Song is Dead

by Daniel on October 1, 2008 at 2:00 am

There’s nothing quite like driving through a mountain pass in the winter… during an ice storm.

Dawna and I used to make the trip quite often, on the way to visit her parents in Seattle, traveling through Snoqualmie Pass, in the Cascades.

Basically, it’s the most direct way of getting from Spokane to Seattle, and back again.

One road trip, it was raining. This is not good, nor is it what normally happens up there. Most of the time it’s snowing, and as you drive you see 10 foot walls of ice on either side of the road. But raining, it was freezing on our windshields, and making the roads far more treacherous than normal. (Trust me, it’s crazy slick with freezing rain.)

Then, they closed the pass on us.

So, we were on the side of the mountain, stuck in traffic, slowly running out of gas on the approach to the actual pass. There were no gas stations that we knew of, so this was a real worry. We kept the car running so that we would not freeze to death, and to keep the engine nice and warm.

We just anxiously waited for the next 8 hours, hoping the pass would open again.

Eventually, the pass did open, and we every-so-carefully drove over it, avoiding the accidents that seemed to be occuring all around us. It was dangerous and kind of exciting, though I don’t think I’d like to do it every day. (Exciting, probably because I wasn’t driving myself.)

Now that we live in Phoenix, we’ve had 4 winters where we’ve not had to drive in any sort of ice or snow. While I miss these symbols of winter, I don’t miss sliding down a hill and almost crashing into other cars, with little control of my vehicle.

I still want to quit driving, anyway.

- Daniel

Ryanh

October 1, 2008 at 8:25 am | #

great stuff, man!! congrats on the new job and good to hear Monster Commute is not coming to an end.

Dave Van Etten

October 1, 2008 at 8:37 am | #

I’ve made a few of those Coeur d’Alene to Seattle runs myself. At the bottom of Snoqualmie pass I always say, “I don’t need chains, chains are a hassle, The roads look fine! And then up at the top I would trade my wife for chains, ice boots, another ten gallons of gas and a St. Bernard. Going down the backside is just as exciting, turning my minivan into a bobsled.