More Bright Eyes and some crazy weather

Before I say anything further, I should tell you that I'm writing this blog post from the sky! I'm currently on a plane to New York, and they have internet up here! Isn't technology (and the things airlines will cook up to charge you for) amazing? Before I found myself cruising at altitude on facebook though, we did some epic driving, saw some bands and some baseball, experienced some extremely diverse weather conditions, crossed a couple of state lines, and ate some pie. Pretty much a standard weekend here!

First up, a trip to Bend, OR, to see Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie, and Jenny & Johhny. Bend is east of Corvallis, on the other side of the Cascades, but really, who thinks twice about crossing a mountain range in May? It's practically high summer!

Fortunately for our musical plans, it wasn't the daytime eastward crossing that was the problem and we made it to Bend with time enough for these for pre-show dinner:

 

Definitely up there with the best burgers of the trip, from the Pilot Butte drive in restaurant. 

Raccoon investigates

After sustenance, on to the show! First up, the very lovely Jenny & Johnny:

So great to hear the very lovely Jenny Lewis in the flesh again, and after seeing it played live I'm excited to spend some quality time listening to their album.

Next up, Bright Eyes. I was going to try to keep my baser instincts at bay here, but what the hell - here are a bunch of photos of Conor, making some weird hand gestures and being a hot genius:

Finally, Death Cab for Cutie as the sun went down:

Chris Walla has gone and got himself a very adult haircut

The world's best bass player, too rockin' to be in focus

Now, cast your mind back a few paragraphs and recall how I said it wasn't the daytime crossing of the Cascades that was the problem. What was the problem? The problem was that we got into our car at 10 pm, expecting that we'd be able to make the three hour drive home, back through the pass and the forest, with little more than a bit of added caution for wandering elk that might stray onto the highway. Mother nature, forgive us our presumptions! About half an hour into the trip, as the road started to climb, it started snowing, which sounds all very romantic except that it turns out that a light smattering of picturesque snow quite quickly turns into zero visibility and icy, icy roads. Who'd've thought, right? Thoughts of imminent mortal injury preoccupied me so I didn't take any pictures, but I wish I had. If we hadn't been sliding along in a little metal death box, it would have been easy to say that it was insanely, sublimely beautiful.

Because we really did want to live to see the Mariners play the Yankees the following day (I'm flashing forward here, but WORTH IT!), we made a slippery u-turn and fled back to lower ground. Let me tell you, all the motels within 30 miles of the bottom of the pass were making a killing on Friday night, and we were lucky to score the very last room at a Super 8 in Redmond, wherever that is. A few hours of restless sleep later, we were apprehensive but eager to get back on the road - originally, we had planned to be up early in Corvallis so we could drive to Seattle for lunch time, and here we were, stranded 3 hours away from home, with 8 hours of driving and possibly unpassable roads between us and our final destination. Still, better than falling off the side of a mountain, so we decided to suck it up and get some breakfast while waiting for news of the highway. No need to go hungry, after all!

 Coffee - no one's going anywhere without it

 Will we have to live in this diner in the town of Sisters forever?

If we do, it is not altogether a bad thing.

Things tend to look more positive after hash browns, and the online traffic cameras seemed to suggest that the road had been plowed already, so we decided to brave the drive. This time, I remembered to take pictures.

Look at this wintery madness!

Raccoon cam

I must tip my cap to the Oregon Department of Transportation, or whoever takes care of such things, as by 8:30 am, the highway had already been cleared and gritted and was looking quite different to the night before! Speaking of the night before - we were very relieved to discover that we turned around when we did,  because we were just about to hit quite a big slope that I really don't think we could've safely navigated during the storm. Look at it though - a bit hair-raising, but so beautiful:



Happy to report that we made it back safe and sound!

 Back on dryer, greener ground

The first town on the west side of the mountains is called Sweet Home - I think I now understand why!