Journey from the Mountains to the Ocean.

After watching the weather for today, I am sure our loved ones in the West are considering this one of the worst winters ever. I would agree. It has been like 14-26 years since they have been hit time and time again with snow accumulation and cold temperatures.
And we hadn't had Denver family before, so Colorado weather wasnt ever a concern for us.
If a storm would come in high and hit Wyoming then the wind must be blowing in Colorado. Or the jet stream would drop, and Casper would be drought dry and not a drop of snow with wind gusts to 55. Denver would be snowed in. But this year----BodaBING boda BOOM, they are getting it.

And so the saga continues ......... While I was at Mom and Dad's visiting with my Uncle Chuck and Aunt Caroline who drove up from Grand Junction Colorado to wish my dad Happy Birthday, Tim jumped in my moms Buick with new tires and drove a 300 mile round trip to see his mom, sister and brother in law. He faced more bad roads----in my Mom'sprecious Buick which made the ordeal all that more precarious. Its one thing to wreck your own car, quite another to wreck the in laws perfect car.
I want to briefly tell you that my dad's 80th Party on Thursday was only part of the surprise. My sister and I planned an open house stop by for a Cake and Coffee thing on Saturday from 1 -4. We didnt however tell mom and dad. We didnt want mom to think she had to reclean her perfectly clean house and we certainly didnt want to do it. It was a great party. Probably the best one ever thrown by the party planners, and believe me we have thrown some whoppers.
I cant tell the story here though until I get the pictures from my dad's new digital camera. He
has the best pictures of it all. .... check back for that.

So as we prepare to load the car and head for PART TWO of our adventure--SHANNON Santa, and it is snowing in Casper harder than it has for 30 years. Snow is accumulating on the car as fast as we can scoop it off. We borrow a snow brush from dad and as much as he wants us to stay, he is antsy to get us going to make sure we get there safely. There is a guy who knows the importance of being a grampie.
We farewell and are off like a herd of turtles. We slip and slide all the way to the gas station, drive through a white out on outer drive, and can hardly see the exit to the interstate, plow up onto the road toward Glenrock and step right back into our nightmare of 3 days before -not knowing where the road begins or ends.
Tim just shakes his head, and says ok the Gods really do not want us to come back here. We drive on at a steady 17 mph, and at this rate we will be in Denver few seconds before midnight. Elizabeth falls soundly asleep, not because she is tired but because every time her body is squished into a 1 ft by 2 ft space surrounded by backpacks, pillows and jerky ---her defense mechanism instantly kicks in and shuts down her brain. --Thats a great thing to know about your child. There are times I wish I could make it work on her.
Tim is still fighting the steering wheel and vows to get the alignment, brakes and whatever else a dyno can test done to the car as soon as we get to Denver. I am thinking Denver has a 6 foot snow fall on the ground they shoveling out, where in the world are we going to find a Dyno test.

Now since you have been with us from the start of the journey, you are wondering how does this family do it. I am going to get some free advertising in for SIRIUS radio. Thats how we did it. There are over 125 channels and we have 30 preprogrammed. When you are in the dead of no where, you can listen to comedy, news, football games whatever you are in the mood for. When there is nothing left to say about the stinking bad roads, just turn on the radio and all is well.
We drove to Wheatland, for those of you that arent familiar with Wyoming, it has 2 important features, the Sinclair gas station mall AND the orange carrot -When we got to the Wheatland exit, Tim had to stop to get a cup of liquid courage , and do a little last minute Christmas shopping. IT would be unnatural if Tim wasnt shopping at Stop and Go, Mini- Mart, Quickie Mart, or Maverick. This year was no different. I was wondering what he was going to buy us all in here.
He didnt buy a thing, I bought him a shirt he loved. We asked about road conditions and the clerk said they werent too bad and toward Casper( the way we had just come) they were dry, but they were expecting a storm tonight. We didnt have the time or energy to correct her.

We got back into field position and called Son to let him know we were running late, he was cheerfully up lifting saying that was ok, because he just put in our turkey dinner and we had a few hours so just relax it was going to be ok- and remember- after we get to Denver we don't have to leave his house for a week. That guy can find a silver lining like no one I know.
We drive on another 50 miles and suddenly get one dry lane and as a trade off for the improvement we also get wind gusts. We pick up the pace and manage to get back to a cruising altitude of speed limit, and zip--right into Denver where the streets are stacked with SNOW. It looks like Anchorage Alaska.

I want to take a minute to tell you--whenever you are anxious to see loved ones, it seems like any little thing that gets in your way is like a mountain, just like the roads of Thedford keeping us from seeing Mom, dad and Cathy. We are so excited to see Shannon and his parents too, but we are really worried about the side streets and at this point we are thinking we are going to push this car up hill 2 blocks to get to them. I call my dear son to tell him " our car might not make it, we might have to park it at the bottom of the hill and push it " He immediately jumps in his snow boots and offers to walk toward us and carry or push us to his drive way. I think he is pretty happy to be getting company on Christmas eve too. I tell him to hang on, I'll let Tim drive it out as far as he can and maybe we can get closer.
I havent mentioned for a few paragraphs that Tim is a saint. He is . He is the patron saint of snow driving. We really had no traction and he just purred up their hill and Kris had the driveway shoveled dry so we wheeled into the driveway all in one motion. I would love to see an aerial film of that move. WE HAD ARRIVED!!! I could hardly wait to get inside to see my little Cannon. He was anxious to see me to but anticipation had dealt him a dirty hand, he just couldnt wait anymore.
We walked into the most beautiful smell I can describe-A complete turkey dinner with Mashed potatoes and gravy, cheesy biscuits and green bean cassarole. I wanted to cry. Within minutes we were sitting down to a great meal with my favorite conversationalists and that is what Christmas is made of.
When the Cannon awoke, we laughed and played but mostly gave him a chance to get used to his noisy new company. Early that evening we decided to open gifts we got from each other, we drew names and one extra present the Von Trapp Family Hebbert. It was a scream, everyone was happy to get their gifts, and to tell their stories about what hadn't arrived because of the UPS man. We went to bed all warm and snuggly, the stockings are hung on the baby gate with CARE.

We all sat and vegged and watched Cars from the beginning until Shannon got sleepy. The same point that we watched it 7 times that week. It was a great Holiday ---truly one to remember in our family for a long time. I know you dont want this saga to end, so I am adding more detailed chapters of some of the things that happened. But if its the end of the trail for you, just know we had a great Christmas and are back in South Carolina safe and sound, with "Elizabeth the undisputed Gingerbread champion", Shannon just got one drop of purple on the carpet, Lisa did not get a speeding ticket in Tennessee and Tim changed the tires on the car but was told that every front wheel drive car does that in the snow. Thanks for being a part of the experience.

Posted by Tim on Sunday, January 14, 2007 at 11:45 AM | Permalink