Journey from the Mountains to the Ocean.

Dear Friends,

I am just about ready to say good bye to this blog.

We have been unable to access this blog for almost a month due to new upgrades new versions and unverified passwords.

We have friends and family that use xanga, it seems much faster much easier and their pictures and hot links are alot more fun.

I am so frustrated with this one I cant even tell you. Tech help if you can hear me you should be answering your cell phone.

Posted by Tim at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments

I hated to leave you hanging on the outcome of the 1st annual Hubba Hubba Hebbert Gingerbread House competition.
We had to enthusiastic competitors, who brought their individualism as well as special talents for the dramatic to the contest.

The rules were to create a house of gingerbread in 6hours not including baking time.

They could use any candies or fondant decorations they wanted. THe judges were tough on them, and were looking for exact replication, taste, content, and overall theme.

Elizabeth chose to do the Bilbo Baggins home in the shire.


Tamara chose the set of "Lost" including the polar bear.


These two novice competitors did an Amazing job. Look at the detail. Although Elizabeth was given harsh criticism of her coconut grass roofing, the overall shape of her structure was fabulous.


Tamara recieved 1 judges negative remark for having 2 propellars on her plane, but I feel that particular judge really overlooked her talent for pixy stick, sand and carmel airplane seats. Next year I think we may invite guest judges who are not out to score any vendettas.

As they say at every academy award program, Its an honor to be nominated, The First prize and 2nd prize scores were only 1/100th of a point apart. Elizabeth did win a shopping spree to her favorite store, and Tamara won a gift certifcate to her favorite store. As it as often be said, many times many ways, Merry Christmas, there are no losers in our contests.

Posted by Tim at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments

If you are a college basketball fan I am sure you didnt miss this game.
If you can find a better video of this shot would you send me the website. This is all I can find and I wanted Tim is to see the player faulter. This video is good but not the one I saw originally and I cant find it now.
http://big-12-basketball.aolsportsblog.com/2007/01/17/byron-eaton-knows-magic/


The game was indescribable but my favorite part is this shot. The game was so hot ESPN dubbed it an INSTANT ClASSIC and played the whole thing through again.

I thought it was the last second of the game and Ok won it with the shot, so I had Tim watch the entire game, all 3 overtimes to the last second waiting for this shot, as he was flipping through channels.

It wasnt there and I thought ESPN had robbed me, but the shot was made in regulation and I had missed it.

This was only a minute part of an amazing game.



http://big-12-basketball.aolsportsblog.com/2007/01/17/byron-eaton-knows-magic/

Posted by Tim at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments

The Ford Motor Company has great insight. They installed in all their models a tiny reminder to impeach Cheney.

Its the gaslight. Its the little orange light that comes one when you tank is getting low. It tells you that you have 2.1 gallons left in your tank.
With mine there is a little beep. ONCE. when it first comes on, thats the "please zero your odometer" button so you will know when you have driven 21 miles past the light and you are about to be pushing this car to the side of the road.

My car gets 29 miles to the gallon straight up. All things being linear I could actually go 58 miles on my gas light. I have only gone 21 by myself.
In Tim's car, he has gone to 32 miles passed the light, but was noticeably shaky when he stopped to refuel. He drives the more spirited ZX3 version, but gets 33 miles to gallon if he doesnt use his Nascar moves.
Kristopher drives the ZX5, manual transmission, he didnt get the light- he has to use the old fashioned gauge and suggests you dont drive passed the redline, before he has to back down the hill to the babysitters so she can bring him a gas can.
Tamara and Elizabeth drive Dodge Neons. Their cars share a much friendlier approach to the gas light. First they beep when the light comes on, and the girls report they can continue about 20 more miles but neither woman has zeroed their odometers, ( they just guess) then, little light beeps twice when they start the car, meaning and they interpret that to say--"Ladies, you should probably get some gas today if you are planning on going very far." And finally the step that both girls have reached is -- A continual beep which must be quite a motivator because both girls IMMMEDIATELY proceed to the station. ****** Please note, neither one has ever Run completely out of gas and required rescue.

You think that I would want to impeach Cheney because I ran out of gas.
YOU WOULD BE RIGHT.
Hebbert's lives have been submerged in the oil and gas industry. We have built our little empire upon this dangerous business. So consider this INSIDER information.
When ONE barrel of oil is sold for every dollar above $37.00, this oil company profits. So if its "down" to 52.00 a barrel, CEO's like this have compounded their money 15 times, a day.
Now I know that seems like an impossible number--------its huge.

And you say"but it costs a lot to run an oil company." I truly disagree, because I know its quite cheap to cook it, clean it, package it and ship it. Oh yeah, it cost a bit in death case liabilities, and EPA fines but really those costs are low compared to what it would cost to make refineries safe and create clean water and air around them. --Now thats good business.

Good business, is when your customer benefits so much that they continually buy your product, without intimidation. I refer to the Hurricane Katrina gas shortage, the Exxon gas line leakage, and the need for exploration off of our beautiful eastern coastline. Keeping us in fear will create a buyer that needs a product but doesnt know why. I think there is an animal like that--Sheep.

I think he should be impeached because Gas should be 35cents a gallon. There is no shortage, there wont be a shortage either. Everyone could afford to go to work, to travel and to transport food to impoverished nations. Perhaps we could solve the hunger problems in Africa, India and Costa Rica. With that kind of profit I am sure we could end the greenhouse gas fears, we could humans taking care of each other and our planet and perhaps my greatest dream, prescriptions would only cost 10$ no matter what it is and what disease its curing.

Posted by Tim at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments

My friends always ask me for a funny Shannon story.
Heres the one for Christmas.

Shannon was lucky enough to get a brand new box of crayons as well as a new pad of paper to draw on.

One day while we were snowed in and tired of knifty knitting, Shannon and I decided to color a picture. We carefully opened the box and he chose green, then blue and instead of letting him have all of them I chose to "trade off each color" and it was going pretty well.

In the meantime while we were exchanging, the rest of the family wanted to get out of the house and go to mall before Kris has to leave for work. So everyone except Shannon and I, began to get ready. I kept Shannon pre-occupied while they got dressed and ready. This was going pretty well until Shannon decided to carry the purple crayon in his mouth. The faster I moved to grab it the faster he ran away from me. So I pulled the old "bait and Switch." Trade Rupert for the crayon. No deal! I up the ante, Rupert and two hotwheels cars. Ok now he is interested and I notice his lips are sort of a purple blue color and the crayon is turning to mush in his mouth. I make the swap and grab the gooey extra large purple projectile before he swipes his way down the side of Mom and Dad's new couches. But as I grab it a little tiny globule ( the size of a pencil eraser falls to the carpet and as I try to pick it up, it smears and is getting worse the more I try to scrub it. I revert to my childhood and the trick my own son would do---I put the hot wheels race track over it and act as though it never happened. I hide the purple gob, but I still feel as though I have saved the day. Let the couches live yet another spot free day.
At this moment, Kris comes to take Shannon to get dressed. I notice Shannon seems to be chewing on something and Kris innocently says," whats he snacking on?" I answer rather easily, " Purple crayon, dont worry they are non toxic, but I just barely saved your couch." He gives me the standard, " Mom I have no idea what you are talking about, but ok."

Pretty soon, as I am getting my shoes on, I hear Kris call to Tamara in that I am almost going to panic way, Tamara come here. I hear her move at lightening speed and then run into the bathroom, water running, Tamara runs back to Shannons room.
I polite ask," Is everything ok?"
No, Mom everything is not ok. Look at this, Shannon comes out of his room in his fathers arms, With Shannon holding his toothbrush in his mouth.
Kris says, " Show Grammie your toothbrush," and there is the prettiest purple toothbrush with a hunk of purple crayon on the end of it.
I cant help but laugh, but Father is not laughing. Its only 2 more days until we leave but I have this feeling that maybe we should start packing now.
Whats a little purple crayon in the digestive track anyway. Yummy. and again, atleast the couches are safe.
And then I find out theres another rule I have been breaking. He is not suppose to get up on the coffee table and dance, especially in socks.
EGAD No purple crayon snack, no dancing---
how can I remember all these rules?

Posted by Tim at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments

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 at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments

Heading into Thedford Nebraska, the entire car is filled with tension. The car continues to try to swap ends, Tim is fighting every turn of the tires to keep us straight and we realize we have left civilization without any water, ( the biggest no-no of all), we have no cell phone service, I am not sure if Kristofer heard all of our last conversation and knows where we are headed, and even though on the map the towns are only a minute distance of 7 or 8 miles apart, alot can happen in those miles and thats a long way to walk. Things look pretty grim.

As we pass the Welcome to Thedford sign, I glance over to the left and see a beautiful BIG horse running full speed down a hill through the sage brush toward the road we are on. It is so surreal I say to Tim, " Hey are you seeing that horse running toward us?" He says Oh yeah, but I dont think that gate is open so he will slow down here in a minute. " As we pass the gate we both realize it is open as did the horse who is now heading dead straight toward the snowpacked trail we are all on. Tim glances up at his rear view mirror just in time to see another Walmart Semi behind us, which is just about to collide with the horse. Tim yells," Dont look, dont look this is going to be terrible", just as I look in my side mirror. To see a horse galavanting through the prairie, making a wide angle turn and coming back up onto the road to run ALONG SIDE the Walmart Truck.
At this point we see the Greater Thedford Shopping Emporium, Grocery Store, Bank and Post Office and VOTE to pull in there to tell someone about the runaway horse as well as get some water, some directions and some weather news.
As soon as we can peel Tim's hands off the steering wheel, we go inside and tell the Nicest Ladies about the horse on the loose. By the time we have described where we saw them, Nadine is on the phone calling Holisters, " Your damn horse was out again, Buck left the gate open. Almost kilt a Walmart driver." Then turning to us, " Is this water all you need?"
She has no idea. Actually we need to know what the roads are like toward Whitman? She says,
Oh they are really bad, you just came over the only roads that have been plowed and sanded?
We had an icestorm here last night and it was really bad. "

It is now 3:10 on Thursday, I doubt we are going to make it for Dad's Dinner, and I dont know how much longer Tim can take these bad roads. We can't go back and we just came 21 miles and I am trying to remember if I even saw a drop of sand? Through the love in his heart, Tim says "Well, lets get going- we dont want to be out here when it gets dark."

We try to jump in the car with loads of enthusiasm, but it was just sheer terror . The driveway out of the store was sanded and plowed and that was the last of the sand and plowing we saw.
As we head down the road, Tim and I start to discuss the reason the car wont stay parallel to the road. This is really unusual. We drive about 8 miles and we are averaging a blazing 8 mph and its getting worse. Tim feels that it might be a brake locking up on the right rear. We " pull over" and jump out and the wheel wells are PACKED with snow. After suiting up in all the outerwear we can possibly find, I had two hats on and Tim had 2 coats, we jump back out with the only tools we have with us to dig the snow out from around the tires. ---A tablespoon from home and Tim's pocket knife.

Even though the job takes a few minutes we are now relieved to have found an answer. The car is better and we can now average about 23 miles mph if we stop every 14 miles and clean out the snow. " Just keep swimming" Just keep swimming" becomes our theme song.
We are both in such good spirits we can take in the Beautiful Nebraska Sunset, we pass a sign letting us know we are on the Sandhills Adventure Highway,( whoever wrote that has no idea what they are saying) and we also passed the very infamous Agusta Wind Golf Course.
Suddenly about two miles outside of Ashby, we see the familiar flashing of the Yellow Caution light on top of a snow plow. WOO HOO our plan is to follow him into Alliance, but we approach him, we realized he stopped to side of the road, he has no sand in his truck and no plow on the front, and is turning around behind us. He must have stopped for his coffee break. We feel more comforted knowing he is behind us though and has a radio at least, until he turns off on some little road we didn't realize was even there and we are back out here by ourselves again.
Another check, no cell service, its now 4:45 we have come approx. 45 miles in an hour and 45 minutes. I am thinking I will have to surprise Dad tomorrow. As I am mourning my troubles, the road literally opens up!! One tire lane of dry pavement. WE are SHOCKED!! we didnt even think this road was paved. Then all of a sudden our whole lane is dry with a few patches of ice.
We stop and dig out the wheels more time not realizing that its our last time, 100 feet up the road both lanes are dry and Tim sets the cruise on NASCAR. We REJOICE!! Its all over but the crying as Yogi Berra would say.
We fly into Alliance Nebraska, where the snow is piled on the streets so high we cant see the Arby's sign. They got dumped on. The streets and driveways are such a mess we plow our own trail to get our food. At Arby's I ask the young man taking our order if he knows how the roads are in Chadron, he replies," Pretty bad, not many people are coming down from there because we had ice storms last night. "
My heart breaks because its now 6:45 and I dont know if Tim has it in him to drive BLACK ICE after what we have just been through. So I tell Tim what the kid said and he responses, "well, we're this close, and I hope your Dad will be up when we get there." Me too. ( Im thinking --like tomorrow night)
We slip and slide out of Arby's toward the highway to Chadron and right at the underpass the road is clear and it remains clear, I mean really clear, no ice no icy patches just BLACK pavement. Back to Nascar speed and throw in some LOUD OBnoxious CD and we are gone with the wind. We hit Chadron in record time, we head to Lusk and greater Yoder, and are setting Focus land speed records, we zip through Keeline and are just counting the minutes before we will arrive. HOLY MOLY we have Cell service. Call Denver and tell them everything is ok for us. RED DOG has been hooked up to the snowshovel since we called this afternoon and it looks like more snow is heading his way. Called Cat BLUE and let her know where we are. She is out to dinner with Mom and Dad so all is well.
As we come to the top of the rise outside of Keeline, Tim does an" OUGHT O!" and the car immediately begins to slow down. I glance over at the speedometer and see the needle drop just below 77, What is the matter?whats wrong? did we blow a tire or something? NOPE, Just made a new friend.
The blue lights of Niobrara County Sheriff Ron Meeks, brings this buggy ride to a stop. As he approaches, Tim is a wreck. There goes the Christmas spirit.
Here is the conversation:
"Good Evening officer"
Good Evening, Do you know how fast you were going?
Not as well as you do probably. We were just heading home.
Are you from Wyoming?
Yes we are, we live in South Carolina now and are traveling back for the
holidays. We got stuck in the storm in North Platte Nebraska.
Did you come up through Alliance?
Yes sir, through Thedford and across to Alliance

Ok, let me see your license. When was the last time you had a speeding ticket?
23 years ago.
Ok well let me just run this through.
As he heads back to his car Tim says.
DAMNDAMNDAMNI knew I was going tooofast DAMNDAMN I was just trying to get there.I hope this doesnt ruin Christmas.
Elizabeth wakes up--Whats going on?
Just getting a 5 million dollar speeding ticket.
How fast were you going?
I din know--that's how fast I was going.
BUMMER , She says, with a hint of sarcasm.

Officer returns to car.
Tim, it looks like the last time you got a speeding ticket was 23 years ago. and I hate to ruin your holiday by giving you one now. I know you were delayed today, But you need to slow down and make sure you get your family there alive. Have a happy holiday.
Thank you thank you thank you sir, and we will honor you on our blog, and may GOD bless you and Santa reward you. Sheriff Ron Meeks, we Salute you!

We reset the cruise to 72 mph.
We drove into Casper and into my parents driveway at 9:35. We knocked on the door and surprised Granddad so much he turned white. IT was the time of our lives and even though he didn't have any idea what we had been through to get there, he was so overjoyed I would have driven back to Thedford and done it all again --with Tim of course.

Posted by Tim at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments

You know we were headed over the river and through the woods to Grandmothers house we go!!! It was to be the surprise of the century to "Surprise Granddad on his 80th birthday. We feel an explanation is needed before we start this legacy adventure. It seemed so simple. We know we can drive to denver in 28 hours and then up to Casper from there. OR we were planning to take the Lewis and Clark Expedition through Nebraska on 1-80 up through Cheyenne and into Casper in time for LUNCH with Granddad on Thursday.

NOW Heres what really happened..........
1. We thought Tim's new 16 inch wheels and tires (little did we know that S.C. rain tires are not suited for CO. blizzard conditions!) would be the best choice for us to put on before we left. WOW brand new tires, oil change and new windshield wipers and collective driving experience of over 67 years we are set to go.

2. In order to finance this trip we have been fasting from "fastfood" since August 23. Every time we wanted to eat out instead of doing it we would take the money and put it in the piggly bank called " Shannon Bucks". ( Money to go see Shannon on.) This plays a vital role in the health of us later on.

The Group drives the first night in record time to Nashville. Wake up to very cold temperatures and a need to buy socks. ( Ours are deeply packed and the flip flops just arent cutting it) Our first dilemma of restrictive clothing. Next day............Drive like mad ( enjoying a joy ride AROUND as in a Circle around Nashville to see the Dollar General Store headquarters. --Lisa Missed the turn not once but twice) to Kansas City. Hoping to get to our rendevous point of Grand Island Nebraska by midnight, we check in with check point Charlie and receive a covert phone call from RogerRedDog Denver saying that he is looking at a radar screen image of the "STORM OF 2006". After a full 3 second deliberation we decide to "FOCUS to the North from KS City and try to make it to Lincoln Nebraska for Supper and Grand Island for a late night snack before Super 8 slumber.

Checkpoint Lincoln we get fuel and after hearing (a rumor) of ice storms and laughing at the pile of "sandbags" for sale, we head on--- anxious to make our goal of North Platte.

HERE folks, is where things fall apart or as they say in the ROAD AND TRAVEL REPORT "Conditions worsen."
BLACK Ice behind a semi, turns to ice patches that turn to snow pack no dry lane, not even a dry patch the width of a finger. . Ice Crystals forming on the street lights and the trees look like blown glass statues. I guess they had an "ice storm" here.

----------------On your Drivers Test you answered this question with:
TURN in the Direction of the SKID!!!!
The question was
When the back end of your vehicle would like to go down the road BEFORE the front end what do you do.
Tim has passed every drivers test he EVER took with 100 % and he also knows left from right and front from rear as well as top from bottom, when following an England Semi at 35mph in the middle of Nebraska at 11:00 on a Wednesday night. We drove for 45 minutes like this and voted to spend the night in a cozy Kearney crib in order to rejuvinate for the next day.

Birthday Thursday and nothing will get us down. We are up and on the road to Casper at 8:15 in some time zone. We driving precariously on to the next town where we were stopped by the golden gates covering the road and forcing us to share snow- love stories with fellow travelers of Flying J in North Platte.

It was 9:25. We heard rumors (again) that the plows were running and we would be heading out at 10:00. Special Ops Cat Blue called to say our position may have been compromised. We needed to call home base. We called disguising our voices as Mount Pleasant Revelers in the throws of a full blown Oyster Jamboree. We also called Henny Penny in Sheridan to confirm the reports of the sky falling in Denver and surrounding areas. ( Nebraska)

We sat and sat and "ate" ( Jerky, Licorice, cookies,pepsi, gum, donuts, coffee, sugar daddy, twinkies, more coffee), we were parked outside of a stop and go we felt the need to their store. Our bodies are now reacting to the transfats and sugar that they have not seen since August. We were acting like pixy stick eating 5 year olds on Christmas Eve with no where to run off the energy.

WOO HOO 11:30 they open the gates. We are out of there. On our way west, 3/4 miles to the next exit because the road is still closed. Off the interstate again we go all hopes dashed. and sinceWe are so hungry we arent sure what this day might hold so we decided to eat while we have the chance, besides its lunch time somewhere.

We drag ourselves into the Village Inn where we are promptly seated but told the help cannot get to work today due to the terrible ice storms last night so our service might be a bit delayed. NO problem for us, we are waiting. Our food is here in record time, we eat in record time because we arent sure when the big gate is going to swing and we want to be first in line. So back out to the comfort of our lavish fully modified Ford Focus --Hummer Edition. Its now 12:22 and we are starting to try to convince each other of optional plans. ( They did this in the Donner party too) .

We democratically convinced Tim that the best plan would be to "just keep swimming" even if it meant going more north. On the map, Thedford is only 21 miles away another 21 miles north of the storm that was hitting Denver. After a quick shopping stop of Walmart for some much needed chapstick we headed north. As we drove past the World War 2 Veterans Memorial Park I called into Red DOG to let him know our plan and to make sure he had the Navy and NORAD on standby. Conversation was cut short due to LIMITED --as in NO! NONE !NADA cell phone service. and AWAY we went.
as we headed north the first 15 miles included black ice, snowpack track, blowing and drifting snow and Walmart Semi's filled with Tickle me Elmos passing us at a standing rate. Did I forget to mention the horse? This is when Tim realized he may have been horn swaggled into the most dangerous mission of his life. to be continued in part two

Posted by Tim at 7:33 PM | Permalink | Comments