Beach Bum Tour - days 1 and 2
Well, this is supposed to be a beach bum tour. So far, no beach, lotsa bums. My daughter and I had planned this trip several months ago, and I picked her up in Vancouver on Saturday. We first went to our hostel that was booked in downtown Vancouver, but it was in a pretty seedy drug infested neighborhood where the windows were all boarded up...no parking, and just plain bad vibes, so we left without staying and headed for the border instead. Our trip plan was to cross into Washington, drive south until just south of Seattle and head west to the coast, taking the coastal highway aka The Gold Coast Highway down, camping at Coos Bay.
Well, that didn't quite work out as planned. We only spent 2 hours at the border, which is reportedly good, and headed south, but before we even reached Seattle, the weather was shit, snow everywhere and Washingtonians who don't know how to drive in snow. We saw about 35-40 cars/trucks off the road in just a few kms, so we decided not to put our lives in the hands of Washingtonians who do not know how to drive in the snow, and checked into a cheapo motel for the night, hoping weather might improve in the morning. It didn't. The roads were still shit. We decided to head east to the coast in hopes of losing the snow for rain. That didn't happen. We ended up on smaller highways with more snow, unplowed, and very very very slippery roads. Top speed was about 60kms/hour, and average speed was about 30kms/hour. Then some dumbass in a Volkswagen new bug decided to pass us on a hill, in heavy snow, on a turn, on the slipperest section we had come across. She skidded into the ditched in front of us and in order to avoid her, I braked and slid down the incline to the shoulder, getting stuck. There was no guardrail, and each time I attempted to drive either back or forward, inched us closer to the shoulder's edge, where it dropped off about 20 feet. Um, fuck.
So then Amber attempted to flag someone down to help push us back onto the road. Most people passed on by, without even acknowledging her. One shook his head at her, but in Karma's own sweet way, he got it back...once we got back on the road, he was in the ditch...
Finally a Ford Expedition stopped with a bunch of foreigners in it who couldn't speak English. They had no idea what we were asking of them. Great...lets move on. Then another truck stopped, and the guy had 4 wheel drive and as he stopped to see what we needed, he damn near slid into us (he was coming from the other direction). He helped push me back onto the highway, facing in the other direction. We decided then, the Oregon Coast was not worth it at this point in time, and headed back to the interstate. We lost about 3-4 hours, but I just couldn't stand driving any longer on that horrible road. We got through Seattle, and while coming through Portland, decided at 6pm when the roads were still shit, and chains were required (we didn't have any) that it was time to pull into yet another motel.
That wasn't as easy as it sounds. Apparently Portland usually does not get snow, particularly any that stays more than a few hours before the rain takes it away. Nothing was plowed and we got stuck in two motel parking lots. The second one, the owner's son came out to help, along with a few folks who were walking along the street. We were shoved into a parking space in front of our room, and called it a night. I have no idea if we will get out this morning as it continued to snow and nothing is plowed, not even the motel parking lot. The hope is that we will drive out of snow in about 2 hours south of here, so that is our hope...and then we head for the desert, bound for Canyon City, Nevada.
