Section 1
Like most trips I didn't plan much logistics. It was December 19th. I had to work that morning for the clothing store in the Rough Valley Mall. We ended up leaving about 12pm from Medford, Or, on our way to La Grande, Or. That's about 500 miles and the weather forecast didn't look awesome. But I didn't have a choice. I promised a friend that was more like a brother, Kevin Oserloh a ride and there was no way in hell I was going to back out on him. I thought we might have to slow down a bit. maybe roll in to the LG at 10pm.
Home for Christmas, and here's the clincher. He wasn't just a friend, He had stage 4 terminal brain cancer. He was given a very short time to live two years prior and was living beyond his limits on nothing but passion. I had off and on been with him through the first time he found out, through the chemo junk, the girlfriend struggles, and life passions with new limitations. I say off and on because in the two years, I either lived 20 minutes away or a few hours or in the same room with him. I hated seeing him fade, and I would have a hard time saying this to a mutual friend of his and me face, but I just couldn't face him sometimes. It broke me. I once fasted 17 days for healing in his life. nothing. I'd have really bad days where I'd cuss God out with WHY questions, even asking God to switch roles, giving me the cancer so Kevin didn't have to have it anymore. I HATED seeing the destruction in his life, and most of all, the slow fade in his eyes.
Section 2
Off we go.
So, I get home, load our stuff in my 1996 Audi A4, 2.8 Front wheel drive. and it's starting to snow. We're not even in the mountains yet. It's rouge Valley. Now it's best that you know a few things about me and Kevin's relationship.
I was tough on him. Earlier on during his cancer struggle I had a serious talk with him while he was eating something organic and I probably had a hot pocket. He said, ''Jon, I don't want you to treat me special. Don't do me any 'oh he's got cancer' favors. Treat me like everyone else and make sure I'm not lazy. So I did. you know what....I kept my promise, but sometimes it sucked. Every time he pulled the cancer card, I was super hard on him. I challenged him, and made him. One day I came home from ministry time and I noticed something was gone...
Kevin's moped.
Oh.. freaking Crap! seriously!? Bad thoughts start to come into my mind. Now, you need to know that Kevin had already had a stroke. He might have only been 21, but the dude operated a little bit like an old man. He could only feel half his body. He probably should have had a cane, but he insisted it was just his swagger. He was loosing his eyesight. So he and I both knew he shouldn't be operating... anything with a motor. I knew he didn't loan it out. It was loaned out one time before and ahh..
Mike Kerlinger happened. The Son-of-a-riot rode it out of the parking lot about 20 feet and nearly killed himself going straight towards oncoming traffic. He didn't know it was so powerful and the murdercycle flipped out in front of him... let's just say that Mike was late for lunch and after that Kevin only let me drive it. haha, Mike, so hilarious.
So this bro was out on the loose, one last ride, riding young and reckless down Roberts road and who knows where else. The bro was probably loving every minute of it. Unbelievable. right when I saw the empty car spot. I stopped, prayed, and asked God that he wouldn't die. right after that I see Kevin, Biggest smile ever, making a right turn around keene way, he went up on and off the sidewalk...oh gosh...please make it 200 more yards! I thought, He was wiggling down the road like that scene from dumb and dumber (one of his fav flicks btw.) He rolled up and I got all Dad Voice on Him.. "Dude what the heak! Are you stupid?!!!! You're gonna get killed! Get off! Give me your keys! Right now..." ,He looks at me with a goofy, satisfied smile. "bro, I's was just...cruisin, ya know..Ha!?"...GIVE ME YOUR FREAKING KEYS!...no smile on my face... I was pissed. After helping him get into the house and getting him on the couch ( the crappy jean colored one) I go up to our room, get his spare keys, his truck keys, and his helmet and hide them.
Section 3
That's how Kevin and I were. He'd push limits because he just couldn't stop loving life because of his circumstances and I'd do what I could to keep him from harm and keep him strong. Many times we would get frustrated with each other.
We get on the freeway and start ascending up towards the mountain pass. Snow is on the ground, I shift down to 4th gear and keep going about 55 mph. During the ride I keep on changing songs before their finished...He hated it and let me know! they he put his music on and I hit the off button. So He goes, why don't you just sing a song, So I start singing a worship song, but I don't ever remember whole songs, so I end up mixing more than one song together and ramble... "Bro you suck! can't you sing a whole song? how much longer we got! I can't wait until I get to Max's. We get up towards Eugene and it's pelting rain, my temperature gauge showed that it was 45 degrees. So I'm flying, like 85mph. We cruise for about an hour and then I notice the temperature gauge drop..ALOT! to like 30 degrees. It's freezing rain now.. and we keep passing accidents on the side of the road, about every mile or two we saw a truck on it's side, a car in the medium, or car pile ups. I start to panic. I pull over to get gas and call my friends who were also traveling the same direction that day. "hey where you guys at?", "what do you mean bro? the freeway is closed! their not letting anyone go through tonight!" and their saying that their going to shut down all the freeways at portland!"
so what do I do... I run in and pay for the gas and get back in the car. Kevin is sleeping. and like always..well. I have a secret. I love going fast. panic mixed with a challenge ahead and a lead foot. It's hailing and freezing rain is coming down. There's a sheet of ice on the freeway. I get crazy. Something came over me, I got this fire in my eyes and leave the gas station dropping clutch, I'm sliding a little bit on purpose and decide that as long as no one stops suddenly in front of me, that I should be ok. I'm doing 75mph in a 55 through salem area and listening to the radio quietly to see if the freeways are still open...I'm getting close to Portland, going super fast and I really...really want this craziness to be OVER!. I now it's snowing...in portland, and that city goes stupid crazy when it snows and they don't have plows. so right before I get to Portland I get a txt message from someone saying the freeways closed. I make a few calls and realize were stuck. We're not even highway 84 but I get ahold of my sister's friends parents and they let me know that we can stay at their house... but the freeway to their house was closed... So were sitting in my car parked on some street off the 205... Kevins awake and I make an executive decision...We're going to their house! It was only like 30 min down the freeway... and the fact that there was a warm cozy house waiting for us rather than my ice covered frozen cold car was a no brainer for me.
I see that the on-ramp has a police check. but really, I'm not thinking straight. I was tired, wired, determined and going crazy. I look at Kevin, and he knows what I'm thinking, He looks at me like I'm stupid, I put my seat up straight, roll start in second gear with my window rolled half way down and come up to the cop standing outside in the cold, yell merry Christmas and speed onto the freeway. There was so much ice on my car that there was no way he could call me in... so i drive all the way to Greshem...on a closed freeway with no one on it on both sides and somehow don't into a wreck or pulled over and we get almost all the way to their house. My car got buried in the snow about a block from their house. We get out and walk in the tall cold fluffy snow and the wind is blowing ice crystals into our face. we get to the door and Scott and Susan, the most adorable couple ever welcome us into their home. It was so icy even going up toward their driveway we both feel down. We get into the house their surprised we even got there. "I thought the roads were closed here?" oh huh really? (lol) "Well angels must have helped us get here." I said and sincerely thought! it was probably about 9pm by the time we got to the house, we chatted a bit and went to bed.
Section 4
The next morning we woke up to homemade breakfast made by Susan. Kevin slept in and I'm on my computer and watching the news trying to find out when the freeways will open..NOTHING is changing... and it's now December 20th. I'm trying to figure out what to do and nothing is working..because we were litterally at a stand still. Not to mention that it kept on snowing and more sections of the road were closed. The only thing I could do was walk from Scott and Susans house to Walmart to buy tire chains. I got picked up by some people in a blue ford truck who took me their and back home. I put the crappy rubber stretch janky chains on car and managed to get it out of the spot I got stuck near the house. I slip and slide out the driveway and went back in the warm house. Susan had made a honey and peanut butter sandwiches for us. Kevin's kinda looking hopelessly ticked that we're still not to our destination yet. but trying to minister to these non christian wonderfully nice people because Kevin couldn't ever stop advancing God's kingdom where we was.
We watched some 3 hour long movie about a guys who were in a concentration camp who dug a tunnel out and some guy escaped on a motorcycle. It was what we had to do. The next morning I got up early and checked online. there was talk and rumor of hwy 14 opening up to four wheel drive drive cars over on the Washington side. It's now Dec 21st. Kevin and I talk and he pretty much looked at me and said, " you promised me!" so we load up, go outside...slide down the driveway and get into the car. We pray this crappy prayer..God! This sucks! get us home.. I'm slidding all over even chains just trying to get on the freeway towards Vancouver. We go across the Columbia river and get on the highway towards Washougal. It's pretty bad. and all the sudden..SNAP! my windshield wipper flies off my windsheild. OH shi...ah...crap!... NO! I go into a gas station and get a new blade that was 30$ (gotta be kidding me!) and while I'm paying the guy asked where I was headed and I said La Grande. He laughed at me. ''In your car? no way sir! the highways closed completely now!" umm thanks... I don't tell Kevin anything besides the fact that they didn't have snack that he annoyingly (rightly so) asked me for.
We Go! at Washougal there's a road block with a cop. I stop and the cop goes, "did you see the signs sir, it's closed, is this 4wd? Now... I have a choice... Do I say, oh it's front wheel drive. I give up... I guess were stuck in this pohdunk town in the middle of nowhere. NO! I freaking lie...The ice is covering up all my decals, so I say, "yeah it's a 1.8T quatro. He says alright we might open it back up for 4wd if we get a plow...So I pull off where all the other cars are... then go around the block and get back on the closed highway. Snow is now so heavy all I see in front of me is white...reflectors on either side of me, and snowfall that's so memorizing that it's harder to drive in than that crazy hypnotic feeling people get when they drive through Nevada Dessert passing the same sage brush plant a thousand times. I couldn't see anything. Kevin starts getting worried, because he really really really can't see. Then it happened!
We were on this two lane highway in the woods in a snow storm. curves and hills and trees make grand opportunities for the snow to make drifts on the road. So...all the sudden as we're going up a mountain. I hit one..my car starts spinning and we spin... all the way back down the hill...we probably span around 15 times sliding like a hockey puck all the way to the bottom and nudge to a stop..It's dark. so Kevin turns on the cab light so I know he's pissed. " bro you suck at driving!" oh like you can do any better? So you want to drive.. He shut up and I felt like a jerk, about 20 seconds go by and I say, sorry. I put the car in reverse, and back up the mountain.. all the way.. tail spinning sometimes and running off and on the road. redlining in reverse we back it up. I lost it at this point. pull the E-brake and start doing cookies (purposely spinning my car) After the crazy release of adrenaline that I needed we get back on the road. I start going in 2nd gear and we creep slowing on this snow blinding road. I was going about 20 mph. for 5 hours. with absolutely no one on the road the entire time. I see a sign that says White Salmon and get super excited because there's a bridge there that crosses over into Oregon...NOPE bridge closed!
Finally! we got to Biggs junction. I'm not sure if the bridge was open or not but we crossed it haha. The I-84 highway truck stop was full of trucks. It was closed going west. Open going east. It was now 9pm. My eyes were burning and I was exhausted. kinda the same feeling people get after you watch all three lord of the rings trilogy. I'm only guessing because I hate those movies. After an hour of driving about 40mph it stopped snowing and I sped up to 50 mph then there was only a skiff of snow on the ground, there wasn't any wind, and it was errie calm and few cars were on the road. We got to my hometown, Pendleton, Oregon at 12 midnight after I had chain break and get wrapped around the inside of my wheel and I had to figure out how to rip it off. As we pull up to my parents house Kevin's like. "are we going to la Grande tonight?" , "no bro!" I'm freaking exhauted!" we went in the house. My parents greeting us and I said we needed to sleep. I got up at 8am the next morning thinking I'd have to go wake up Kevin. Normally we would sleep kinda alot and it would be hard for him to get out of bed.. I went to the guestroom and there we was..READY TO GO. I was like ahh.. good morning. He goes. "are we gonig?" La Grande was only 45 miles away. His family, his friends, his church was so close. It was now just two days before Christmas. My Dad does, hey, you want to drive him over there? ...Now my Dad knows, normally, I love to drive...NO!!! you're driving!
Section 5
it had snowed that night on the mountain pass to La Grande and I knew that if anyone could get there my Dad could. We make it all the way to the top of the mountain when....
BOOM! this guy in a red, ford f150 goes to pass us. He swerved to fast back into the lane and drifted into the snow bank. He goes sideways, then his tires catch and he barrel rolls four times, snow goes flying and all we see is white. we stop and dont get hit. we look back and his windows had all shattered but he's truck landing on it's tires. Everyone inside was fine including the dog. My dad pulled over and called him a tow truck driver. Then we get back in.. drive about 30 more miles and ARRIVE. we walk into the 80 degree house of Maxine. Kara's Mom. This was Kevin's family. we made it! it wasn't easy. but I got him there.
That was Kevin's last Christmas. He died Friday June 12th . 2009. His last words were, "Jesus take all of me." his last meal was Mikes hard lemonade, sushi, and a big train from a local coffee drive though. July 10th I went to the most intimate time of worship I went to in my entire life. It was his memorial service. he planned it himself.
