Jim insisted they look for a front wheel drive car - I'm glad he did. We drove a new Impala. It is a nice car.
Our trip to Eugene, OR to visit Allison and Geoff started out great. The weatherman had predicted ice for St. Louis and just as our plane took off it started to sleet - Dodged that bullet. Our plane landed in KC, no problems, and they hurried us onto the our next plane so they could take off on time. The flight attendant called Jim a "dawg." Turns out she was pretty entertaining the whole flight. We landed in Portland, OR early, about 30 minutes or so.
That's where the problems started. We went to baggage claim. There were bags stacked taller than 5 feet in some areas and the carousel was full of bags and the people standing around were grumbling and angry. One lady said her planed 4 hours prior and had not found her luggage yet. So we stood around for 20 minutes or so and Jim left to find someone.
Someone two flights before us pulled their luggage from the carousel, then another, then another, people started cheering. New bags stopped coming out.
By then Jim was back and not so happy, they told him to watch the monitor. He left once again to find someone.
This time when he came back, he said they changed our flight to the next carousel. The carousel was stacked with bags - not so good. I spotted our black bag. Jim pulled it off the carousel. A few minutes later, we had our blue bag.
One left - Allison's red bag we brought back so they didn't have to pay extra fees.
We found it and headed to Enterprise for our car.
Turns out our car choices were Challenger or Impala. We took the Impala because it had front wheel drive. I'm so glad we did.
The Enterprise guy told us to head down 205S to I-5S. It was 4:14 pm. Two days before Portland had 14 inches of snow. The highway wasn't that bad. Apparently, what we think is not bad, is a big issue here. Soon we found ourselves sitting on 205 - maybe every 20 minutes or so moving a 100 feet maybe more. At one point we sat- no movement - for 45 minutes.
ODOT had closed the highway at rush hour - how smart was that???? Then we found out that they don't use salt on the roads - it is bad for the environment. Isn't 15 to 20 miles of cars back up on the highway for 8 hours - YES, I said EIGHT hours just as bad? Big trucks were getting stuck, so they closed the highway to clear the ice and snow and put down sand. The radio people were so stupid, they kept reporting,it is moving, it is moving, but we were still sitting.
This is about 7 hours into the drive.
Finally, about 12:30 am, remember we left Enterprise at 4:14 pm, we made a last second decision to go north on I-5. We were about to enter the last split of the exit. It was a good move - for IDOT in their obvious inexperience closed the exit - leaving all the cars and trucks sitting there once again.
Here's the really big thing - no police - no announcements on the radio - nothing to give people an idea of their plan. I called IDOT - got a recording - I called 511, highway emergency - I got the same recording. In the almost 8 hours on 205 we saw one IDOT truck - he was the one who closed the exit, NOT ONE police car and one ambulance. This must be where the story of police eating donuts came from because they do NOT help with traffic problems.
So our last second decision to go north on I-5 was what got us to a bathroom, water, and junk food (Mounds, Cheetos & ice cream)was a winner. We got onto I-5 S and headed to Eugene.
We then found ourselves behind a rolling blockade so people would not drive over 15 MPH. Jim didn't care we were moving. Finally somewhere south of Salem, OR we found our car rolling at the speed limit. We arrived in Eugene at 2:35 am. (that is 4:35 St. Louis time - about the time I got up on Tues.).
Geoff, Allison and Larry were glad to see us and that made it worthwhile. Geoff grilled us some brats and broke open a bottle of wine. And since it was the 24th, we wished Jim a happy birthday before we turned in for the night, I mean morning.
(traffic jam pictures to be posted later)
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