The DRIVE...was HORRIBLE if you asked me. AWESOME if asked Eric.
We left a day late because of the snow storm over Northern California. Saturday was suppose to snow 12-18" during the day. Sunday was only 2-4" throughout the day..not too bad. We were debating going on Highway 101 up along the coast, but it would take longer and it was curvy...not something we like. So Eric made the final call and said he would go the snow route and 2-4" isn't bad. I kept a close eye on the highway cameras. We left early in the morning and it rained all the way to Redding. So far so good. Then all of a sudden we see flashing lights and realized that we had to stop in the middle of the freeway. They told us we had to have chains to go further unless we had 4 wheel drive. Oh NO! I kept thinking maybe we should just turn around. We pulled over and Eric got out and put the chains on in the pouring rain. I thought it was going to be so mad when he got back in but he was happy and said "Let's do this" Not my attitude at all. I was scared. We got back on the road and drove 30mph and watched all the trucks just speed past us. Eric wasn't like the minivan at this point...he said he was done and we were getting a suburban! So we drove 20 miles in rain. Chains on just wet roads totally sucks. It is noisy and I am sure really bad for our brand new expensive tires. But then the snow started and it hit us hard. We were at the beginning of the storm. I have never been in a vehicle with snow chains before...even growing up in Utah. We never used them. I have never been so thankful for something before. We had to go slow but we weren't sliding anywhere. As long as no one else hit us, I knew we were ok. Eric told me to just sit back and be quite. I tend to make scary noises when I am nervous or feel scared. And boy was I nervous. And then it got worse...I was too scared at the worst part to even think about getting the camera out. I was literally sick to my stomach because it was so scary. Out of no where the storm got so bad...it was really windy and snowing really hard. We couldn't see 5 feet in front of us. We couldn't even see where the road was. Everything was just a white sheet in front of us. Eric looked to the side of the road for the road markers to make sure he was even on the road. We couldn't see any signs, any exits. It was just white! No trees..the visibility was so minimal. I have never been in such a situation that scared me to death. I didn't know if we were going to drive off a cliff, hit into a broken down car. Luckily this only lasted for a couple of miles and then it started to clear up as we went down the mountain. THANK Heavens! Eric LOVED it! He is so crazy. He thought it was the coolest thing ever. He was upset with the white sheet started to disappear. NOT ME. I was so thankful my prayers were answered and we were safe! We stopped at a rest stop and took off the chains. It was SOOOO windy. We barely could open the door. Everyone used the restroom and we were off. It was still stormy but mainly just rain. When we got to the Siskiyou pass we had to put chains on again. This time the snow wasn't packed down and we saw a bunch of snow plows working. We could have gone through without chains. It was just slush.
We stopped at Grandma and Grandpas and she fed us dinner and visited.
Then it was off to complete the next 4 hours. We put the address into the GPS and just followed it...well it took us the shortest distance and not the smartest route. It took us through this curvy, middle of no where road. One of those roads, where if you break down it would take a while before anyone found you. We had more snowy roads and rain. STUPID GPS...Eric was about to throw it out the window. Eric was so irritated every time he saw a 20-25mph sign. It was very slow going. Those last 4.5 hours seems as long as the first 10. Ryder had enough and cried for almost 3 hours. Poor baby. Cooper and the older kids did great. They were sick of the drive by the end too but overall they did great!
We were SOOOO THANKFUL to finally make it to LONG BEACH, WA!!!!! SAFE AND SOUND!
NOW WE COULD FINALLY ENJOY CHRISTMAS WITH THE FAMILY!!!!
And I prayed that we would have no snow on the way home! That was enough for me!
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