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Jan. 29th, 2008 04:40 pmMy perfect plan to have a nice few days up at Tahoe continued to work out pretty well. Yes, I'd had a hell of a time putting my chains on for the drive up, but as of last night it was looking like there'd be a gap in the storm so I'd have a leisurely drive home today.
Woke up this morning, only to discover that the gap was closing. One hasty packing job later, and I was on the road. Would I make it over the pass before the chain controls went up?
Nope.
Drat. On the plus side, I got my tire chains put on in record time -- only 5 minutes! Dang, I'm getting good at this! So over the pass I go, and it's looking like the damn CalTrans has required chains only to keep the idiots from being idiots, not because the road was in bad shape. In fact, I was mostly driving on asphalt, which is never good for the tires or the chains.
So over the pass I went, and on down the west face of the Sierras I traveled. And the storm did grow. And the snow did get thicker. And I realized that CalTrans wasn't dicking around, I really did need my chains on. And then, around elevation 4500 feet, the titular sound.
I broke a chain! The tire chain frickin' broke! They were a brand new set, only used once before (the drive up a few days ago)! And now I'm on a downhill slope in a thick winter storm with 2 inches of snow on the road in a Honda Civic with only one tire chain! Needless to say, the rest of the drive back was a bit harrowing, but actually went just fine. Even though they didn't relax the chain controls until 2000 feet (which is as low as I've ever seen it, and it really needed to be there because it really was snowing that hard).
So now I'm snuggled up under a blanket in front of the fireplace at K's house, waiting for her to get back from work. Yay for an adventurous couple of extra days off!
(For any of my non-California readers who think all of CA is like L.A. Story -- ha!)
Woke up this morning, only to discover that the gap was closing. One hasty packing job later, and I was on the road. Would I make it over the pass before the chain controls went up?
Nope.
Drat. On the plus side, I got my tire chains put on in record time -- only 5 minutes! Dang, I'm getting good at this! So over the pass I go, and it's looking like the damn CalTrans has required chains only to keep the idiots from being idiots, not because the road was in bad shape. In fact, I was mostly driving on asphalt, which is never good for the tires or the chains.
So over the pass I went, and on down the west face of the Sierras I traveled. And the storm did grow. And the snow did get thicker. And I realized that CalTrans wasn't dicking around, I really did need my chains on. And then, around elevation 4500 feet, the titular sound.
I broke a chain! The tire chain frickin' broke! They were a brand new set, only used once before (the drive up a few days ago)! And now I'm on a downhill slope in a thick winter storm with 2 inches of snow on the road in a Honda Civic with only one tire chain! Needless to say, the rest of the drive back was a bit harrowing, but actually went just fine. Even though they didn't relax the chain controls until 2000 feet (which is as low as I've ever seen it, and it really needed to be there because it really was snowing that hard).
So now I'm snuggled up under a blanket in front of the fireplace at K's house, waiting for her to get back from work. Yay for an adventurous couple of extra days off!
(For any of my non-California readers who think all of CA is like L.A. Story -- ha!)
