This past week we have been hit by some pretty good storms and it rained off and on all week long down here in Loma Linda. The rain was great and made me miss Washington. Along with the rain, the storm also brought a lot of snow to the surrounding mountains. The last five days brought over 4 feet of that white stuff that dreams are made of. As you can imagine, both Jen and I were itching to get up there all week. Unfortunately school and work keep getting in the way of all of our fun and adventures. On Friday I was lucky enough to get out of school early and head up snowboarding with a friend of mine from class. The snow was amazing by Southern California standards, but pretty much normal for anywhere else. It was pretty funny to see all the "Bros" driving their huge lifted trucks up there and still having to put chains on them because their trucks look tough but cant handle a little snow on the road. It was still stormy and snowing on Friday so not many people went up to the resort, but today, Saturday, was an entirely different story.
Jen and I decided that we would wake up early to beat the crowds and be waiting in line when they turned on the chairs lift, but it didn't work out. We did wake up early and leave with what we thought was plenty of time. The drive that normally takes us less then an hour, took nearly 3, and the majority of that time was the last 10 miles. A lot of people had the same idea as Jen and I, to get up there early. The delays in the driving was not helped by the geniuses who would stop on the highway to put their chains on so that they could use them to drive on slush and bare asphalt. (Southern Californians do no know how to drive in snow, or even rain) When we were only about 3 miles away from the resort, we were passing a car that was pulling over to the side of the road and I saw a lady in a Mt. High coat standing in the road. The lady gave me a thumbs up, and since I thought she was trying to keep me stoked and let me know that I was almost there and that I shouldn't let the traffic bum me out, I gave her a thumbs up back. She started walking to the back door of the car when I realized that I had just signaled to pick up a hitchhiker. Our new friend was a pretty friendly lady, but she reeked of cigarette smoke and had the nastiest cough. She definitely has COPD. After being in the car for nearly 3 hours I really had to urinate, the urge was getting so bad and were going so slow, that if the COPD lady wasn't in the car with us, I would of urinated into an empty bottle. As we were getting about a mile away from the resort, everyone was parking illegally on the side of the highway because the parking lot was entirely full. Luckily for us, karma was on our side. Our new friend, COPD lady, was able to get us into the employee parking lot and we snatched up some front row parking, while everyone else had to walk to the resort. It pays to help people out, even if that wasn't your intention. The snow was great and we had a lot of fun riding through the trees and doing powder slashes. On the way home we saw a lot of funny stuff, the highway was lined on both sides with cars and everyone just wanting to play in the snow. I saw a Mexican boy sledding on a boogie board, and people sledding down hills that ended right on the freeway, it was like a circus. Days like these make me anxious to move out of Southern California.
