Winter Found Us In Portland – And We Escaped!

We have had enough of the cold!

Our month long exploration of Oregon as a potential future home has gone from:

“Ooh, it’s kind of chilly out. You better wear a coat.”

to “This isn’t so bad.”

to “Isn’t snow beautiful?”

to “Nice day for a walk,”

to “This is way too cold!”

and “OMG Did you see this? WINTER STORM WARNING!!!”

We’d reached our limit at the end of last week – and planned to head south on Saturday if the weather would allow. It didn’t.

When I opened the door Saturday morning I broke a dozen icicles off the trailer… we’d gotten 4-5 inches of snow overnight!

Now, in a region that gets snow often there would be no problem (like New England where I grew up) you just wait for the snowplows. But they don’t usually get snow like this here. The RV park didn’t have a snow plow, local roads were snowy & icy, and most of town was under snow-siege… schools closed, cars sliding off roads, supermarkets with empty shelves… we were not going anywhere.

Travel Day was cancelled!

So we turned Saturday into SNOW DAY!

Two of us had never made a snowman before! Mission accomplished!

THE NEXT DAY:

Sunday morning we were anxious to get moving. But ground conditions hadn’t improved. The state had cleared the freeways, but thanks to overnight temps in the 20’s things were worse in the RV park. The slush had turned to ICE. We almost decided to play it super-safe and stay put forecast predicted a big storm was coming – bringing DAYS of rain and more freezing temperatures. And we didn’t want to get trapped.

It was time to go!

We are only a month into driving the pickup and towing the trailer. We’ve hardly ever used the 4 wheel drive and the chains we bought are still brand new. Add the snowy/icy conditions and our doubts doubled.

Mercifully Sunday was a bright sunny day. We waited till afternoon when the sun softened the icy rv lot, and management had de-iced the driveway exit. However the local road beyond was icy and slushy… and had other drivers who were having varying degrees of success in spinning out into each other.

Hitched up and ready, we slowly pulled out, driving over snow and crunchy ice. Waiting for any sign of slipping. So far so good.

The park exit was a slight uphill into the street… The drive had been de-iced, but the street was a slushy mess. I took a deep breath, and we charged up the hill, taking a big wide turn – into the oncoming lane! Thankfully no one was nearby.

Next, we successfully brought the whole rig (slowly) over a quarter-mile of ice and slush to reach the dry freeway! (State roads had been taken care of!)

Watching the storm on radar via the Weather Channel App.

Then we cruised south, knowing the storm was going to bring rain, and snow. We raced ahead of it down the 5, through Oregon to the California border. I watched on my weather App and could see the damn clouds chasing us all day and night. If we stopped for the night in Oregon we could get stuck in wet/freezing conditions somewhere else. So we limited our breaks to brief rest stops and food grabs.

I was especially concerned about the steep grades and higher elevations on both sides of the Oregon/California border… We passed through this region after dark… snow covered the trees on both sides (a beautiful site that doesn’t show up in phone pictures taken and 40mph), passed snow plows and de-icer trucks in position, engines on, ready to get to work when the snow hit.

But we made it to California without seeing a drop!

We loved Oregon and Portland (post covering all that coming soon), but we have had enough of freezing cold weather for now!

Southward bound!