Toasty Warm Adventuring

Yesterday did not go as planned for a great many people in the Portland Metro area. Fortunately, my friends and I are of the type that would rather make an adventure of an unexpected circumstance than suffer through it. So, if you want a story, read on….

Cate and Victor were moving yesterday, and John and I offered to help, so Cate came by and picked us up in the morning. We completed one load with the U-Haul and then went to lunch, all the while remarking on how freezing cold! it was outside, and wondering what weather the day would bring. There was a winter storm warning that was supposed to go into effect at 6:00 p.m., so we figured we could get in a second load in the afternoon and get the U-Haul back safely, since they expressly forbade driving it in the snow. Well, it started snowing while we were at the restaurant. By the time we finished lunch the wind was blowing snow across the streets, creating the most amazing visual effects. We decided to get chains for the car before going back to their house and deciding what to do about moving.

A good while later we at last arrived at Fred Meyer, only to discover that they had sold out of chains within an hour of the start of the snow. And the Les Schwab just down the street was closed, of all days to be closed! Fortunately, two of Cate’s other friends were on their way to help with moving, and happened to have a spare set of chains, so we decided to wait for them at Fred Meyer rather than trying to drive anywhere without chains (Victor had never seen snow, much less driven in it, and though he was doing a fine job, we didn’t want to push it). So we hung out at Fred Meyer for twenty minutes or so waiting for them to show up. John and I finally decided that our best course of action would probably be to go out and catch a bus back downtown, because there was no other way we could guarantee getting home that night. So, out in the cold we went to wait for the bus.

We were very happy to see a bus approaching almost as soon as we got to the stop (walking backwards against the wind blowing snow in our faces). Unfortunately, the bus got stuck pulling out from the stop before ours, and just sat there, blocking the lanes diagonally. After about twenty minutes another bus came along behind, and just sat behind the first for some time. We decided to walk down and investigate, figuring we could at least be sitting on a warm bus while we waited for them to move. The driver of the second bus said that his bus wasn’t stuck, but that he couldn’t get by the first bus, so we were stuck either way. We sat on the bus warming up for a few minutes and then started reconsidering our plan of action. We were hearing estimates of up to seven hours for getting downtown by bus, which was not acceptable. John looked outside at all the traffic in the snow and said, “Well, we could walk.” I said I’d be up for it if I had some goggles, so we decided to make a day of it.

Fortunately, we were still at Fred Meyer, so we got out of the bus and crossed the street again, push-starting a few cars that were spinning their wheels in the snow (I forgot to mention – all of this is happening on a relatively steep incline, so lots of people were getting stuck). We bought motorcycle goggles, thermals and extra wool socks and gloves, and used the fitting rooms to bundle ourselves up. And then we walked.

Now, this Fred Meyer is in Tigard. We live in downtown Portland. It’s not a long trip by car (Yahoo maps estimates 8 minutes), but it’s different when you’re walking in the snow. We hopped around making funny footprint patterns in the snow, and sang Christmas carols, somehow managing to remember all the verses to “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” and completely butchering several others. We were really quite nice and toasty warm with two or three pairs of socks and gloves each, warm thermals and hats and goggles, though I’m sure we looked a ridiculous pair. It was quite amusing. We got to Barbur Transit Center in about an hour, and not a single bus had passed us. We decided to keep walking, since the likelihood of a bus coming down that route anytime soon was not high. We decided to follow a different bus route that was more likely to be running. Right then, we looked and saw that very bus passing the stop closest to us, still a few blocks away. So close, but so far away. But it proved that that route was running, so we decided to follow it anyway and catch the next bus.

So we walked. We were now on back roads rather than the main drag, which was much more pleasant. I suggested making snow angels in people’s driveways, but we probably would have gone through the snow and scraped the pavement, so we didn’t. (There really wasn’t that much snow, but people here don’t know how to drive in it [and, yes, I include myself in this category], so it’s a big deal.) We walked and we walked and were still toasty warm. We arrived in Multnomah Village and thought about stopping by Cate and Victor’s new house, but decided against it on the grounds that they would be absolutely horrified that they had let us try to take the bus and that we were still not home and that we were walking home. We stopped at the main bus stop in the village and called TriMet’s transit tracker number to see if there would be a bus coming soon, and learned that that route was being diverted from that section of the route and was going Barbur instead – the street we’d been walking on originally! So we decided to book it back to Barbur, because there was a bus due in a few minutes.

Well, we were almost to Barbur and could see the overpass where it crossed the road we were on. And we saw the bus go by. So close. By that time we had pretty much used up all our lunch fuel, so we stopped at Safeway and bought some snacks to provision us for the rest of the trip. We thought about calling a cab, but there’s no way we could have gotten one that night. We went to the bus stop outside Safeway to see if there was a bus coming, and waited for ten minutes or so, talking to another guy waiting there. By this time it was about 7:30 or 8:00, and we were really feeling the need to be back home, especially since John had to be up early for work in the morning. So I called Anne and Bob, who live about half a mile from the Safeway, and pleaded for a ride home. She said, “Why don’t you come over and have some soup, and we’ll figure something out?” to which invitation I gladly responded, “Yes, please!” So we walked over there and had warm soup and bread and hung out with them and Janet for a while. After much discussion of possible ways to get us home (the first suggestion being that we stay overnight at Janet’s house), we settled on Bob driving us in Janet’s car, the most snow-worthy vehicle available, dropping Janet off at home on the way, and then Janet could walk over and pick up the car in the morning.

So we didn’t walk all the way home, but by that time we were very grateful for a ride. I think our total walking distance was probably about four miles, mostly uphill (no exaggeration – but that was actually better than downhill). We finally got home, safe and sound and still toasty warm, around 9:15, having begun our journey at Fred Meyer at 5:30. It’s a good thing we like adventures!