There’s snow, and then there’s SNOW. That is actually Willie, Elvira, and their truck “Demon” ahead of us in this picture. I’m pretty sure Gypsy flirts with Demon when we are not looking. Pffftt, teenagers! Sometime along this run, Willie called and asked, “Did you see me getting wiggly?”

And I responded, “Nope, too busy with my own wiggle.”

We were both spinning tires and sliding a bit. Fortunately, we were very near an exit with a truck stop, and that was our new home for the night. It was nice to have to immediate validation that we needed to stop. I believe this was also when the temp dropped to -19 degrees. Things are not a joke when it gets that cold.

Another time, I recall Freckles and I on the Snoqualmie Pass in Washington. We had to put tire chains on to make it to a truck stop for the night. The parking lot was organized in the “if it fits it sits” kinda way. The lot was covered in snow, and no parking spot lines were visible. This meant–parking rules? Nope, not today. The next morning, after confirming that we wouldn’t have to throw tire chains, etc., we headed out. We got about 3 miles, and traffic was stopped. Turns out they were creating avalanches with explosives to prevent random, natural, unexpected avalanches. We were stopped there for about three hours.

After a half an hour or so, everybody was pretty much out of their cars stretching their legs and stuff. One of them found out what was happening and shared that they were setting off avalanches to everyone in the vicinity. There were a few kids running around throwing snowballs at each other and generally making the best of it. There was a man in front of us, next to his BMW, having a heated discussion with someone on the phone. He was business casual, dressed really nice. One these kids hurled a snowball at one of the other kids who ducked. This snowball found its way to the business man and hit him right above the belt. I froze, the kid froze, the businessman froze. He turned slowly toward the kid and said into his phone, “Damn it! I will call you back.”

He looked at that kid and asked, “Did you throw that snowball?!?!”

The kid, about nine or ten, I’d guess, said nothing. Just slowly nodded. I didn’t know what was fixing to happen but I hoped he wasn’t going to be mean to this kid. He said, “‘Uh huh, ok, then…”

This man turned his back to us, bent over and came back with his own snowball, and it was on. Next thing I knew, we were all throwing snowballs at each other. There must’ve been 10 warriors, total strangers of all ages, firing snowballs at each other using cars as cover, it was epic. I have never seen anything like that spontaneous snowball fight, and it’s a good memory.