YVR -> SFO (1)

"How was your drive down?"
"Nasty. I'll tell you about it some time."

I left Vancouver at 9:30am, after repeatedly resisting my mom from overpacking me with food. ("Mom, I'm only on the road for 24 hours. I have a lot of food!") A 20-minute wait at the border and I was in Washington state -- I was also in very rainy weather, with brief splashes (minutes at a time) of crazily heavy snow.

The varying rains in Seattle and Portland came and went (with a stop at Flying Pie) and I had one last fill-up in Eugene before my next planned stop in Redding. Grants Pass treated me to terrible rain with pockets of snowfall, though traffic seemed not to be bothered by these and kept at a good clip.

7:45pm. I was some distance from Medford. Flashing yellow letters, blurred by rains on my windshield, shone through: "Chains Required. 20 Miles Ahead." I had hoped to avoid it, but I pulled over with the oceans of other vehicles to latch my tire chains on.

Wind. Strong, freezing winds. And rain, the kind that you swear is just mocking you and your situation. It was a miserable half an hour before my chains were safely on my rear tires and my fingers were regaining feeling in the warmth of my car again.

And then it was the line-up to the chain inspection, while our vehicles were facing the preludes of a west coast storm. Traffic was slow ... all stop (15 minutes) and go (15 seconds). News radio reported a 3-mile backup for inspection. Most of us had the heat on full blast while moving, and shut our cars off to conserve gas when waiting. Strangely, my chains weren't giving much traction and I subtly slipped and slid my way to the inspection officer around 10:30pm.

"The I-5 is closed; you'll have to turn around. There is a shelter being set up at the university gym and you can stay there tonight. Just follow these other cars. And your chains are on the wrong tires."

D'oh (freeway closure). And d'oh (chains).

I picked up a gallon of water (just in case) from the 7-11 and finally found the gym. I half-put my chains on the right tires and headed in to the wrestling room where a handful of people were already sleeping. I made that my bed for the night and fell asleep by midnight.

Clearly, I would not make it into work by Monday morning.