The Great American Christmas Road Trip - Part 3 (Finally entering California)

After filling up the car and ourselves we were off again. This time in snow free conditions... or so we thought.

After a couple of happy snow free hours on the road, just as we were about to hit the mountain pass that would have taken us to the Californian state line we were presented with lots of enforced snow chain requirement and snow chain inspection signs all along the highway.

At this time I was driving so that the lady friend could take a break from driving and get some shut eye. Fortunately she was woken up by her dad calling her on the phone and she noticed the signs too. We decided to go buy snow chains at one of the little towns before we hit the mountain pass. It was one thing to lose control and spin off the road into a snow bank but its entirely another thing to lose control and spin off the side of a mountain!

Also, I wasn't aware that you would be asked to turn around by the cops at the snow chain inspection stop if you didn't have snow chains. If she hadn't had woken up I would have happily kept on driving until we hit the mountain pass ignoring the signs about snow chain inspection oblivious to the fact that we would have been told to turn around without them.

So, we found a Wal-Mart and decided to pop in there to buy chains. While in there we met a guy who was also buying chains because he got turned around at the inspection point. We also got talking to another guy who lived in the town who was buying chains and other supplies for a road trip himself and his wife were going to embark on the next morning. Upon hearing that we were going to attempt to drive over the pass that evening (it was about 10pm at this stage and there was a storm warning for the pass) he warned us against doing it saying that it was far too dangerous. He said that "only idiot drivers and crazy trucker try going over the pass at night".

It so happened that himself and his wife owned a B&B in the town and it was closed for the winter season. So he offered us a bed for the evening free of charge to dissuade us from attempting to go over the pass that evening. We were a bit iffy at first but eventually took him up on his offer as we were quite tired from driving all day.

As it turns out the B&B was a really nice place and the guy and his wife were super nice people. If anyone is ever travelling through Oregon, passing through the little town of Ashland and are feeling tired, you can't go far wrong popping into the "Chanticleer Inn" for the night.


(The B & B we stayed in)

We set off early in the morning to face the mountain pass to the California state line expecting the worse. As it turned out once again it wasn't so bad. The snow ploughs had once again done their job in the morning and we really only had to concern ourselves with the roads being all gravelly due to being torn up by people not removing their snow chains when they should have.


(The mountain pass)

Six very uneventful hours later we finally made it to our destination in California... only 2 days later than expected and one day before Christmas eve :(

The Great American Christmas Road Trip - Part 2 (Washington to Oregon)

The roads through Oregon were not forgiving. We had hit Oregon just after a really bad snow storm had hit it the night before. There was a mandatory snow chain rule being enforced on all roads within the city at Portland. Unfortunately we had previously decided against buying snow chains for our little trip. However, fortunately, we were not required to go into any cities in Oregon as the I-5 highway ran right by them.

The snow and ice on the highway was really bad so I can only imagine what it was like within the city where less cars were traveling.

We managed to get through Portland without any incidents. Again we were driving at a max speed of about 20 to 30 mph. If we went any slower we would have more than likely gotten stuck in the snow and if we went any faster we would lose control and spin.

Speaking of spinning. It was just shortly after passing Portland that we had our worst spin off. We were driving on a perfectly straight stretch of highway going up a little incline, when out of nowhere the car just lost control and started to slide and spin. This time no one was at fault and also, this time there were lots of cars on the highway. We more than likely just hit a really bad patch of ice and that coupled with our rather non snow conditioned tyres and lack of snow chains the car lost it.

We luckily were at the outer lane at the time and didn't spin into the middle of the road but instead into the snow bank beside us. This time we managed to bury ourselves quite good. No amount of pushing by little old me alone was going to get the car out. Luckily this time around we spun off the road in the middle of the day and there were lots of cars on the road. Two cars eventually stopped (probably out of pity watching me struggling in vain at trying to push the car out by myself) and between myself and the drivers of the cars we managed to push the car out of the snow bank while the girlfriend/wife of one of the other drivers directed the traffic around us as we backed out of the bank back onto the highway again. Upon finally getting going again I had to run after the car and hop in while it was moving because we couldn't risk stopping because stopping would mean possibly getting stuck in the snow or else slipping back down the little incline on the road.

I can now say I've run down the middle of a busy highway chasing after a car in America.

After about 8 or so hours of extremely tense driving and keeping the car wheels perfectly straight the snow disappeared and the roads were drivable once again. It was at this stage we decided to pull into somewhere to get something to eat and to fill up the tank as we couldn't afford to pull off the highway previously at the risk of getting stuck in a snowed in town and having no way to get back onto the highway again.

Interesting side note. Apparently Oregon is one of two states in America where you are not allowed to fill up your car yourself. You have to let the petrol pump attendants do it. Your breaking the law otherwise.

The Great American Christmas Road Trip - Part 1 (Vancouver to Seattle, Washington)

Warning, this is a long posting but an interesting one (well at least I think it is) non the less. It's split into several parts for your reading pleasure.

I left for Sacramento, California from Vancouver, Canada two weeks ago to visit the lady friend's parents for Christmas. We decided to drive down. A 15 to 16 hour drive. No problem says I. We'll do it in a day... was I ever wrong. It ended up taking us 3 days to get to our destination in California.

On the night before we were meant to leave it decided to snow quite heavily all day (as can be seen from the picture of the view from our balcony window).



This resulted in the car being buried in about a foot if not more of snow the next morning. We had to dig the car out and even then we had to push it out from the curb since the snow had it stuck in good. Little did I know that this was the start of a lot more pushing out of snow to come. We had contemplated on getting snow chains for the trip but decided against it at the last moment thinking that we wouldn't need them once we got out of Vancouver. Big mistake.

From the outset the weather was not our friend. There was snow and ice all the way from Vancouver, through to Seattle continuing all the way into most of Oregon; And just when we thought we had made it through the worse of it with the Californian state line in site the snow got us again. More about that later.


(The Road out of Vancouver)

On a "normal" day the drive to the Canadian/US border from Vancouver would take 30 to 40 minutes. Then it would just be a simple case of staying on the I-5 highway for a leisurely cruise all the way down into California. On this day the drive to the border took us an hour and a half and when we hit the US side the snow and ice on the highway was so bad we literally had to travel at 20 to 30 mph max. It just felt really strange going so slow on a highway but I'm very glad we did.

We managed to spin off the road a couple of times. The first time was when we were on our way to Seattle. The idiot driver in front of us decided to inexplicably slam on their brakes despite the fact that there was not a single car or turn ahead of him/her. They somehow miraculously managed not to slide or spin (if they did slide I might have seen it as them just slowing down). This caused us to slam on our brakes to avoid a head on crash. Instead of stopping, the car just kept on sliding towards the car in front of us. Fortunately we were a good 6 car lengths if not more away from him at this stage and we were only traveling at about 20 mph or so and we were the only 2 cars on the highway at that time. We tried turning the wheel at the last minute to avoid a crash but this just made the car spin. The result of this was we spun off the road. Of course the idiot in front of us was oblivious to this and simply just sped up again and went on his/her merry way. Luckily we didn't spin too far into the snow bank so we could easily enough back out again without anyone having to get out and push.

We had to stop off to fill up the tank and our bellies before we hit Seattle and this resulted in more getting stuck in the snow and pushing. The petrol station we tried pulling into was so deeply covered in snow that we got stuck trying to get into it and then again when we tried to get out. It took myself, a friend who was traveling with us who we were dropping off in Seattle and some other people at the station to push the car to the pump. We left the car sitting at the pump as we ran across the road to grab a quick bite to eat... but not before stopping to help push several other cars who had gotten stuck trying to get into the petrol station. We eventually decided to play dumb to all the other cars otherwise we would have been there all night pushing cars in and out of the petrol station never making it that 20/30 odd yard to the burger joint.

So, what should have been a 3 hour trip from the Canadian/US border to Seattle took us 6 and a bit hours. We decided to stay the night in Seattle at the friend's place and continue the trip in the morning. There was a lot more pushing and getting stuck in the snow inbetween that I've skipped over.


(Setting out on Seattle roads - there's a road under there somewhere)
In the morning we continued our trip but this time it was just the two of us. Once we got onto the Seattle freeway it was surprisingly snow and ice free. The snow ploughs had obviously done their jobs that morning. Then we hit Oregon and it all started again.

Adventures in Pumpkin Carving land

This is going to be more of a really long "photo blog" entry than a regular entry. Ladies and Gentlemen, I proudly present to you... the Hanging Hat's grand adventures in Pumpkin Carving land.


The pumpkins to be massacred


The implements that were needed in order to carry out the massacaring


The mini test pumpkin and test pattern


The massacre begins...


...and the result (mini test pumpkin with mini friend)


Now onto the big pumpkin...mwuhahah! First, the image we are going to use.


Putting the pattern onto the pumpkin


Cutting off the top and cleaning out the innards before getting stuck into the hacking and slashing


...And the eventual result from the hacking and slashing


Oh! And just in case you were wondering; The other pumpkin also got hacked and slashed


Thus ended the grand adventures of the Hanging Hat in pumpkin carving land for another year. Actually, that was so much fun I'm contemplating heading down to the store tomorrow when all the pumpkins will be going cheap due to post halloween pumpkin sales and getting another one to hack up.

Raccoons And Bears, Oh My!

I saw my first raccoon the other night as I was walking into my apartment. It was the first live raccoon I'd ever seen and it was less than 3 meters away from me walking on the fence.

Those suckers be big! It stopped momentarily and gave me the beady eye as if it was getting ready to hop off the fence and run into the building behind me so I promptly got inside and shut the door before it could make its move.

I wish I had my camera with me at the time. I'm sure the raccoon would have attempted to rob it off me but it would have been worth it. Now every time I walk outside or into the apartment I'm always on the lookout for raccoons.

Also, in the last couple of days, just walking around I've noticed an increasing number of signs outside shop windows advertising "Bear Spray"! Is this a necessity in Vancouver in the Autumn months? Do the bears start coming out soon? And is a little spray bottle really good enough to keep a big hulking bear from charging you down and ripping you to shreds?? I for one will take my chances without the spray and on the odd chance of ever bumping into a bear will use the time tested method of running and screaming like a little girl.... or was that lie down and play dead? Those two always confuse me.

Simple K

It's 4am and I'm sitting here not ready to go to bed yet. Back home in Ireland if I was still awake at this hour I'd go and pour myself a nice bowl of Special K (or "Simple K" as an American friend keeps accidentally calling them) as a post post midnight snack. I'm not much of a cereal person. In fact I wouldn't really have cereal at all but every now and again I do really enjoy a bowl of Special K.

As luck would have it I bought myself some Special K yesterday while out shopping. Oh how unprepared was I for the disappointment that was to follow.

Now, to say that some things are a little different in North America than to things in Europe would be putting it mildly here. The Special K in North America tastes nothing like the Special K in Ireland. It is essentially just Rice Krispies. In fact if I blind folded you and fed you a bowl of Rice Krispies and a bowl of North American Special K you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. In fact, you can hear the "Snap, Crackle and Pop" from the Special K flakes when you add the milk! Imagine Rice Kripies being a little bit flatter instead of roundish then what you have is North American Special K. I wonder does the "K" in "Special K" stand for "Krispies"? Hmmm... Now I know why my American friend keeps calling it "Simple K".

I've just had a thought, if Special K here tastes like Rice Krispies perhaps the opposite will be true? Must go buy myself some Rice Krispies tomorrow and put that theory to the test.

Still Here And Gone

I'm still around. Just haven't bothered updating this blog in a loooooong time due to laziness on my part.

I've moved cities and countries since my last update. As of 3 weeks ago, I'm now living in Vancouver, Canada. That's right, I've sold almost everything I own in Dublin and upped and moved several thousand miles across the world. So as a new beginning I'm going to try once again to keep this blog active and update it more often than once every 3 months or so. That should hopefully keep my 3 faithful readers happy... you know who youse are ;-)

So, Vancouver in 3 words.... Lovely, Relaxed, Rainy. OK, that last part isn't entirely true. The first 2 and a half weeks I've been here its been really super sunny. Its only really started to rain in the last couple of days and according to the weather its going to be like this for the rest of the week. I was warned that it rains a lot here. I guess I was just lucky in terms of the weather when I landed.

I've spent these last couple of weeks here looking for a place to live and a job. Just got a place to live this week after a slight chicken and egg problem. It seems that you can't get a place to live unless you have a bank account and you can't get a bank account without a place to live. I finally managed to find a nice place where the landlord understood the problem and agreed to rent to me. And with a place to live, presto! I also have a bank account. Now all I have to do is find a job... hopefully that little problem will be solved sometime soon this week. I got my fingers, eyes, legs and toes crossed.

Other than the above mentioned I haven't really given myself much time to do much sight seeing. I figured I'll have plenty of time to do that later on.