Travelling Mercies
Friday night headed up to our youth retreat in Cold Springs, CA. There was a severe snow storm warning in effect.
4 cars and we all split up. We had 4 radio-handhelds but only 2 were really working. Pay attention. This is important. Andrew driving our car had his own snow chains. Earlier that morning, Joshua (one of our teachers) bought chains for the rest of the cars; his own, David's, and the church's mini-van.
It rained the whole way. We passed many accidents and the car I was driving was jam packed to the point where I couldn't see anything. I couldn't just weave in and out as usual but had to stick to the road laid out in front of me.
There were two exits to Mono Way Rd. and I took the wrong one. I ended up in a town and finally realised that I had exited wrongly, pulled over into a parking lot where there is a Kraegens (automotive parts store), called Andrew, confirmed I was in the wrong place, turned around and got back on the highway.
Then it began to snow big time. Visibility was limited to 300 ft. in front of you and I only knew that Andrew, David and Joshua were ahead of me. If you have a screen saver that looks like you're flying through space on the USS Enterprise, then that?s exactly what it looked like to us too. Huge white flecks of snow at 9:45pm flying at you.
People pulled over to the right to put on chains. I believed we could keep going. After all, I am Canadian.
We turned a corner and to our left, a local bar and inn was carved into the corner of the mountain. To our right, Joshua, pulled over to put on his chains. I decided to pull over to make sure everything was ok. If he was putting on chains, I might as well too. 10miles to go.
Began to put on chains but a very aggressive woman cops yelled out her squad window to warn us to pull over to a safer place to do this. If not, she'd have us towed. Should've had her tow us right then and there.
We pulled into the parking lot of the inn, Confidence Inn, with Josh and proceeded to put on tire chains. Lo and behold the chains for mine were way to big. Truck chains. Josh's were way too small.
What happened? Josh thought these chains were one size fits all. Jeff went with him to purchase the chains and questioned this but was rebuffed with, "One size fits all."
I convinced Josh that we could make it there without chains. I'm Canadian after all. He complied and we made it only 100 ft from the inn when he started sliding sideways. I found out later that he had slammed on the break and pulled his emergency break. This is a big no-no in snow unless you want to drift on purpose. Regardless, his tires were bald and there was no way he'd make it.
He tried to turn around and hit a snowbank, popping his bumper off his car. It's ok, he popped it back on.
12:am - We got back to the inn and tried to call everyone else to see how they were doing. Turns out NO ONE had reception except for me. the Blackberry on 2 bars of battery. I called Captain James and told him the situation and got permission to do whatever it was necessary to make sure our youth were safe.
Turns out Josh's car was the one car with one of the working radios. We tried to radio the other group. David. His radio was the only other one working. He was 1 mile down the hill from us and had the wrong sized tire chains and had fishtailed so much that he ended up hitting a snow bank with his camry as well. The same cop had pulled over and told him that he needed to move or else she'd get him towed. So for 100 bucks the tow truck pulled him up to where we were.
I called American Express to see if my card coverage would help us and it turns out that it didn't but they called around to all the tow companies in the area to find the best price and lead time to tow ourselves and the youth. We got a hold of a company but no one could move all the youth as well.
Meanwhile at the retreat center. Andrew had made it, checked in and was waiting around for us. He is Canadian after all. They found out that the place had free wi-fi and zero phone service. The one other guy with a blackberry was Jeff and he was with Andrew. He was also the only one with wi-fi capabilites on his blackberry. They decided to call and managed to get through to only me.
I explained the situation and Andrew had to wake up the night shift guy who had to wake up the park director, asking for some way to get back to Confidence Inn and pick up everyone to get them safely to the park.
12:45 am - David, all the youth in his car + 1 from my car got towed to the park.
1:00am - Andrew calls the Inn to talk to us because he knows my battery is low. The bartender comes outside to let us know. Andrew said he'll wait for David and then he'd come for us.
1:20am - the tow truck came, picked up Josh, his car and a drunk man asking us for a ride up the mountain (dude, we're stranded too!). 3 people his car joined the 3 of us in my car and we waited for Andrew to come pick them up. If we had even one more person we couldn't have stayed in that van.
1:30am - Same cop pulls over to see if we're ok. AMEX calls to make sure we're ok. My battery dies shortly after.
2am - Andrew arrives and picks up our youth, sleeping bags and bags and heads over to Jenness Park. He gave me his and David's car tire sizes. Turns out Andrew left his chains at home by accident. He was using them as a weight and forgot to put them back in the trunk.
2:10am - Josh arrives back with the tow truck, we get the van towed over to his car to get the tire size and the driver then took us back into that little town. He asked where I wanted to be dropped off. I said the closest auto part shop. Kraegens preferably. Turns out that the closest shop WAS a Kraegens and it was the one I had turned around at just hours before.
3:30am - end up at Kraegens, pay the tow truck guy, look for a vacant motel, Josh & I crashed in it but I had none of my stuff so I got to sleep in my already wet jeans from all the slush and snow.
10am - go to Kraegens and purchase chains. 300 bucks for all 4.
11am pick up Josh's cars, put on chains and drive
12pm made it to Jenness Park
1pm retreat program begins finally
TRAVELLING MERCIES
Despite the wrong chains and snow storm warning, the next best thing happened.
If I hadn't pulled over, we'd have had no way of contacting one another and would have been even more in trouble.
The only phone with wi-fi made it to the retreat center with the Canadian who could actually make it to the center despite snow and lack of chains.
I pulled over at Kraegen's earlier so I knew where to go and what to do.
The only two people with radios were able to contact one another while I was with them.
All youth made it to the retreat center safely.
Total cost of one night of mayhem:
$150.00 original chains from WalMart wrong size and NOT one size fits all
$300.00 David's car gets towed to Jenness Park
$300.00 Josh & Kim's car get towed to snow line
$100.00 Motel
$300.00 New chains for all 4 cars
$ 0.00 for exceptionally great AMEX customer service
$1150.00 In lessons well learned and complete humbleness for God's Travelling Mercies
4 cars and we all split up. We had 4 radio-handhelds but only 2 were really working. Pay attention. This is important. Andrew driving our car had his own snow chains. Earlier that morning, Joshua (one of our teachers) bought chains for the rest of the cars; his own, David's, and the church's mini-van.
It rained the whole way. We passed many accidents and the car I was driving was jam packed to the point where I couldn't see anything. I couldn't just weave in and out as usual but had to stick to the road laid out in front of me.
There were two exits to Mono Way Rd. and I took the wrong one. I ended up in a town and finally realised that I had exited wrongly, pulled over into a parking lot where there is a Kraegens (automotive parts store), called Andrew, confirmed I was in the wrong place, turned around and got back on the highway.
Then it began to snow big time. Visibility was limited to 300 ft. in front of you and I only knew that Andrew, David and Joshua were ahead of me. If you have a screen saver that looks like you're flying through space on the USS Enterprise, then that?s exactly what it looked like to us too. Huge white flecks of snow at 9:45pm flying at you.
People pulled over to the right to put on chains. I believed we could keep going. After all, I am Canadian.
We turned a corner and to our left, a local bar and inn was carved into the corner of the mountain. To our right, Joshua, pulled over to put on his chains. I decided to pull over to make sure everything was ok. If he was putting on chains, I might as well too. 10miles to go.
Began to put on chains but a very aggressive woman cops yelled out her squad window to warn us to pull over to a safer place to do this. If not, she'd have us towed. Should've had her tow us right then and there.
We pulled into the parking lot of the inn, Confidence Inn, with Josh and proceeded to put on tire chains. Lo and behold the chains for mine were way to big. Truck chains. Josh's were way too small.
What happened? Josh thought these chains were one size fits all. Jeff went with him to purchase the chains and questioned this but was rebuffed with, "One size fits all."
I convinced Josh that we could make it there without chains. I'm Canadian after all. He complied and we made it only 100 ft from the inn when he started sliding sideways. I found out later that he had slammed on the break and pulled his emergency break. This is a big no-no in snow unless you want to drift on purpose. Regardless, his tires were bald and there was no way he'd make it.
He tried to turn around and hit a snowbank, popping his bumper off his car. It's ok, he popped it back on.
12:am - We got back to the inn and tried to call everyone else to see how they were doing. Turns out NO ONE had reception except for me. the Blackberry on 2 bars of battery. I called Captain James and told him the situation and got permission to do whatever it was necessary to make sure our youth were safe.
Turns out Josh's car was the one car with one of the working radios. We tried to radio the other group. David. His radio was the only other one working. He was 1 mile down the hill from us and had the wrong sized tire chains and had fishtailed so much that he ended up hitting a snow bank with his camry as well. The same cop had pulled over and told him that he needed to move or else she'd get him towed. So for 100 bucks the tow truck pulled him up to where we were.
I called American Express to see if my card coverage would help us and it turns out that it didn't but they called around to all the tow companies in the area to find the best price and lead time to tow ourselves and the youth. We got a hold of a company but no one could move all the youth as well.
Meanwhile at the retreat center. Andrew had made it, checked in and was waiting around for us. He is Canadian after all. They found out that the place had free wi-fi and zero phone service. The one other guy with a blackberry was Jeff and he was with Andrew. He was also the only one with wi-fi capabilites on his blackberry. They decided to call and managed to get through to only me.
I explained the situation and Andrew had to wake up the night shift guy who had to wake up the park director, asking for some way to get back to Confidence Inn and pick up everyone to get them safely to the park.
12:45 am - David, all the youth in his car + 1 from my car got towed to the park.
1:00am - Andrew calls the Inn to talk to us because he knows my battery is low. The bartender comes outside to let us know. Andrew said he'll wait for David and then he'd come for us.
1:20am - the tow truck came, picked up Josh, his car and a drunk man asking us for a ride up the mountain (dude, we're stranded too!). 3 people his car joined the 3 of us in my car and we waited for Andrew to come pick them up. If we had even one more person we couldn't have stayed in that van.
1:30am - Same cop pulls over to see if we're ok. AMEX calls to make sure we're ok. My battery dies shortly after.
2am - Andrew arrives and picks up our youth, sleeping bags and bags and heads over to Jenness Park. He gave me his and David's car tire sizes. Turns out Andrew left his chains at home by accident. He was using them as a weight and forgot to put them back in the trunk.
2:10am - Josh arrives back with the tow truck, we get the van towed over to his car to get the tire size and the driver then took us back into that little town. He asked where I wanted to be dropped off. I said the closest auto part shop. Kraegens preferably. Turns out that the closest shop WAS a Kraegens and it was the one I had turned around at just hours before.
3:30am - end up at Kraegens, pay the tow truck guy, look for a vacant motel, Josh & I crashed in it but I had none of my stuff so I got to sleep in my already wet jeans from all the slush and snow.
10am - go to Kraegens and purchase chains. 300 bucks for all 4.
11am pick up Josh's cars, put on chains and drive
12pm made it to Jenness Park
1pm retreat program begins finally
TRAVELLING MERCIES
Despite the wrong chains and snow storm warning, the next best thing happened.
If I hadn't pulled over, we'd have had no way of contacting one another and would have been even more in trouble.
The only phone with wi-fi made it to the retreat center with the Canadian who could actually make it to the center despite snow and lack of chains.
I pulled over at Kraegen's earlier so I knew where to go and what to do.
The only two people with radios were able to contact one another while I was with them.
All youth made it to the retreat center safely.
Total cost of one night of mayhem:
$150.00 original chains from WalMart wrong size and NOT one size fits all
$300.00 David's car gets towed to Jenness Park
$300.00 Josh & Kim's car get towed to snow line
$100.00 Motel
$300.00 New chains for all 4 cars
$ 0.00 for exceptionally great AMEX customer service
$1150.00 In lessons well learned and complete humbleness for God's Travelling Mercies
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