Greetings from rainy Ukiah. Its been quite a day. I woke up in Marysville at the Motel 6 and while I was loading the car for the journey up the mountain, the owner came out in his shorts and t-shirt and checked to see if I found the room in good shape. I did, and I gave him the key as a way of checking out. I have nothing else to report from the pre-automotive part of this communication except that gas station pre-paks of Cheerios with a banana and 1/2 and 1/2 are quite good. It was sprinkling as I left Marysville still working out my route in my head. Route 20 to I-80 is the shortest way, but that junction is at about 5000 and the chain requirements on I-80 began at Colfax, around 2000. I had my suit on, and as we discussed yesterday this was an impediment to my installing my own chains. What if I took 20 to I-80 and as this is the route less travelled that made all the difference concerning whether someone would be standing by the side of the road offering to install chains? To avoid this problem I determined to follow 20 to Grass Valley and then take 174 to I-80 at Colfax where there were installers for sure. This plan was reinforced by the snow storm that greeted me at Grass Valley. Snow on the ground, snow in the air, snow on the road. I took what seemed to be the 174 turn off but found myself instead on Dog Bar Road (Mapquest it). It dropped out of the snow storm fairly soon, but it was not a fast road, and for some miles had no signs on it at all. At the low point of this backroad adventure, the road became one lane and crossed a river on a one-lane bridge. I was considering that it might not be paved around the next corner, but as I turned the corner it intersected with a two lane road with a sign pointing to Colfax. I-80 at Colfax was incredible. There were tractor trailer trucks in the parking lane lined up for a couple of miles getting their chains on. At intervals between them were regular cars being chained by people in fluorescent yellow day-glo jackets. The signs said Chains On $30, Off $10. I pulled in at unit 28, got my chains for the guy and within 10 minutes was $30 lighter, and the chains were installed. Only one problem: no snow on the road That continued to be true for at least the next 25 slow noisy miles. How I envied the SUVs with snow tires. Ultimately, the chains were only actually needed for about 5 miles around Donner Summit (7200) and then came a long 5 mile descent into Truckee with no snow on the road. Trucks were dechaining, then trucks and SUVs with snow tires were zooming by at 65. I drove the 5 miles in the parking lane. I was the only person in Truckee with chains on. There was lots of snow piled up, and a little bit in the court parking lot, but I felt foolish, and out of style. A country bumpkin come to the big city. I found the courtroom, confirmed the cases were on the calendar, and stopped in to see the DA. He said the case file was in Nevada City, and he didnt think the Truckee court had jurisdiction any more. After 50 miles of driving on chains, that was depressing. I walked to the Panda Express for lunch. You get rice or chow mien plus two entrees, normally. I just got the chow mien to the consternation of the staff. It was ok. I walked back. My theory was: Of course this court has jurisdiction. Just look at these papers from my file. I had a memo of law for the judge too. He became really interested in the case, got his law book, and spent about 20 or 30 minutes reading it, and putting salient points into the record by reading them and discussing them. If there is a bigger mess than medical marijuana law, it is forfeiture law, but clearly he was having a great time and the more things he found the better time I was having. I tried to console the DA, and I think I was successful. Turned out the court did have jurisdiction and we set a new hearing in 45 days. The DA told me Phil would call me and wed work on the case. I think my sweetie will come to Truckee with me in May, and I imagine there will be no more snowstorms by then. Im looking forward to it. Getting back over the Donner Summit I had a different problem. There was no snow on the road at all. It had all melted, and everyone knew it but me, so everyone else was sans chains going 70 miles an hour while I was crunching down the parking lane at 30 with my chains on. This wouldnt do, so I realized I had to take the chains off. I pulled into an indentation in the 4 wall of snow by the parking lane. First I had to get out of my suit. Ever try to take off a suit in the back seat of a car? Last time I did any clothes removal in the back seat of a car I was in high school and neither of us was wearing a suit. But I managed it, put on my jeans and shirt, and got my Very Warm Jacket and Knit Hat out of the trunk, and a blue tarp to lie on and went to work. I havent used chains in years, and didnt see how the guy put these on. But they had to come off. I got the outside unhooked, and couldnt find a latch on the inside so I decided that the inside would sort of fall off the tire if I moved a few feet. No such luck, it just hung up on the axle. A few more minutes tugging and knocking slush off of it, and I gave up and called AAA. I told them to bring the bolt cutters. They were bureaucratic as usual. It can be annoying when someone in Jamaica or India tries to figure out if Donner Pass is a street or a town, and it took about 15 minutes to get everything worked out. Then a Caltrans guy came by, and showed me how to unhook the inside of the chains, and pulled them off. I thanked him, and called AAA to cancel the call. Ten minutes later I was on hold with them when the CHP showed up and suggested I make the call from the next exit which was a mile down the road. I hung up on the hold and did. Next time I got right through, cancelled and was back on the road in 3 minutes. My luck had changed. Now, some hours later, after a BLT from the Shell station at I-5 and Rt 20, Im safe and sound in the Motel 6 in Ukiah, looking forward to meeting the DA tomorrow morning, then hightailing it to Eureka for my 3 oclock hearing. So, Ill say good night now. Good night, now, to quote Monty Python. I hope your adventures ended well today, as mine did. Pleasant dreams. Ill try and post some pix of snow tomorrow.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 05:23:20 +0000
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