Holiday Musings

We had a good Christmas holiday. But what is even more wonderful is not only did we enjoy Christmas but we are enjoying the time off from work and school. I love having this much time off of work to actually do the things that I want to do, which is mostly nothing. I rarely get time to do nothing. This year has been even better because I have been able to spend the time with Neil because for once his work shuts down over the Christmas break too. So we have big plans to do absolutely nothing and see as many movies as we can before life starts up again on January 5.

Speaking of Christmas, we had an interesting almost fatal drive home the night of Christmas. Yes, we knew there was suppose to be a HUGE storm. Yes, we shouldn't have tried to make the drive home anyway. But it wasn't snowing when we left so we decided to risk it. Oh and did I mention we were driving MY car, which was NOT meant to drive in snow? That will become important as I continue. We left my parents house around 6:30 PM and about 5 minutes into our drive it started raining. We decided rain was fine. About 5 minutes after that it started snowing. Did I mention that the wind was blowing very hard? That becomes really important as I continue. About 5 minutes after that the rodes become snow packed and we are traveling at 20 MPH because the roads and wind were really bad. We hadn't even made it to Ogden yet. Neil said if were going to turn back we needed to do it now. I insisted that we could make it and usually Sardine was plowed really well, so as long as we made it to Brigham we would be fine. So we passed the point of no return and it just got worse. The roads had so much snow on them the 3 three lane freeway came down to one because the snow drifts were too high on either side of the road. By some miracle about 1 hour later we made it to Brigham. I told Neil maybe we should just stay in one of the motels in Brigham but then once again we decided to press on. Did I mention that was really stupid? Oh yeah, that was stupid. So we preceeded into Sardine against all reason. We somehow made it up the very first hill and as we were coming down the hill several cars were stuck on the side of the road or more like the middle considering we had to go around them. Oh and did I mention there was at least 2 feet of snow covering the roads? We should have realized that was a warning. This is where my car becomes important. My car is a sports car and only sits about 8 inches off the ground. Yep, not good when you are driving through that much snow. I thought my "snow tires" would kick trash but when your car is acting like a mini snow plow, "snow tires" don't do much good. Luckily, we were able to follow the treads of a truck in front of us. At this point, I am asking where in the world are the 4 snow plows I have SEEN plow the canyon before. We consider pulling out and waiting for a snow plow to follow but we are afraid if we stop we won't get going again. So we proceed. Now, the blowing wind I mentioned comes into play. The snow is coming down so hard and is blowing from East to West that it was covering the driver's side windows. So the only visibility we have is through the windshield. So we keep our windshield wipers going but they are building up ice and are starting to freeze. We were only about half way through Sardine. Then, the unthinkable happens. Two TRUCKS suddenly just stop in the middle of the "road." So we have to go around them. Well, around them is very tall snow drifts and we were going up a hill. So Neil drives into the snowdrift to go around the trucks and my wheels just start spinning but we are going no where. We were stuck. The snow was too deep and we weren't going fast enough when we went off to the side. I start thinking it was a good thing I brought two coats and had a blanket in the trunk because we were going to be camping in the canyon. Somehow, through sheer will we were able to get unstuck. That was the worst of it. Let's just say I probably kneeled down and kissed our garage floor when we finally arrived home two and half hours later.