Additium: Very White Christmas or Ein Weißer Heiligabend

I actually wrote a blog entry on Christmas Eve or Heiligabend, but due to wilderness there was no internet available. So, here it is.

At the very moment I am sitting on my cozy bed in a lodge in Unions Creek on Highway 62 from Medford to Crater Lake Oregon, Marian’s head leaning on my shoulder, both of us eating pistachios. It is Christmas Eve (or Heiligabend), we have about half a meter snow, the last 50 miles we drove with snow chains and we are really happy to be under shelter right now. Unfortunately in the middle of nowhere, there is neither cell phone reception nor wireless internet. So, we are unable to communicate our save arrival but hope that our beloved ones don’t worry too much.

Today, Marian and I used the newly acquired English saying “Are you kidding me?” several times, what liberally translated means something like “Du kriegst die Tür nicht zu” (You can’t close the door), “Ich glaub’, mein Schwein pfeift” (I believe, my pig whistles), “Ich glaub’, mein Hamster bohnert” (I believe, my hamster is cleaning the wooden floor), generally expressing great disbelief – I think, you got the idea.

In the morning we started from the River Inn Motel in Grants Pass, Oregon, after we enjoyed our little self made breakfast. Apparently breakfast is sometimes included in the board fee and sometimes not. This morning it hasn’t been. But that’s not that big a problem, since the prices per room and night in those accommodations behaves moderately.

Well, we drove over a mountain chain to reach the Jedediah Smith Redwood Tree National State Park. Again, we have been the only visitors and the reason was really obvious. It rained like it would rain in hell if hell wouldn’t burn. But since neither of us is a big sissy (Well, actually I am, since I used skin care for my face in the morning in order to avoid my skin from drying out in the cold. But many men do this nowadays [which apparently is – opposed to its meaning – an outdated word].), we put on our bad weather clothes (thousands thanks to the people that stood nearby when I packed my luggage in Zurich and convinced me to take my ski jacket with me!) and started a hike. As you can defer from the pictures, during this hike we met trees which have been large in magnitude for height, circumference and diameter (of course, if you suppose that the tree is something like a cylinder and you are in possession of the circle number pi, you can convert circumference into diameter, which makes either of them redundant [Yes, the geek is on board!]).

Afterwards we drove to the northern Californian coast which was covered in mist. Although semantically not related, you could call the weather “Mistwetter”, because it was really wet. Nevertheless we took of to a little hike here as well. Then we drove back over the Grant Pass, heading to Crater Lake.

This part of the trip became insanely snowy and after a while we had to put on snow chains. Did I already mention that this freezes your hands off (gloves come unhandy), the closing of the chains is a big headache since they have to fit tightly and working in snow on the fender (Radkasten?) is quite dirty. Then we could continue driving at 20 mph for 50 miles, the last part following a plow. Well, we listened to Christmas carols in the radio and Marian unpacked my fathers Christmas package while I focused on the road and we ate some of its content.

Thanks to my father and all people contributing to this package for the great “Sachsen im Farbbild” book, the “Dresden Quiz” (which made driving in the snow quite entertaining), all the sweets (including the Köstrizer Schwarzbier Pralinen tasting “interesting”), the stuffed Santa Claus and the wooden Christmas figures.

Luckily, we finally reached a lodge in Union Creek which is buried in snow. For a moment I got the car stuck in a snow pile, piled up by the plow, but Marian and the nice man driving the plow pushed the car out of it. Then we entered and offered the people some of our great Dresdner Christstollen, sent to Berkeley by my grandmother (thanks!).

Now is Bescherung.

So, Bescherung is over. Thanks also for the great Moleskine calendar which I just unpacked and that comes quite handy since I used exactly this kind and the current one is about to expire on New Years Eve. Marian gave me great presents too. But unfortunately, I was not as prepared as he was. I hope he does not mind too much since this Christmas Eve covered in snow in the middle of nowhere is memorable itself.

Here are the pictures:

Redwood Forrest and Crater Lake