things (relating to my car and massage), re-pack and then get in the car tomorrow morning for another 9+ hour drive to Palm Desert. Ugh!