Slide-Dancing

 Going from sand and surf to snow and ice is one thing, driving in snow and ice is quite another. Having barely escaped Snowpocalypse, January 26th, by flying out of Santa Rosa just as the big storm was slamming into the mountain, Denise and I were not as fortunate this time around. The snow arrived first and then Denise.

We had scheduled this visit at least a month ago, and I had been monitoring the weather forecasts closely all week. The outlook was not brilliant but whenever Dee asked about snow, I evaded her question(s). “The situation is under control,” I repeated assuringly.

The difference between the snow storm that hit on January 26th and the storm that just passed through is significant. Both dumped snow at a furious pace, but this latter storm featured gaps between snow showers, during which much of the snow that fell on the road melted. 

Even if it piled up most everywhere else, there was enough traffic and warmer air between cloudbursts, to keep Bell Springs Road drivable. There are always a few stretches where the snow builds up and you are driving on ice for a hundred yards or so, slowly, but mostly you are down to dirt and gravel. 

As Tuesday arrived, the forecast was for seven inches of snow, on top of what had been falling for two days. The Bell was almost free of snow as Denise took off from Orange County and headed up to Santa Rosa, around four. Even as I texted her the good news, I couldn’t help note the snow falling heavily outside. It had been snowing for a while but if The Bell was clear, no problem.

At 5:30 I hit my son Lito up with a text telling him that we would need to implement our plan of meeting Denise at the bottom of The Bell, where it meets the highway. I texted Denise the same message and asked her to let me know when she was passing through Willits, an hour away from us.

When I got that message, I relayed it to Lito and he said he would leave right away to come get me. The snow had been dumping for three hours now, with more or less three inches on the dirt road, along with those few stretches where it was considerably deeper. On the flip side, Lito was driving the new-to-the-farm 'Yoda Tundra, a vehicle already having proven its worth during Snowpocalype. 

Lito and I agreed we would check out the tires on Denise’s all-wheel-drive vehicle to make sure they could handle snow and ice. We were heading uphill for the first three miles of Bell Springs Road, something that is not conducive to driving in icy conditions without chains.

All went according to plan, as we met Denise almost at the bottom of The Bell, and I took over driving for her. Lito and I did inspect the tires up at Orange-Marker Road, and agreed there wasn’t much to be done but carry on. For the most part the drive up to my turnoff was marginally acceptable, with maybe a half-dozen times when we did a little slide-dancing on the ice. 

We parted ways at Lito’s driveway, only a couple minutes shy of our own, and proceeded to the top of the turnoff without any issues. As I was poised at the precipice of our steep driveway, peering blindly out into the cascading snow, I had a sudden thought. It was not a particularly good one, and sure enough, as we crested the driveway and started sliding down, with no control whatsoever, I realized it was too late to text Houston.

When we finally ground to a complete halt, we weren’t exactly ninety degrees’ worth of sideways, but I had to crane my neck to the left to see the driveway. Visions of Lito having to trot the tractor over to get us out, were scampering through my pea brain, as I went into my act. 

I had known instinctively to turn the steering wheel the opposite of what I might have thought while we were free-falling, so the tires were at least pointed in the right direction when we slid to a halt. In my experience these matters are generally resolved immediately, or it’s call-for-the-tractor time, and this was no exception. 

I put her in reverse, needing no more than a foot or two to ease my way back on-track, and the cosmos granted me that favor. As we slipped/slid our way down the hundred yards of steep driveway, I could see a flashlight gleaming down at Casey’s spot.

Afterwards when I asked him if he knew we were in trouble, he responded, “I saw your lights and thought someone was at the top of the driveway. Then I remembered I couldn’t see the top of the driveway from where I was standing,” he finished, laughing.

The fruits of our labor:
Denise and Ollie Mac

Honestly, by all rights, that SUV should still have been up at the top of the driveway, bogged down in the snow. What universe allows a vehicle with city tires and no chains, to back up and maneuver back onto the road, in the middle of a blinding snow storm?

My answer is a benevolent universe where love is the greatest power. That’s the best I can do and I’m sticking with it.