pasithea

We didn't get so far Thursday night. A warning light by the roadside said to tune our radio to the AM band. A mudslide had closed the road 80 miles ahead. Just under 8 miles above where 1 and 101 fork, less than 90 miles from San Francisco. It was getting dark anyhow so we decided to stop, get a hotel room, and have dinner. I sorta paniced on the hotel room, got the first/cheapest place I saw (it turned out not so bad in the long run) We had an overpriced and not very exciting dinner (I described it as: We could get the same food at Denny's for half the price) went back to the motel and slept. I had a bad feeling about the next day and tossed and turned all night.

Woke up early and got us packed while Stacey showered. 101 south was still closed and _MIGHT_ open at 2PM. Decided it was time to head the other way. The warning signs were again flashing as we drove past them. 101 was closed to the north. High winds had blown down trees blocking the road. Reading news now, I find out there were more 101 closures soon to follow. We had, of course, already decided to turn inland on 299. Up up into the mountains.

The storm caught up with us there. Wind and rain sheeting down. Every creek and river we passed was swollen and muddy, blasting down the hillsides with tremendous speed. Though the road was marked 55, we had the Good Luck to be stuck behind a couple of cars that insisted on going 30MPH, except when there was a passing lane at which points they sped up to insure no one would pass them. Higher and higher into the mountains. We crested a ridge and could see snow on the next peak and then, snow all around the roads with rain pouring down on top of it and we crept on through the mountains, a slow caravan stuck behind an idiot leader. There were more and more slides on the road. Men flagging past one buried lane. I started getting a sense of urgency. Just after some small miserable town I can't remember the name of, the caravan came to a stop. Not more than five minutes ahead of us, a major slide had cut across the road. I walked up to see it in the rain on top of icey slush. Roughly the size of a 3-strey apartment building. Rocks, mud, trees. Had it not been for the slow-moving prats in front of us, we would have been past the collapse a good 20 or 30 minutes before it happened. Instead, we were stuck, turned back. The water getting higher, the rain coming down harder.

There was one last route. 3, headed almost straight back to Eureka but up through the mountains on a winding one-lane road that had a big sign reading, "Road not maintained during storms." We backtracked up this road about 40 miles. It was slick, icey in places, muddy in others. There were rocks and mudslides partially blocking parts of the road, strong winds on tight turns near sheer cliffs. Stacey drove the whole way. don't know how she managed, my nerves would have been frazzled. We again got behind some very slow and discurteous drivers why blithely ignored the large signs that said, 'Slow moving vehicles must use turn-outs and let traffic pass' as well as the long line of cars stuck behind them. Not wanting to get stuck again, I sighted while Stacey made a somewhat daring pass on a little-less-windy part of the road.

Finally, after an eternity or two, we made it to highway 36 to Red Bluff. There were a few slides on it, but more worrisome were the swollen creeks that were level with, and in one or two places ABOVE the level of the road and in a couple of places, the swift churning water came up onto the edge of the road and the rain was still pouring down, meaning any minute the road might be flooded and closed down. Happily, we made good time on 36. Cars that were going slower used pull-outs (one guy even went to the other side of the road to pull out and let people pass) and we got to I-5 just about dark, a mere 7 hours later and only a bit over 300 miles out of our way. Reading the news now, I see that 5 had a slide and was closed just North of us there too. *shudder* I think Northern California was trying to eat us.

We took a pit stop at the Olive Pit and used it as an excuse to buy lots of olives (the olive groves around the highway had made me hungry. :) People were talking about how bad the roads were. We were sorta happy to learn we'd made the right choice. 101 south had not only stayed closed but been closed in a couple of other places and the mountain roads we'd came through were rapidly becoming impassible.

The storm wasn't quite done with us though. The pumps at the gas station died just as we were about to get fuel. Luckily, I'd ran in to get a soda, heard this, bee-lined back out, and got Stacey to go to a different station before all the other cars go piled up there. Unluckily, the storm had caught up with us and there was hard driving rain and really impressive winds most of the way to San Jose. So much so that at a few points Stacey couldn't get the car above 60 because the wind was blowing straight at us.

We finally got into town around 8:30, had dinner at Midori, then came home. Stacey went to bed. She's exhausted. All that driving must have been murderous. Generally Stacey's driving scares me, but now I think that's because we're driving in town and she gets upset and angry at other drivers when they do things she doesn't expect. In the wet, rain, ice, mud, wind, she became a different driver, very focused and careful and in control of the vehicle. Not sure I could have handled the mountain drive.

Lastly, I must admit that it is extremely gratifying to listen to NegativeLand CAR BOMB! after you've just passed someone who, really really needed passing (the one asshat that wasn't letting people around him, I hope he got stuck in a ravine and drown) I didn't put the song in. It just came on right after we passed him. Nicely defused the anger tho. :) CAR.... BOOOMB!!!!!!!