Let it Snow

We were up at Squaw this last weekend.  In case you are unaware, Squaw hosted the Olympics in 1960.  I know lots of interesting facts about the 1960 Olympics but I'll spare you.  It turns out they are far more interesting to hear while you are dangling in a cable car 1500 ft above certain death than when you are sitting on the couch in your living room.  There was a beautiful view from the cable car, if your eyes were open.  At High Top there is a small museum with various Olympic memorabilia, skis, clothing, etc.  And, a photo collage of Bev Anderson demonstrating the proper warm-up stretches.  Here is John trying out one of them:

I think I sprained my roll.

We were supposed to get snow on Saturday afternoon which turned to a storm that turned to a blizzard. By Sunday morning the freeways were closed so we hunkered down for a Monday departure.  It was a winter wonderland so John and I went for a walk.  The parking lot looked like 'Cars 4 - A Day at the Lodge'.

Shhhh, here comes the Grand Poobah

With a rebel yell, she cried more, more, more

The local roads were clear but based on the number of pickup trucks driving without chains, that wasn't going to last for very long.  "Yeah, well, I know how to drive in the snow."

We got up early on Monday ready to brave the roads and head home.  We had three routes to choose from. The most direct was I-80. Luckily we live in a time when the Internet is never far from our fingertips and within 3 minutes we were able to discover that I-80 was open, and that I-80 was closed.     Glad we cleared that up.  We decided to drive over to I-80 since it was rather close.  So 10 minutes later we were driving out of our underground parking garage, much like Punxsutawney Phil emerging from his lair to determine whether or not to turn around and go back to bed.

I-80 turned out to be closed. Now we had several options; pull over and wait to see if it opened (nope, not doing that), take the Donner Pass and get on I-80 further down, or head to I-50.  The Donner Pass option was bad for many reasons: 1) it is full of switchbacks and impending doom, 2) our Starbucks barista that morning said the visibility was really bad, 3) by the time we got to I-80, it could be closed there too and 4) it's the Donner Pass.  That place gives me the creeps when it's 70 degrees out.  I-50, here we come.

Our first big snag on the way to I-50 was a dog running loose down the road, darting between cars. There we were on a snow covered road with massive snow drifts on both sides and 23 snow covered cars pointing in every conceivable directions, doors open and their inhabitants trying to get the dog to jump in with them.  24 if you count us. I'm sure he made it home fine.

The next snag was a young woman walking down the road, snow blowing sideways and no shoulders.  Crap. We should pick her up but we don't have room in the car.  Oh wait, another car is stopping. Good, get in the car. No, wait, don't get in the car. Should she get in the car? Look, it's a woman driving with a child, okay, get in the car.  These times are so confusing. 

The rest of the drive around the lake went something like this:

Roads are clearing up.

Should we take off the chains?

We should take off the chains.

We are definitely taking the chains off.

I'm so glad we didn't take the chains off.

Rinse and repeat.

And, annoyingly, the GPS kept insisting that we turn around and head back to I-80. Until we got close within a few miles of I-50 then Satellite Sally took us through a luge course of neighborhoods, avoiding a back up of traffic waiting to get on the freeway. We emerged right at the on-ramp, next to a jack knifed truck that was blocking all the traffic in our way. Way to go, Sally! 

We made it home. It only took 8 hours. Maybe we should have turned around for 6 more weeks of winter. Nah, we really needed clean underwear.