Tag Archives: driving in the snow

May19

A flight of New England Fancy – Easter in New York

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It’s been a while since I’ve been back to Massachusetts… I think it was for Dillon and Liz’s wedding, wasn’t it? That’s sounding right… though I frankly can’t believe that was only six months ago. These last few months have felt like forever, and it was high time that I got back East. The rock was calling, family and friends beckoned, and I hadn’t seen my Grandma in far, far too long…

Saturday to Monday, 16-Apr-2022 through 18-Apr-2022

Man… how long has it been since I’ve been in New York to visit my Grandma?

I’d been to Upstate New York back in October of 2021, for Dillon’s bachelor party… but before then? I think it must have been 2017, maybe? Five years… that can’t be right…

It’s been along time, we’ll leave it at that.

I met my Dad and Stepmom there – they’d actually driven out from Arizona (!!!) to visit for a week or two, so just like the Seder earlier in the day, we were getting the whole family together for a long-overdue visit. It’d been ages, and I was absolutely looking forward to a good bit of time catching up with everyone!

And… we spent a good bit of time catching up!

There’s not really too much to go over, as a blog post, for this one. We spent time together, we talked, we told stories, and we took the time that we had as a very appreciated gift. We didn’t rush, we cooked great meals, and I wrote down as many stories as I could get from everyone. We helped out around the house a bit, took walks, played with the cats, and enjoyed the calm and quiet.

It was an excellent few days, and even the unexpected snowstorm on the drive home somehow felt… right.



And, as a quick addition… did I mention that we cooked a lot? I think I poached more eggs that weekend than I have in the last year – having a few experts on hand definitely helped me out, and I’m pretty sure I leveled up my Hollandaise sauce skillz at least a few points…

And, along with the excellent cooking… New recipes to try out!

Jan9

Return of the Snow-Stang!

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Thursday, 23-Dec-2021


I went snow hiking!

I mean, okay. I went snow-hiking last Saturday too… but I didn’t put the chains on the car, so I don’t think it counts as a “Return of the Snow-Stang”, right? Snow driving required, for the title?


So yeah. If we’re all in agreement that this one counts as my first snow-stang snow-venture of the… snow season?


I drove out!

The snow wasn’t too bad, to be perfectly frank – I was able to get all the way to the high-point of the drive, right near the turn for the Timberline Lodge, before the roads had any snow / ice accumulation at all. In the spirit of paranoia and precaution, I took this chance to pull over and toss on the tire chains – Better safe than sorry when there’s ice on the roads, right?

The rest of the drive definitely made me glad that I’d stopped – That one intersection is basically a dividing line for one reason or another. One side – mostly cleared, plowed, and graveled roads. On the other side – packed snow, ice, and walls of snow on the sides of the road.

It.

Was.

Gorgeous!




I really do love the winter. I love the snow on the trees, I love the drifting flakes of snow, and I love the focus that the snowfall brings with it… Don’t get me wrong, I love the sound of rain pattering! But for some reason, the quiet of snowfall just hits differently, you know? It’s so serene…

With almost no one on the road with me, and my speed capped at 30mph thanks to the chains, the serenity of the drive was real. I went slowly, grinding my way over the snowpack toward the parking lot, thankfully without a slip or a slide to speak of. Even turning onto the side road to the trailhead saw the Mustang react exactly as it would on a dry summers day… or at least, the slides weren’t more than a few degrees off center axis.


I parked, I hiked, and I enjoyed the falling snow. I enjoyed the quiet that came with it, and I enjoyed the sense of exploration that I felt when my footprints were the only things I could see behind me.

The canyons cut by the rivers that I crossed were just one more piece of evidence that the winter truly had come, and when I did finally turn around I was happily content with how my little “first exploration of the season” had gone.




I definitely wanted to keep going, don’t get me wrong! Driving home at night, though… See, driving in the day isn’t so bad, because the sun’s heated the road up and kept the snowpack malleable. Enough for the chains to grip, yeah? But once the sun goes down, so does the temperature… and without the sun rays to keep the snowpack soft, it quickly becomes ice.

And while I can definitely drive on ice… I’d still vastly prefer to be past the snowline, yeah?

Back I hiked, off I drove, and soon enough I found myself back in the traditional Oregon world of warm rain…