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.
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.
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 :(
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