update: We got back from the trip last night. All went well. Drove a total of 1400 miles including around town in Portland. Averaged ~17mpg and ~60mph for the entire trip. Experienced some wild weather all day yesterday with pouring rain, massive standing water, whipping winds in the range of 30-50mph, snow in the mountains down to 2500 feet, etc. The X5 performed flawlessly and carried my family quite safely through some amazingly difficult weather conditions. The scorpion ice and snows were a bit squirely in the heavy pockets of standing water, but not too surprising for a 265 width tire. For whatever reason the E38 is way more stable in wet weather driving. But the X5 was the right tool for this job with a good amount of snow on the road on both legs of the trip. Not to mention we ended up bringing more stuff home than we carried up there, and the X5 was loaded to the gills.

Tomorrow I head up to Tahoe for some skiing - figure I may as well go enjoy the fruits of the massive storm that I struggled through all day yesterday...

__________________
2003 4.6is - SOLD
2003 M5 Imola
2008 Mini Cooper S
2011 Mazda CX9