Weekend Not As Planned

This entry was originally intended to describe our fun weekend: Dim Sum in Portland, Corinne's woodworking project, and snowboarding. But Mother Nature apparently thought she wasn't getting enough coverage in this blog...

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Our friend Rat invited us to dim-sum in Portland to celebrate the coming Year of the Rat. Corinne had also coordinated with our friend Ken to use his woodworking shop (and his expertise) for a cedar shelf project she had been planning. Since he lives outside of Portland, we planned for a Saturday in the city to accomplish both tasks, then return home to go snowboarding the following day.

The plan started to break down almost immediately. The weather forecast had called for some heavy snow conditions and icy roads, and we didn't even make it to our first destination without being stopped behind an accident. After about a half hour delay, we made it to the restaurant safely and enjoyed an exotic array of Asian dishes. But by the end of our meal, I-84 - the main road east/west between Portland and Hood River - had been closed with no estimate as to when it would reopen. Since we already had the afternoon scheduled with Ken, we headed back to his shop and began the project.

 

After a full afternoon of woodworking, we checked on the road conditions to discover that the road had recently re-opened, but that the traffic was very slow going and chains were required for a large section of the trip. Some of our other friends who had come in for dim sum entertained themselves at a movie while waiting for the road to re-open; now that the road was open, they decided to brave the road and head back home. We, on the other hand, opted to spend an unscheduled night at Ken and Rita's in Portland and would attempt the journey home on Sunday. (Having time to go snowboarding was now looking very unlikely.)

When we talked to the folks who drove home Saturday night, we found out that a trip that would normally take <1 hour took them 3 hours that night, and that the road was in pretty bad shape. I think we made the right choice.

Sunday morning we went out to breakfast before heading home. Even >12 hours after the road reopened, chains were still required for 20 miles on I-84, and the trip still took us twice as long as usual. We arrived home early Sunday afternoon to find 16.5" of new snow sitting in our driveway!

Several hours later, we had the driveway cleared and were able to get the car into the garage. When I went to take the chains off, I noticed that one of the front tires was flat. I began the process of putting on the spare when I noticed that BOTH of the front tires were flat! After some choice words, I made a closer inspection and realized that the chains had rubbed up against the valve covers and loosened them just enough to let air out. I reinflated the tires and everything was fine.

 

That's a lot of snow. Thank goodness this didn't fall when we were in Florida!

- Mike (& Corinne)