Start of our journey

I had basically been getting us ready for three weeks. Slowly packing socks, tees, swimming suits.... as clean items came out of the wash I would tuck them away in suitcases so that there would not be a mad dash to pack at the end.

Slowly, I was trying to take our home that was turned upside down from construction, and try to get it into some order to come home to. (The model home perfectly clean dream was lost a few weeks ago) But at least if we died on the road people wouldn't think we were complete pigs....

The plan was to leave between midnight and 1am Thursday morning. Unfortunately, on Wed midday we heard a big snowstorm was supposed to hit the highway/mtn passes we were supposed to be crossing the next day. We changed our plans to leave asap. (ie: somewhere between 5-7pm) Thankfully we were able to pull it off since most the prep was done early instead of last minute. We pulled out of the driveway at 7pm! whew! Made it.

We stopped for chipotle. We had to eat right? And that was good eating. I was driving. I drove down hwy 115 in a snow storm. It was getting bad. You know when the snow just makes you go crazy trying to focus because you feel like you are driving in a bad space-setting video game flying at warp-speed???

Now we are in a canyon. It is snowing like crazy. There is the Arkansas river on one side of the car, and the opposite direction of traffic and a canyon wall on the other. At this point, all we can see is a few reflector lights on the guardrail next to us. We can't see the canyon. We can't see the road! We can't even see the yellow or white lines on the road. The road is completely covered with snow, but you can't even see tracks to follow because the snow is coming so fast. I feel like people could be dying out here tonight - but Lord willing it won't be us.

We have a GPS. At this point the weather is so bad we are driving blind. Seriously. Patrick watches the GPS while I grip the steering wheel. We have four little lives sleeping behind us. He says "the road curves a little left". I steer the car slightly left. "good, good, now straight" I straighten out.

This continues for about 15 minutes. Absolutely. Terrifying. I never, never, never want to do that again. We get out of the canyon and amazingly, as Patrick takes over the driving, the crazy snow stops.

I - get sick to my stomach. Patrick says it is nerves. Maybe. I think it is from food. Chipotle maybe? I mean, I love them... but maybe, just maybe something was off? Either way, Patrick crosses THREE mountain passes in snow and ice with me periodically making him pull off (on a mountain pass - in the snow and freezing cold) for me to get out of the car in the pitch black to get sick on the side of the road.

Wow. What a great vacation. Woo-hoo! This is fun. So glad I packed and prepared for this...torture. It felt like the dead of night would never end! We finally make it to a town. I see a hotel. I BEG Patrick to stop and spend the night. We do.

Horrible night over, good vacation begins. Thankfully, that first adventure was the only bad one.

This is the view of the end of those crazy mtns we fought with in the night. Good riddins mountains, good riddins!!