Old Retired Guy Blog
May 21, 2009
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Back to the Northwest (Page 1/4)[May 12, 2009] We've been looking forward to a vacation for quite some time so when the alarm rang at 4 AM I was up before the snooze alarm had to remind me. The flight from Madison to Minneapolis was right on time and the leg from Minneapolis to Portland was only slightly late due to strong head winds. When we went to pick up our rental car we were told that the only available vehicle in the size we reserved was a PT Cruiser. I don't know about you, but I happen to think that the PT Cruiser is a rather ugly vehicle. The rental agent called around to see if anything else had come in but eventually said our only other option was to get a small SUV for an additional $10 per day. We decided to go with the PT Cruiser. We left the airport and headed towards Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood in our white PT Cruiser. The car rode pretty smoothly but it was quite noisy inside, which hampered conversation, and there were some very bad blind spots, which made changing lanes a challenge. We stopped for lunch at a Subway in Welches. When we finished eating Kathy pointed out a big dark cloud that was heading our way. We were barely on the road again when the snow began to fall. Just before we reached Government Camp we spotted a big electronic highway sign informing us that travelers to Timberline were required to have chains or other traction devices. When we reached Government Camp the snow was really coming down so we pulled off at a rest area. I called Timberline Lodge and told them that we had reservations but our rental car had no chains so we couldn't get there. I asked if there was a shuttle or any other way that we could get up to the Lodge. It turns out that the person I was talking to was at the Timberline office in Government Camp. She asked me to hold for a minute and when she returned she said there was an employee at her office in Government Camp who was just about to drive up to Timberline Lodge and he would give us a ride. We drove over to the Timberline office where we were told we could put our car in a covered parking area behind their building. Then we loaded our things into a big pickup truck and hitched a ride with Richard Evans, the IT and Telephone Director for the Lodge. The snow became even more intense as we headed from Government Camp (elevation 4000') up to the Lodge (elevation 6000'). I was very glad that we weren't trying to drive that in the light PT Cruiser. When we reached the Lodge Mr. Evans even helped carry our luggage to the registration desk. I'm not sure how we'd have gotten up there without this guy's help. I gave him $20 for his trouble.
After we got settled in our room we took a walk in the snow. There weren't many cars in the parking lot. We were told that only about five rooms were occupied that night. Outside the Lodge the heated swimming pool and hot tub were vacant. We talked about trying the hot tub ... later. When the snow finally let up later in the day about 5 or 6 inches of fresh snow had been added to the existing snow pack.
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