Last Thursday was definitely a very long day. We were packed up and ready to go and pulling out of our apartment by 8:00 AM. We had been checking the weather very frequently the past couple of days because there was a big storm and we were definitely tracking it. But everything seemed good to go - cold, but blue skies. In fact, I remember that we used the word "perfect" to describe our traveling weather. We had seen a "wind advisory" for Wyoming before we left, but there is always a wind advisory in Wyoming, especially in winter, so we really didn't think anything of it.
So we started our trek and headed north. Things were perfect, until we hit the Wyoming border. It was actually a little bizarre, still blue skies but the wind was just crazy. Since it had snowed the day before the wind was just blowing all of the loose snow making it a whiteout. Then we saw that I-80 had been closed between Cheyenne and Laramie due to the weather. It was about ten o'clock by this time, and they said that the earliest it would re-open was noon, but even that wasn't a guarantee.
Ugg...so Mark and I sat at a gas station in Cheyenne trying to figure out what we wanted to do. And there really wasn't any good choice. As we saw it we had four options:
1) Wait at the gas station and hope that the pass opened soon.
2) Back track an hour and go through Fort Collins over the mountains and into Vernal and hope for clear roads.
3) Back track two hours back to Denver and go over the mountains and into Grand Junction and, again, hope for clear roads.
4) Drive back home and try again the next day.
We definitely did NOT want to start all over again the next day. So we decided that the best chance we had was to back track to Denver and go over I-70. So by the time we got back down to Denver it was 1:00 PM. And THANK GOODNESS for our sweet little Jacob who was literally a perfect little angel during the whole day. In fact, once we decided to head back Mark and I were pretty frustrated, but once we stopped and had lunch with Jacob he just seemed to make everything okay.
The drive was beautiful through the mountains and despite being five hours behind schedule, things went fairly smooth after that. The roads were mostly clear the whole way. We ended up not getting to Draper until just before midnight. It was a long day - a sixteen hour driving day. But we made it safe and sound and we are grateful for that. And luckily, we were "home" for Christmas.
1) Wait at the gas station and hope that the pass opened soon.
2) Back track an hour and go through Fort Collins over the mountains and into Vernal and hope for clear roads.
3) Back track two hours back to Denver and go over the mountains and into Grand Junction and, again, hope for clear roads.
4) Drive back home and try again the next day.
We definitely did NOT want to start all over again the next day. So we decided that the best chance we had was to back track to Denver and go over I-70. So by the time we got back down to Denver it was 1:00 PM. And THANK GOODNESS for our sweet little Jacob who was literally a perfect little angel during the whole day. In fact, once we decided to head back Mark and I were pretty frustrated, but once we stopped and had lunch with Jacob he just seemed to make everything okay.
The drive was beautiful through the mountains and despite being five hours behind schedule, things went fairly smooth after that. The roads were mostly clear the whole way. We ended up not getting to Draper until just before midnight. It was a long day - a sixteen hour driving day. But we made it safe and sound and we are grateful for that. And luckily, we were "home" for Christmas.
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