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Try New Years and car accidents: today I was driving some friends and I over a mountain pass to visit friends in Central Oregon. Unfortunately the pass was being hit hard by snow; we had planned for it but unfortunately ODOT had not: none of the chain areas were plowed, and in a low station wagon such as I drive pulling off into a drift seemed a bad option. We made it over the first part of the pass, but on the other side, we slid a considerable distance over some freshly fallen snow straight into the plowed snow on the roadside and almost over the edge alongside the road. I count ourselves fortunate that I was able to control the car enough to keep us from going completely over the edge, but it was still a complete mess: we had to call the tow truck and have my Volvo pulled out. I could hardly stand to watch, especially after the first attempt: the attempt to tow my car broke the tow hitch on one side and almost broke my heart. This is the car I learned to drive in, the car I drove to prom in...almost everything important in my life has occurred in this car. It is more than a car. But the tow truck driver hooked up to the other hitch, and after some maneuvering, got my car out. Thank God.
But the drama doesn't end there...we went on, because the rain had started falling and the packed snow had broken up. On the second part of the pass, though, we needed to chain up, and finally there was a plowed chain area. But there was another problem: the chains we had bought the day before didn't fit properly. They were too big for my tires. So we had to try and hitch rides from people in the chain-up area: fortunately, we live in Oregon and people still care here. So we were able to get rides into town (Bend) to our friends' place and we are staying the night here. Tomorrow we will get a ride out (from our friend) to the car, dig it out, and attempt the trip home. We'll try and pick up a pair of chains that fit before we do, though, and I'll never buy chains from Les Schwab again: I don't care what their warranty is, what good does it do me if the chains don't fit?
Most of all...no matter how much I love my car, I need a Subaru if I'm going to attempt driving in snow.
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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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