alleymon Hello all and Merry Christmas. We’re always hoping for a White Christmas but never actually expect one.
Unfortunately, this time we got one a week ahead of time. We were returning from a Doctors appointment for Bailey and the rain was falling on our drive home over Ortega Highway. Traffic was creeping up the hill which usually indicates an accident. This time was no exception, but the cause of the accident was rare on this stretch of highway.
Usually, an accident is cleared within an hour so we decided to wait it out. You see, to turn around and take the long way becomes a 3 hour tour. So, waiting for an hour is almost always the better choice. Now, I’ve driven this road every work day for 8 years+ now and I’ve never had to wait because of SNOW!!!
About 5:30 pm I noticed that the rain had turned to a mixture of Snow and Rain. The snow wasn’t sticking to the road yet, and I was only a mile or so away from the top, elevation 2666 feet, so my elevation was around 2300 feet. Amazing what a few hundred feet will do. So, we kept waiting because occasionally the cars would move forward 10 car lengths or so. Then as the snow kept piling up in the oncoming lane, it became dangerous to try and turn around and we were stuck.
Around 7:00 pm we noticed that some of the branches of the old oak trees lining the road were bending way down over the road, and a couple actually broke off and fell onto the roadway. Now, Branden and I started looking up to see what was above us… Yikes!
About 8:00 pm a pick up truck with a snow plow blade cleared the oncoming lane and I took the chance to turn around. We got Stacy turned around too (She was following in her Jeep). When we got to Antonio Pkwy, we found that the CHP had blocked East Bound traffic (Would have been nice if they told people that they anticipated a full closure around 6 when it was pretty obvious to them that they weren’t going to get it clear. I was able to get on the CHP website from my cell phone and saw that multiple vehicles had spun out and were stuck, blocking the entire road. Even the tow trucks couldn’t get there.
We stopped at Denny’s for dinner and took the long way around 9:00 pm. Got home around 10:40 pm. The road was still closed on my way to work and eventually opened at 9:40 am. It was an interesting adventure for us and the kids. At least we had cell phone coverage and were able to talk to each other 🙂
Here’s a picture of Bailey standing in the snow the next day at the top of Ortega.
