Early Out

CREATIVE PARKING

Snow On Ice

pushing on

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.. Decided to make an early dash for West Yellowstone. Discovered roads with a sheet of ice covered by light snow and some creative parking.
.. Not much to report on the fishy front. The snow trout are avoiding the record low temperatures and most of the water has entered a solid state.
.. We're currently confined to a comfy motel room in Pendleton, Oregon. The Pizza Hut is close and delivers: makes life tolerable. Electricity and heat seem luxurious.
.. May have to spend Thanksgiving here if the roads on either side of Boise, Idaho stay closed.
.. The views and scenic atmosphere of the Blue Mountains would certainly be spoiled by having to stare at the rutted roads and dodging rapidly sailing SUV's & RV's.
.. Roads into and out of West Yellowstone are intermittantly closed. The little town looks like a trucker's convention.
.. The broken down cattle truck is having trouble getting hay for the critters. Beef prices may hit a new low in our frigid little hamlet.

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.. Yesterday's morning drive through Portland, Oregon saw traffic snarled  and our cruise down the shady side of the lower Columbia Gorge discovered lines of ice pounded into glacier-slick trails in the fresh snow.
.. The jackknifed semi on the grade leaving The Dalles killed two, (bags and gurneys visible in trailer - survivors left in the emergency vehicle,)  and held us prisoner for 3 hours as we snaked and slid through the maze of scattered vehicles, debris, and broken chains.

.. A light freezing fog blanketed the highway between The Dalles & Pendleton. By the time our brain leaped through our aching eyeballs we decided that sleep was the better part of valor.
.. It's morning now and time to scan the weather reports, call the state patrol, watch the parade on the Interstate, and decide just how valorous we feel for a sojourn through the slick roads between here and West Yellowstone.

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