I have been looking forward to the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat for a while. It is a wonderful event with great teachers teaching wonderful classes and a nice marketplace. While I am going just to be a vendor, it is crazy fun. I know that as soon as I walk in the door I'll see fibery people I love. What I hadn't accounted for the adventure it would take to get here.
We (I am traveling with our friend and fellow fiber fiend Kris) left Tuesday morning and drove up I-5 hoping to get to northern Oregon before stopping for the night. The northmost edge of California is very hilly. The Siskiyou Mountains span from northern California into southern Oregon. Well, as we climbed into the Siskiyous it started to snow. Neither one of us has much experience with driving in the snow. At Yreka we were diverted of of the freeway and it became clear that we had to have chains in order to drive through the pass.
Luckily, the local auto parts store was well supplied with chains. How much of their annual income do you think is in chains? Talk about a captive audience.
After a dinner of bad Mexican food (so cruel for those of us accustomed to really good Mexican food), we headed back to the freeway. $20 will get a nice fool man to install them for you. Money very well spent I say. Never having installed them, I didn't want to get cold and wet and dirty (and probably quite cranky) by trying to do so in the dark on the side of the road.
A cute officer of the highway patrol was verifying that all vehicles had chains on before allowing them onto the freeway. We stopped, awaited his signal, and then pealed out. Maybe I should have mentioned that we are driving Brooke's pick-up (full of fibery goodness of course). I has an itchy accelerator. The lightest touch and it jumps forward. I had already pealed for a toll taker and after just about every time I'd come to a full stop. Who knows what kind of reputation I am leaving in my wake.
The drive through the pass was long and grueling. Visibility was often only a couple of car lengths and it was anybody's guess where the lanes actually were (did I mention that we had thick fog too), but two hours later we came down out of the snow and fog and into Ashland, Oregon. We unchained (anyone else singing Ray Charles now?) and pushed onto Roseburg. It was not nearly as far north as we would have preferred, but we made it through the pass (huge relief!). It also gave us the opportunity to have a really fabulous breakfast at Peggy's just off I-5 in Rice Hill, Oregon.
We arrived safe and sound at Madrona in time (barely) to set up the booth. We did lose the truck key, finding ourselves trapped in downtown Tacoma without a room, but that is another story. Right now we are happy to be here with our fibery friends.
Wow! That's some ride! Hopefully the rest of the weekend is smooth sailing. Have a great time!
Posted by: michelle | February 13, 2009 at 07:37 AM
I love to hear of your travels. Am glad you got there safe. and we will not talk about driving reputations. Have a good show and see you when you get back!
Posted by: Walela | February 13, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Yipes! Sounds like an adventure of a drive alright. I hope you're having a blast now. I wish I were there. Maybe next year...
Posted by: Ronni | February 13, 2009 at 12:06 PM
What an adventure! I'm glad you guys made it and I hope you sell lots of stuff!
Posted by: elizabeth | February 13, 2009 at 01:17 PM
They often close the passes in this area (Siskiyou and Sexton) this time of year because they can be treacherous - in fact they had to do that just a few days ago. I am glad you made it through safely.
I look forward to hearing about Madrona.
Posted by: punkin | February 13, 2009 at 01:27 PM
So great to see you! I'm glad you survived the journey!
Posted by: Lorajean | February 13, 2009 at 05:12 PM
It was great to catch up. Have a safe trip home.
Posted by: Ann | February 16, 2009 at 12:40 PM