Travel adventures

These past three days we have encountered more winter travel adventures in one stretch than probably at any time in all our travel. The trip from Salem to Boise proved to be something of an adventure on Wednesday, and likewise the trip from Boise to Alpine yesterday. Fortunately our day in Boise on Thursday was a "rest" day as far as travel was concerned, and proved to be a productive day. And now we are safe in Alpine, none too much the worse for wear.

Wednesday, we got off to a reasonably early start out of Salem, and had decided to take the northern route up I-5 to Portland and then up the Columbia River gorge on I-84 to Hood River, on over the Blue Mountains to Pendleton and LaGrange on I-84 and down to Ontario and Boise - Interstate highway all the way. We knew that snow was forecast for part of the day in Oregon and figured Interstate was better than going over the mountains of central Oregon. Normally that would be an 8-hour drive, we would lose an hour crossing over into Mountain Time at Ontario, and arrive in Boise at about 6:30 - 7pm MT.

Well, things got interesting going up to Hood River. They had had a lot of wet, heavy snow overnight and into the morning, and it was still snowing some. The roads had not been cleared adequately, so every truck was required to pull over and put on chains. There wasn't a lot of cleared shoulder, so they had to stop partly in the drivers lane to got their chains on. Hundreds and hundreds of trucks had pulled over. The passing lane was open for cars the likes of us, but the surface was covered with rough, frozen snow, with innumerable pot holes - it felt like the car  was going to shake to pieces. We had to go very slowly around all those trucks, and there was nothing to be done for it except keep moving as best we could. Meanwhile, west-bound traffic on the other side of the barrier was at a stand-still. I guess their side was closed, and thousands of vehicles, 90% trucks, were chock-a-block in both lanes for at least ten miles or more. Drivers were standing around outside their rigs, grousing, I imagine, and looking at us with some envy because at least we were moving, albeit slowly. We finally got to the top, a bit beyond Hood River, and the road surface cleared. Then all the trucks had to pull over and take off their chains. What a sight! But we got through it ok, and had clear sailing for a while until we got up into the Blue Mountains, and there it was snowing again and foggy. So we had blowing snow and poor visibility. Poor Ellen! But it never got slick and we never felt in danger of losing control. It was just slow and stressful. We finally got down into the plains and it was clear sailing, but by then it was raining and had gotten dark. Ellen hates driving at night in the rain, because everything looks the same, and it is hard to see exactly where the road is and oncoming traffic sort of blinds you. So a normal eight hour trip took more like eleven hours and we didn't get to our destination in Boise until close to 9p.m. A long day!'

Trucks putting on chains

Stalled west-bound traffic

Trucks taking off chains

We talked with Susan and Christian a bit, regaling them with our story, and then retired to our AirBnB which was just next door and was very nice. S&C are living in the garage loft - normally where guests would stay - because their house is being totally  redone: new wiring, walls, insulation, windows, radon mitigation, you name it. So they arranged the AirBnB for us. It was a little house all to ourselves - very like the sort of thing we would like to build back in Vermont!

The sitting area of the AirBnB

The bedroom

The kitchen

Thursday was Valentines Day. I got up and was actually able to bring tea and toast to Ellen in bed - we had brought bread and there was tea in the cupboard and a nice electric teapot. I think it was our first morning tea and toast in bed since we had left home, where it is our usual morning ritual. Then we went next door to S&C's for breakfast. C had made oatmeal in their new smart pot, or whatever you call it - you can put in the ingredients the night before and set a timer. Then we went to the Boise Coop with Susan, where we stocked up on food for our food box for the rest of the trip, and I got DGL (deglycerhizenated licorice) (sp?) for my stomach. Then we met Christian at a Thai Restaurant for the lunch buffet - very nice. We have eaten there several times now.

The Boise Coop

The bar at the Thai Restaurant

Then I did two errands. The charge cord for my MacAir laptop  had stopped working and since that is sort of an essential item, we went to the Mac store in Boise. When I pulled out the cord and said it wasn't working, sales guy said, "No wonder - that is a counterfeit! We would never plug that cord into one of our computers!" That seemed a bit extreme, but I forked over $81 for a genuine Apple charge cord! Ouch! but necessary. Then I remembered that I have long been having trouble with the battery in my iPhone 4S. Could they replace that? "Nope, Apple doesn't replace batteries for phones that old!" I was beginning to feel like a criminal! "But," he said, "a place down the road called FixitPro can do it."   So we went there and by golly they did! For $41! An hour later I had a new battery, and it's great. The old one would discharge in a matter of minutes.You would be writing an email, the phone would go dead and you would lose it. Then you would plug in the cord, and the battery would be at 63% or something like that. Erratic. No more! So that proved to be an expensive but productive tech day.

After that, we visited Margie, who was in Boise Hospice Singers and is still in a little chamber group Susan plays in for fun. We visited, she and I shared our Iowa connection - we both spent part of our youth in Iowa - and  Ellen, Susan and Margie played recorders while I played the bass recorder  line on her harpsicord for a couple of quartets. Fun!  Then we picked up prepared food from the Coop and went back to the garage for supper. One added little feature of supper was that Susan showed me how to make a screen shot on my iPhone. I had never known how to do that before. If you have some important info on your screen you can easily save it to your photo file. Nice to know.

Supper in the garage, using Christian's workbench as a dining table

The trip from Boise to Alpine is normally an easy six-hour drive. Not this time. It started out fine, but it started to snow lightly after Twin Falls, I was reading aloud from a book John gave me for Christmas titled Chesapeake Requiem - about how the island of Tangier (famed for its blue crab fishing industry) is disappearing into the bay - and we missed the exit for I-86 and found ourselves heading for Utah. Almost immediately it began to snow hard and within minutes it was total whiteout with virtually 0 visibility!  We were behind a truck we could barely see, and wanted to get off to turn back but missed two exits because we couldn't see them in time. We finally got off and headed back on the opposite lane and suddenly visibility improved.  But that was scary for a while. Then after Idaho Falls, we suddenly hit a stalled line of traffic. Turned out the road was closed ahead due to several truck accidents. The trooper said we could wait in the car for an hour, or turn back. We were low on gas, so we turned back, got gas and supper at a Subway shop, and by the time we came back it was cleared. We passed where we think the accident had taken place but the trucks were all cleared out. So the six-hour trip turned into more like eight and a half hours. We were glad to be safe with P, J & M in Alpine!

Saturday a.m. I'll listen to the Heels play Wake Forest. No worries about snow and ice!