Lovely day for a drive

In the ongoing adventures of B&E, we had quite the excursion to the Oregon coast. We are planning an event in June, so we needed to go to the coast to take care of a little business. The weather forecast wasn't ideal but nothing alarming showed up when I checked the weather and road conditions around 8 a.m. We didn't plan on a crazy day - stop for breakfast, do our business and head back to Portland. I was getting over being sick and we didn't want to spend all day in the car. We dressed and prepared for a casual outing.

As we started going west on US-26, we noticed some car accidents. It isn't unusual on this road because of the amount of traffic heading to the coast and because the first stretch of road is through a growing area of Portland. We started wondering if something else was going on because we saw another accident and cars coming in our direction seemed to be driving kinda slow. We wondered if we were driving into the apocalypse.

We soon realized that the roads were a tad icy. Black ice. More cars in the ditches. We said that with our luck a truck would come down a hill or around a curve and slide around. Sure enough it happened to us. There were several opportunities for us to turn around but we really didn't think the roads would get worse. B was doing a great job driving at a very reasonable speed (35 mph) and not suddenly braking. I know. Famous last words of people who disappeared as their cars went off an embankment or a car slid towards them. I know.

As we started up the first summit of the drive, we noticed a minivan pulled over to the side. The driver looked freaked out. As we went up the hill, we knew her look was a result of driving down a mountain pass in very icy conditions. We started to slide more and more. When we reached the summit, B pulled over. We weren't alone. There were many cars in front of us who had also pulled over. Cars behind us pulled over. We sat and debated what to do. We knew we didn't want to go back down that hill. Finally, a truck went by and sanded the road. We started up again. As we passed a car, a woman said to us that the highway was closed ahead. I looked at B and said, "Please don't let it be closed before Camp 18"(where we were going for breakfast).

Yes, my friends. It was closed before Camp 18. Within a few miles, we had to pull over. They stopped us first on the side of the road and then had us move a few miles to where there was a gas station and convenience store. It was a parking lot full of cars. Our one true pleasure was seeing a jerk driver of a Hummer fall down on the ice. This is after we saw him driving too close to the driver in front of him as he slid around.

We waited an hour and a half. We amused ourselves by eating starbursts, laughing at people around us and thinking about how much we wanted breakfast. Finally, the highway reopened. We went to Camp 18 and ate an enormous amount of food. We eventually made it to the coast. The roads were much better after we ate our late breakfast or else we were just fortified by lots of bacon and sausage. We saw the place we wanted to rent, checked out the town, and contemplated our return route. As it poured rain, we knew that we didn't want to return on US-26. We drove south on 101 until we found a safer route.

The return drive was uneventful until we reached the outskirts of the Portland metro area. In our final mistake, I selected one highway over another that took us up a very large hill. This last stretch was in super thick fog and a freezing rain/snow mixture. We also had someone throw something at B's car that smelled and looked like vomit.

It wasn't until we returned that we found out how bad all of the area roads had been during the day. We made it home safe and sound even though we were both incredibly tired and tense. We were able to laugh at our stupidity. Best of all, we found a great place to rent with our friends. Yes, I learned my lesson to pay a little more attention to the forecast and road conditions.