Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006, My Turn • Writer says blah

Publisher’s note: This My Turn originally appeared in the Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006, edition of the Lassen County Times.

It’s amazing how different the weather can be when my car thermometer says it’s 32 degrees outside.

I got a graphic demonstration of that variety 10 days ago on my drive back from Chico. I dropped off my one-weekend-a-month roommate at her Highway Patrol officer friend’s house off Bruce Road.

She is a master’s degree student at Argosy University – San Francisco Bay Area, and actually lives in Magalia. I drop her off in Chico because taking her all the way home would add more than an hour to my trip.

I’m already not going to get home until after 11 p.m. After two, eight-hour days in class and a four-hour drive, I just can’t see driving up the hill to Magalia.

On the way to drop her off in Chico, I got a call from my daughter telling me it was snowing in Susanville. My roomie called her friend in the CHP, and he looked up road conditions on the Caltrans website. There were no restrictions in place at 8 p.m.

By the time we got to Chico, however, chains or snow tires were required on single-axle vehicles from three miles east of Westwood to just past Fredonyer Summit, one of the area’s notoriously dangerous roadway segments in winter weather.

Since I wasn’t towing a trailer, I wasn’t worried. It’s probably a good thing I couldn’t see the satellite weather picture.

When I turned from Bruce Road onto Highway 32 toward Forest Ranch, it was raining heavily and I knew from experience the rain did not bode well for conditions on the 25-mile, twisty-windy part of the highway just before the turnoff to Highway 36 west of Chester.

Sure enough, about five miles up the road, the outside thermometer in my car dropped from the low 50s down to 35 degrees, which doesn’t necessarily mean snow.

But shortly thereafter the thermometer dropped to 32 and stayed there, almost as though it was stuck, until I passed the turnoff to Eagle Lake. I didn’t get there until the next day.

Not long after the mercury (though there really wasn’t any on the digital thermometer inside my car) dropped to 32, the rain started to freeze. But it didn’t turn into anything like the deadly frozen rain I used to experience as a Kansas resident.

About eight miles into the twisty-windy part of Highway 32, it started to snow and the thermometer’s green glow in the dark still showed 32 degrees.

I’m like a little kid when I see the first snow and much more like an adult who has to drive as the winter wears on. I especially love the way the snow looks on the pines between Susanville and Deer Creek and I’ve had moments of spontaneous worship when the light is just right. But all it takes is a slight slip of the back tires and I have moments of spontaneous panic instead.

After I experienced that panicky feeling, like someone pouring ice water down all the veins from the back of my head to my toes, I slowed down to about 12 miles an hour and did my best not to grip the steering wheel and hurt my already tense shoulder muscles.

Somehow, I thought that once I got to the turnoff to Highway 36, the snow would stop and it would be clear. This delusion may have been due to the time, which was now approaching midnight. Snow covered Highway 36, which was somewhat worse driving than Highway 32, but without the dark and hungry-looking precipice into Deer Creek Canyon.

I wasn’t going to be home by 11:30. I seriously considered calling friends in Westwood to see if I could stay overnight, because at this point, my eyes were closing frequently of their own volition, in other words, without my permission at all.

I thought about stopping at the new Rose Quartz Inn in Chester, but decided to try to push through at least to Westwood. The hill right before the rest stop two miles east of Chester had other ideas. Half way up the RPM guage in my car was up to 5, but I was going nowhere.

My guardian angel was watching out for me as I turned my car, with the help of some strategic slides I can’t take any credit for, and headed back to Chester. It was totally dark when I got back into town, and though I was really tired, I was pretty sure it hadn’t been that dark 10 minutes earlier.

After I slushed through the snow with ice sneaking into the back of my clogs, it was warm in the inn and a collection of battery-powered lanterns made a cheery glow on the counter. Though he apologized that the power was out and there was no heat, I assured the night manager it would be warmer than my car, especially with the extra blanket he handed me.

Sometime around 1:10 a.m. I looked up from my cocoon of blankets and noticed from the red glow that the alarm clock was working. I knew the power was back on, but I didn’t have the energy to get out of bed and turn the heater on.

In the morning when I headed back to Susanville, the thermometer was still stuck at 32 degrees, and I started to suspect it was broken. Then, just past the road to Eagle Lake, I looked down and saw the green digital 35, and I’ve never been so happy to break out of a freezing rut.

I was glad to be home. I’m still wondering about that car thermometer, though. Can it really be raining, sleeting, snowing and then deadly icy and still be 32 degrees in four different places? Of course, the answer is not a problem with my car thermometer. The answer is: Of course, it can in Northeastern California!