Oregon has it out for us

We had a wonderful trip to Washington for Christmas and New Years Day. We drove up to Washington on 24 December. It is normally an 8-9 hour drive depending on potty breaks. This time it took 12 hours from the time we left our home in Utah until we got to Wendy's parents' house in Washington. We made it to the Idaho/Oregon border in the normal 4 1/2 hours. As soon as we crossed the river into Oregon the problems began.

The roads through Oregon were snowy and icy the whole way. Just on the west side of Ontario there is a hill as you come out of town. As we started up the hill it looked like it would be slick so I decided to take it easy. We got about half-way up the hill, the car shifted down, the rear tires slipped and off the road we went. I threw it into 4-wheel drive and got within 18 inches of the pavement, but we were stuck. We said a prayer, I got out to take a look and a police officer pulled up to help - just that quick. Within 3 minutes of us going off the road there were 3 patrol cars there and 2 of them indicated that they had seen it happen. We hooked up a tow rope and were back on the road in just a couple minutes. As we thought about what had happened we said another prayer of gratitude. If we had gone off the road 20 feet in any other direction we would have hit a sign, guard rail or reflector. Wendy did a great job getting the car out of the snow.

So we were back on the road taking it slow in 4-wheel drive. About 150 miles and 5 hours later we were driving through a white-out snow storm when we get a nail stuck in the rear tire. We pulled off the road at the next off-ramp to take a look. The place where we stopped was completely calm - no snow, no wind, no close traffic, lots of overhead lights. The tire still had air in it. In the time it took to check on the tire at the side of the road it went completely flat. We pulled out the spare tire and got it changed. There were a couple good guys that stopped to make sure we were OK. Wendy was very glad that we had a full size spare. We made it down the next mountain pass pulled into a truck stop and checked the rest of the tires. Everything looked good.

From this point, we only faced freezing rain. When we got to Wendy's parents' place we just about kissed the ground. It took us about half an hour to calm down after we got out of the car. That was a trip we did not want to endure again.

On the return trip, it was just about as bad, but it was during the daylight and there were no flat tires or off-road adventures. Just 6 potty stops. That is why I say, "Oregon has it out for us."

Adam