So I don't know how much I have told you about my job other than that I absolutely LOVE it!
We are a non-profit organization and a lot of our monies come from doing fundraisers!
Part of my job entails preparing for and helping out at the fundraisers that we have!
On Friday, December 6th we held the Talent Christmas Auction at the Armory in Ashland
(which is about 40 minutes away from Grants Pass). People had been fretting ALL WEEK
about the snow storm that we were supposed to get but I wasn't worried about it at all -
in fact, Nate & I tend to laugh at people when they freak out about the amount of snow
we are supposed to get because it's not really a snow storm at all - it's just a 'skiff.'
We headed down at about 8:00 on Friday morning and there was no snow on the ground -
everyone was so worried about the attendance for the evening and getting home and the whole
time I was kind of rolling my eyes at them and laughing at them ...
... and then we went to Medford.
Renee & I took the van and headed to Medford (about 10 minutes from where we were)
to gather up a few more things to finish decorating for the event. While we were on our way,
one of our Board Members called and said that the highway from Grants Pass to Medford was
closed due to the snow. We were surprised because it was just lightly snowing at that point.
We did our shopping and about 45 minutes later got back on the freeway to find it packed with
snow and backed up for miles and miles and miles. It took us about over an HOUR to get 8 miles
and we saw cars sliding off the roads, etc. It was CRAZY!! The van that we were in was NOT
equipped for snow and any time we had to slow down our tires would spin out ...
So, to fast forward ... it did end up snowing really hard. After we took our exit back to
Ashland we were stopped yet again at the bottom of a hill, on which the city van had spun
out and was blocking two lanes of traffic. As a result, cars were trying to get up and around
and were spinning out ... we were almost out of gas in a van that would NOT make it up
the hill easily ... so, we did what we had to do ... we parked our van in the Dutch Bros
parking lot, got some hot tea and started hiking up the hill in the snow storm ...
We made it most of the way up the hill when another 'walker' caught up with us ... a kindly
older gentleman who told us that he was going to find us a ride ... he put out his thumb
and almost immediately another kindly gentleman pulled over and picked us up ... so
not only does my job give me lots of fun with kids, but it also gives me hitch hiking experiences
as well ;) (Don't worry, the men were nice and neither Renee or I had any bad feelings or misgivings
about getting in the car with them - besides, we weren't going over 5 miles an hour so we easily
could have hopped out if we needed!!) Anyway - we finally made our way back to the
Armory and finished getting ready for the event!
The room was beautiful and we were all dressed up, decked out and ready to go ...
The only problem was that we had no guests!! Eventually we had a few roll in, but
it was a long night and a lot of hard work for very few people ...
Instead of trying to make it back to Grants Pass in the crazy snow with the awful van
we got a few hotel rooms and ended up staying the night in Ashland! After the event was
over (at about 11:30) we grabbed all of our "necessities" and the five of us slipped and slid
through Ashland as we walked around trying to find the hotel!
I sent this picture to Nate when we arrived at the hotel with the caption 'I'm DONE.'
We all slept restlessly but when we woke up and went down to our continental breakfast
we were greeted with this beautiful sight ...
It was SO beautiful and to be honest, I kind of enjoyed getting stranded in a snowstorm
in the magical wintery town of Ashland - it would have been perfect if Nate had been with me!
Anyway, there is the tale of how I got stranded in a snow storm, hitch hiked and wandered
through Ashland late, late at night with my the funny crazy ladies at the Club!! :)
