Friday, December 27, 2019

Winter Wonderland

It's 3:29 PM on Thursday afternoon  My brother and I are currently parked in my car about three miles away from California City on Highway 58.  We've moved about a quarter mile in 7 hours.  The highway is closed due to snow in the Tehachapi Mountain Range and who knows how long it'll be before it opens up.  


Anyways... I figured this would be an interesting spot to blog.  I searched for scans on my laptop featuring snow and didn't find any, so I've decided to do the next best thing.

Here's the latest Clayton Kershaw card I've picked up for my collection:

2018 Topps Holiday Relic #R-CK

No snow... so printed snowflakes and CK's open fly will have to do.

Mad respect to all of you who live in areas that receive heavy snowfall each winter.  Even more respect to those who have been caught in the middle of a snowstorm away from your home.  Anyone remember that crazy storm in Atlanta a few years ago where people literally abandoned their cars in the middle of the highway?  That was super scary.

It's now 3:53pm, we're freezing our butts off, and we're starving and thirsty.  We have plenty of food and drinks, but we're afraid to eat or drink, because we're not looking forward to pooping on the side of the road.  And yes, we've filled up multiple bottles with yellow stuff in the 7 hours we've been stranded.  It sounds like our plan is to try and make it to California City, grab a room, some food, and wait for the pass to open up.

I'll try to have an update for you by tomorrow when this post is scheduled to be published.  In a perfect world, I'll be writing it from home while laying in my warm bed.

In the meantime, here's a nice song my students introduced me to last week:


Happy Friday and sayonara!

Update

We left off at 3:53pm on Thursday afternoon.  About 30 minutes later, my friend texted me that CHP had reopened the highway and were escorting caravans through the passWithin minutes of her text, we were movingStop and go, but moving.

We spent nearly four hours traveling another mile or two before actually making our way up the mountain passA little before 9pm we grabbed our first meal of the day at McDonald's in Bakersfield.  Normally it'd take around four hours to get from Las Vegas to BakersfieldYesterday, it took us over 15 hours.

We thought about grabbing a hotel in Bakersfield, but a lot of places were fully booked.  So we hopped in the car, pushed on, and walked through my front door safely at a little past 1am.

Although the drive home was pretty miserable... I wouldn't have changed this trip for anything.  It was really nice to hang out with my father for the holidays and it was so obvious how much he appreciated our visit.

17 comments:

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

Glad to hear your home safely. Ariana sure is a cute little thang.

Dennis said...

The traffic stuff sucks but I'm glad you were able to see your dad and get home eventually.

night owl said...

My brother lives somewhere in that area. He says Bakersfield is nothing but cowboys and oilmen. But now I know there is a McDonald's there! ... I live where snow falls all the time but I made a 4 hour drive in 50 degree temperatures today. All the snow was gone!

Adam Kaningher said...

I would have absolutely lost my mind in traffic like that.

Laurens said...

Thanks for keeping it real.

The Lost Collector said...

Whoa! Can’t believe you were stuck that long. Glad you got home safely.

SumoMenkoMan said...

Holy crap! Glad you made it home safe!

Matt said...

Glad to hear you got home safely! I grew up in the snow belt, and my childhood is filled with lake effect storms off of Lake Erie. We haven't had any yet in the Shenendoah Valley, and to be honest I kind of miss it.

Ryan G said...

I loved taking road trips when I lived in the US, but I always hated the traffic. And delays like this would have driven me mad. I'm glad you're safe, though!

Fuji said...

johnnys trading spot - ariana is really talented. saw her do an impersonation of voices and was blown away

dennis - seeing my dad and keeping him company was well worth the snow storm ordeal

night owl - that's the impression i get of bakersfield as well. although it's probably a lot bigger than what you think. they had a lot of fast food places to choose from, but i was craving their fries.

adam kaningher - i probably would have suffered some serious anxiety if i was by myself. i was very lucky to have my bro with me

laurens - i wasn't going to include the pee stuff, but every friend i talked to asked me what i did about the bathroom... so i kept it in there.

the lost collector - yeah... it was an insanely long time to be sitting in my car. it's a good thing i drove my tl, instead of my yaris

sumomenkoman - thanks. it felt good to walk through my front door.

matt - i gotta admit, the snow scenery outside was truly beautiful. sometimes it's healthier to focus on the positive things :)

ryan g - it's was sort of an emotional roller coaster. there were definitely emotions of fear, sadness, and anger at different points of that car ride.

Chris said...

It's great that you got to spend time with your dad for Christmas, and that you got home safely. But that is an insane drive! Cali traffic and snow do not mix.

Also, I posted a very similar song on my blog this morning. I was actually going to mention Ariana but it was too snarky so I scrapped it.

Bulldog said...

Glad you made it home safe and that your Christmas was good!

bbcardz said...

So glad you made it home safe and sound. I've never driven in the snow and I'm glad. But we did get snow in the nearby mountains (I live in the foothills).

gregory said...

Wow, that was quite a journey. I just did some math: Traveling a quarter of a mile in 7 hours is equivalent to an average speed of .03 miles per hour. Yeesh.

Doing some blogging was a smart way to stave off cabin fever. Glad you made it home safely!

Steve at 1975BaseballCards.com said...

I saw a story about that on tv news and never expected to read about anyone I know to be stuck in it. I once had to avert a Cali pass due to mudslides. That was rough but nothing like your ordeal. As others wrote good that you made it through ok.

Fuji said...

chris - yeah... traffic and snow aren't ever a good combination for sure.

bulldog - it felt good to make it home and sleep in my own bed instead of in the back seat of my car :)

bbcardz - i've driven in the snow before (went to tahoe a lot over the years to ski and board), but i'd plan for it and carry chains. no chains on hand this time around. actually chp and caltrans did an excellent job of clearing the road, so chains weren't even required

gregory - writing this post definitely helped me take my mind off of things. wish i would have thought of it a lot earlier.

steve at 1975baseballcard.com - i heard about the people waiting for the grapevine to clear. mother nature
sure wrecked some havok on travelers last week.

Collecting Cutch said...

I would have been miserable being in a car for that long and moving so little.