Winter wonderland.
Jan. 25th, 2008 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shirenomadYesterday I made the long trek up California to my parents' house for the third time in as many months. The reasons I will save for tomorrow, because that's not what I feel like talking about right now; what I feel like talking about is what happened on the way. And what happened on the way is this.
The most direct route from the LA Basin to, well, just about anything north of the LA Basin is straight up Interstate 5 through that mountain pass. As I approached said pass, the alert signs on the road warned that there was snow in the pass which may lead to delays. I thought, "cool! (no pun intended)." I thought the same when I actually entered Tejon Pass (around 4:30pm) and the showers that had been keeping my windshield wipers busy stopped dripping and started flaking. Yeah, I had to slow a bit, but we SoCalers don't get to see snow under most conditions, so it was, at the time, a novelty.
But let me point something out: that article I linked earlier described the conditions at 1pm Wednesday. Around 5pm, still 15 miles from the north end of the pass, things started really slowing down. I gave Dad a call as we temporarily stopped, filled him in, and let him know I may be arriving at 10pm instead of 9, depending on how long it took to work through the gridlock.
That temporary stop? Wasn't so temporary.
The plows worked their way back to my place "in line" at 11:30pm. Despite the late hour and the whopping four hours of driving I still had to do, turning around wasn't an option, since the opposite direction was doing just as bad and by then they were turning away anyone hoping to add to the mess. Finding a route around to get back south would have taken just as long as completing the trip. So as soon as I got into the Central Valley, I pulled off to the nearest stop, got a very late dinner and a tasty dose of high-concentrate caffeine, and floored my way up the lengthy but flat and empty interstate at Delorean speeds.
At 4:30 am this morning, I arrived at my destination, dragged a couple essentials out of the car and let myself into the house, then crawled into bed and slept until past noon.
I suppose, however, I should thank God for the following small blessings:
The most direct route from the LA Basin to, well, just about anything north of the LA Basin is straight up Interstate 5 through that mountain pass. As I approached said pass, the alert signs on the road warned that there was snow in the pass which may lead to delays. I thought, "cool! (no pun intended)." I thought the same when I actually entered Tejon Pass (around 4:30pm) and the showers that had been keeping my windshield wipers busy stopped dripping and started flaking. Yeah, I had to slow a bit, but we SoCalers don't get to see snow under most conditions, so it was, at the time, a novelty.
But let me point something out: that article I linked earlier described the conditions at 1pm Wednesday. Around 5pm, still 15 miles from the north end of the pass, things started really slowing down. I gave Dad a call as we temporarily stopped, filled him in, and let him know I may be arriving at 10pm instead of 9, depending on how long it took to work through the gridlock.
That temporary stop? Wasn't so temporary.
The plows worked their way back to my place "in line" at 11:30pm. Despite the late hour and the whopping four hours of driving I still had to do, turning around wasn't an option, since the opposite direction was doing just as bad and by then they were turning away anyone hoping to add to the mess. Finding a route around to get back south would have taken just as long as completing the trip. So as soon as I got into the Central Valley, I pulled off to the nearest stop, got a very late dinner and a tasty dose of high-concentrate caffeine, and floored my way up the lengthy but flat and empty interstate at Delorean speeds.
At 4:30 am this morning, I arrived at my destination, dragged a couple essentials out of the car and let myself into the house, then crawled into bed and slept until past noon.
I suppose, however, I should thank God for the following small blessings:
- I had brought both water and a bag of nuts. Originally so I wouldn't have to stop as often. Now they made up for my delayed meal.
- I also had books in the car. No, the intent wasn't to read them IN the car, but that's what I wound up doing; got through the last two volumes of Sandman while we sat there.
- My car's near-final resting place was five minutes walk from an off-ramp. There was no getting my vehicle out of that grid-lock to reach it, but hey, not like my car was going anywhere, so around Hour 3 or 4 (after the snow stopped) I got out, hoofed it back there, used the facilities at the gas station, and bought some jerky to supplement my nut diet.
- I had packed for several days, so there were socks that weren't soaked in the trunk when I got back.
- My car still had more than half a tank when we stalled out, so I was able to keep my motor -- and the heater -- running most of the time.
- I wasn't even further back down the pass.
