BLIZZARD AT TAHOE

++ IT WAS FUN. got into CA on tuesday. left wednesday morning for squaw. snowboarded all day. left for reno to stay at circus circus. it started snowing in reno about 8. woke up the next morning at 7.30. 18 inches on the ground! I-80 was closed at the border. so we waited at the gas station/casino for 6 hours at exit 1. waiting for the highway to open. it didn't. back to reno for a nigght at the sands casino. a whole day and a half at the casino. lost $15. boo on slots. next morning called the nevada road conditions hotline every 15 minutes for a few hours. finally. I-80 is open. jump out of bed. ready to go in 5 minutes. in the car in 8. get to the ca/nv border. yup. highway is open. then it took another 4 hours to go 20 miles to squaw. chains on the whole trip. one of them breaks. thats alright. we can still drive. just 10 mph slower. base of squaw got 36 inches of powder last night. the top had 48. squaw by noon. on the lifts by 1. last run at 4. night ski a few runs. its cold as crap at 6.30 on mountain when the sun isn't up and the wind is blowing 15 mph. to the car! chains still on. although now with two chain link replacements. ah yes. 35 mph again. still gotta get over donner pass. good thing we ate before we left. can't see a car in front of me. can't see a car behind me. actually, now that i'm looking, can't see anything more than 15 feet in front of me. why isn't this highway closed? 30 mph. 25 mph. 20 mph. i think thats the edge of the road. oh. wait. thats definately the side of the road. steer back the other way. ok. well now we've found out how wide the highway is going at 20 mph. just stay in the middle. hour and a half later. i've balls now. i'm going 30 mph. i'm like superman. except i can't keep the snow from melting on my windshield and then freezing on the wiper blades. gotta stop again to chip the ice off the wipers. 20 miles to sacramento. finally! its now longer tons of snow. its now freezing rain and snow. oh yeah. much better. chains off. no more. now its just rain. tick tock. five and a half hours after we left its 11.57pm 31 december 2004. tick tock. there's sf. boom! double boom! must be midnight. goodbye oakland. hello .. treasure island. triple boom. happy new year! and we're stopped. not quite treasure island. not quite sf. oh wow, thats close. many booms. ok, lets go. time to start the new year by sleeping.