Our Winter Drive

On Thursday and Friday we packed up the Mustang and drove to Oregon for Christmas. We were anxiously checking weather reports and road conditions to see if the drive would be alright. Although we heard that the roads and weather were not that good we still decided to make the drive because the reports predicted that it was only going to get worse. The first half of our trip went well and we weren't even too concerned when we got to a mountain pass that required chains. We came prepared and we were ready to take it slow. We got over the first mountain pass and decided we were ok to take off the chains. All of the sudden I heard Sean say "great, we have a flat tire". I looked out and the tire didn't look flat but then I say a chain link sticking out of the tire and air leaking out. All over the road were chains that had broken off from trucks. We thought we had done our best to miss them but apparently not. Luckily we were only 9 miles away from a Les Schwab.


At Les Schwab we inspected the other tires as well only to find that the other rear tire also had a chain sticking in it and looked flater then the first. What are the chance of that?!

There was a huge line so we decided to make a snowy treck to Roosters dinner.

After an hour and a half pit stop our tires were fixed and we were able to get back on the road. Unfortunately, it was now a little latter then we would of liked. A few more hours into the drive is when the snow started. Thick white powder quickly started accumulating on the roads and as it got darker out our viability decreased and the storm thickened. We were grateful when we saw the snow plows come up behind us but we then became bitter when we learned that the plows were not allowed to scrape the road in Oregon and as they plowed their only contribution to the roads were to pack the snow even more. We tried to just go slow so we would not have to put on our chains in the dark but as we drove there were moments that we could not see cars in front or behind us and the snow was coming down so fast that the tracks from the other cars were being covered up. After driving 15 miles an hour for a few hours we finally gave in and pulled in front of another car that was putting on chains to use the light form his head lights to help us put on chains. We returned the favor as another car pulled in front of us. The chains gave us a little more confidence so were were then able to drive 30 miles an hour.

The drive that would have normally taken us 8 hours to make took us 17 hours! It was one crazy adventure but have no fear, we made it safe and sound.