Flurries of Doom
Nov. 26th, 2006 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walbournThat could've gone a lot better, but it also could've been much worse.
I headed up to Vancouver B.C. today to have dinner with a recent friend and visit a developer through Wednesday. I had a late lunch and got on the road around 2pm. The traffic was crazy dense thanks to a stunning number of people from up north who came south for Thanksgiving and were now heading home. 40 miles took 2+ hours, and then I-5 northbound came to a dead stop 20 miles south of Bellingham. We moved maybe a mile in the next hour. I exited the first chance I got, drove some terrifying back roads with images of my freezing to death in the rural countryside due to spinning out in my car, and finally came out in Bellingham around 8:30pm where I stopped to buy some cat liter in case I got stuck.
The good news: Thanks to the combination of a jack-knifed semi-truck, a large fallen tree over the highway, and numerous spun-out vehicles and related driver stupidity, everyone was still stuck on I-5 northbound south of Bellingham and the wait at the Peace Arch had fallen from 45 minutes+ to less than 5 by the time I crawled my way up there through the blowing snow flurries. Another harrowing 45 minutes driving through Canada and downtown Vancouver with a short stop for a sammich, and I finally arrived at my hotel at close to 10:20pm. That makes it something like 8 hours for what should take maybe 3. Ouches.
Of course it is quite likely that the company I'm planning to meet with might not even have anyone come in thanks to the inclimate weather. I had to cancel my dinner plans with my friend, but hopefully we'll manage something later this week during my stay. At least the hotel is nice, although the water in downtown Vancouver is not safe to drink thanks to some heavy rainfall a few weeks back.
I hope things back in Seattle are a lot less nasty. I'm grateful for making it through such a nasty storm without incident, and for the hotel still having power and free internet.
I headed up to Vancouver B.C. today to have dinner with a recent friend and visit a developer through Wednesday. I had a late lunch and got on the road around 2pm. The traffic was crazy dense thanks to a stunning number of people from up north who came south for Thanksgiving and were now heading home. 40 miles took 2+ hours, and then I-5 northbound came to a dead stop 20 miles south of Bellingham. We moved maybe a mile in the next hour. I exited the first chance I got, drove some terrifying back roads with images of my freezing to death in the rural countryside due to spinning out in my car, and finally came out in Bellingham around 8:30pm where I stopped to buy some cat liter in case I got stuck.
The good news: Thanks to the combination of a jack-knifed semi-truck, a large fallen tree over the highway, and numerous spun-out vehicles and related driver stupidity, everyone was still stuck on I-5 northbound south of Bellingham and the wait at the Peace Arch had fallen from 45 minutes+ to less than 5 by the time I crawled my way up there through the blowing snow flurries. Another harrowing 45 minutes driving through Canada and downtown Vancouver with a short stop for a sammich, and I finally arrived at my hotel at close to 10:20pm. That makes it something like 8 hours for what should take maybe 3. Ouches.
Of course it is quite likely that the company I'm planning to meet with might not even have anyone come in thanks to the inclimate weather. I had to cancel my dinner plans with my friend, but hopefully we'll manage something later this week during my stay. At least the hotel is nice, although the water in downtown Vancouver is not safe to drink thanks to some heavy rainfall a few weeks back.
I hope things back in Seattle are a lot less nasty. I'm grateful for making it through such a nasty storm without incident, and for the hotel still having power and free internet.
