It’s been almost a week since I’ve written a blog post.  We had an interesting week to say the least.  It all began with a trip that was supposed to take nine hours, but which turned into quite a fiasco.

We took off from Rochester last Tuesday night after James got home from work.  We had booked a hotel room a few weeks ago at a spot about four hours from our house, with the intentions of staying over and finishing the drive the following day, since we didn’t want to be driving until two in the morning.  Things went well the first night–and then we had a decision to make.  We watched the weather forecast and noted that there was supposedly a huge storm headed our way starting at 3 am.  We talked about driving through and forgoing the room we had already paid for.  But James didn’t think he had it in him.  We hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before since Sawyer woke up a billion times, and he hadn’t mentally prepared.  I silently prayed that they were very wrong about the forecast.

The following morning we woke up to absolutely no snow.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  We ate breakfast at the hotel and noticed while watching the news that all the schools in the area were closed.  Of course, this was confusing to me, since there was no snow, but maybe they did things differently in southern Pennsylvania.  We started our journey, with a driving time that was estimated at about 5.5 hours.  Doable.  Not too bad.  I texted my mom that we had left, and texted my Aunt that we had left and mentioned that there was not a speck of snow.  No lie, literally a minute later, the snow started.  And grew heavier. And heavier. And heavier.  At first, it wasn’t bad . . . it wasn’t sticking.  We were still trucking along.  I thought to myself–this isn’t so bad! We’re totally fine.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.  The weather got worse and worse the further we traveled.  It got to the point where there were a couple inches on the road we were on, and it hadn’t been plowed.  At 10:45 am, we stopped moving. Everyone had stopped.  Trucks were stuck.  Cars were stuck. People were sideways. . . tires turning and turning and going nowhere.  Trucks were stuck in the middle. . . some trying to get out, but just sliding to the side, riding the guardrail.  People were out of their cars trying to push their way out. We sat for forty minutes.  With each passing minute, without saying it out loud, both of us were pretty sure that we were going to be there for the rest of the day. Sitting.  Going no where.

The ironic thing about that, is that I was just thinking about the snowstorm that hit Buffalo two weeks ago.  I had read about people getting stuck on the thruway, and I literally thought to myself, how does that happen?  How do people get to the point where they literally can’t drive anymore?  Don’t they realize it before it happens and get off somewhere and stop driving?

I guess I know the answer now.  It happened just like that.  People stopped, and they stopped for good.  You can’t turn around.  You can’t go forward.  And you just sit there helplessly, watching the snow accumulate around you while you are stuck in the car.  Luckily, our kids were amazing.  And just when it seemed like we really were completely stranded, the traffic started moving a little.  And a little more.  And we miraculously ended up back in business.  I still don’t know how it happened.  It took us about another hour to get out of our shock and talk about the fact that we both really thought we were going to be stranded on the highway.

We drove through the snow for quite a long time after that still, but then rerouted our drive more east to where the line of snow stopped and the line of rain started.  After a little while, we made it to the rain, and all was good after that.  Our drive had turned into more than nine hours on that day . . . four hours longer that we had anticipated.

Once we arrived in Virginia, where James’s family was waiting for us, it was as if the whole thing had never happened.  It’s funny how easy it is to forget the pressing troubles that weren’t that far in the past, when you are surrounded by family and loved ones and great food.  We were thrilled to be out of the car, and we were saddened that we missed out on some family time, but there was nothing we couldn’t done about it at that point.  Sure, we should’ve driven through the night before, but we really didn’t know we were going to have such a hard drive.

Thanksgiving was great.  James’s Aunt is just amazing in the kitchen–and with a little bit of everyone else’s help, we had a delicious, amazing dinner for twenty-four people.  And of course, the desserts were amazing too.  All EIGHT of them 🙂