Marion's Miscellaneous Musings

The downside about trips to Seattle is not coming home (I'm a smaller town person at heart, and I think I might be happy in a really small town. With a friend.), but coming home in winter over Snoqualmie Pass. So I spend a lot of worry time when I could be enjoying myself.

I watch the weather channel too much.

And it showed that weather was coming through the region, so Tuesday night, with the pass looking good that night but probably not Wednesday day, I decided to come home.

I am thinking that, once we get over the pass, everything will be a piece of cake. Snoqualmie Pass is at 3022 feet, and it is the highest point on the trip home. Then we head over Manashtash Ridge (2672) and two other ridges (less) between Ellensburg and Yakima.

Each time we came over something I was thinking "The worst is over." But the weather just kept on getting worse. And at milepost 61 on I-82 I lost control and spun out. Fortunately there was no one to hit and we landed on the right side facing the road, but the ground was too soft to get any traction and we are stuck. Within minutes there was an aid car and State Patrol and he took down my license and registration and called a tow truck. Then the patrol officer takes off to aid someone who is in the river. At this point, we don't know if the car is driveable, but it is likely.

Then, 45 minutes later, another car spins out and hits us. Fortunately we are in the car, belted, and not hurt. The other driver is unconscious, but comes to very confused and keeps asking what happened. The same patrol officer responds (and recognizes us!), the ambulance comes, the other driver is taken to a hospital, and all the paperwork (we can not get by without paperwork, can we?) is taken care of. In the middle of all this the tow truck finally comes.

We spend the night in a hotel in Sunnyside, I call insurance companies (the other driver had incorrect insurance information, which just adds to the story), Jack comes, we remove personal belongings from the car and come home safely.

The roads today (Wednesday), of course, are perfect.

You can spend a lot of time playing the "Weshouldave" game. We should have stayed in Seattle for the last night. We should have given up and stayed in Ellensburg or Yakima. We should have tried to dig the car out or tried to drive out over the cookie sheet. But the fact of the matter is that the whole incident could have been much, much worse. The other driver could have hit us instead of the car, or hit the tow truck driver. Jack says the conditions ahead of us were worse. We could have been the one in the river. We could have been rescued by axe murderers, or, even worse, rude people.

So, in the end, God was indeed watching over us. While He doesn't prevent bad things from happening, we appreciate a speedy happy ending to the whole affair. (In fact, the biggest irritant now is that I left my sack of dirty underwear in the hotel in Seattle. Do I want to replace them, or have the hotel send it to me?!!) Plus I got to ride in a police car for the first time in my life!