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Weeks of planning, a day of packing, a lifetime of driving, but we made it safely and soundly to Virginia. The trip was full of surprises and at a couple points we thought me might die, but in the end it was mission accomplished.
The most important factor I watched in the days leading up to the drive was the weather. For weeks it was clear, ideal winter driving weather. Then, at the worst possible time, a winter storm hit. The storm was first forecast to last 5 days and clear up Wednesday morning. If we left Wednesday and drove straight through, we would avoid the storms that would develop later in the week along the rest of our drive. Each day, I continued to monitor the weather across the entire 2,100 mile stretch. Knowing things could change quickly, I made sure all of the final preparations for the trip were done by Monday. I loaded half of the car Monday night and told my brother and Myles to be ready to go at a moment's notice. By late Monday, it looked as if there may be a brief window Tuesday to leave. The storms would hit hard Monday night but be clear Tuesday, then would slam east Wyoming Tuesday night and then Wednesday and Thursday would begin to hit even harder along the rest of the path. I told everyone we would leave at 3 pm Tuesday when I was off work.
Tuesday morning, I looked at the weather and at the road cameras along Wyoming. We had to leave ASAP. I went into work hoping to be off by noon and leave by 1. Jeff said I could leave immediately but I knew Myles and Mike weren't ready, so I called and gave them an hour's notice. At 10 am, I went home and finished loading up and by 11 am we were on the road. If you ever wondered what a mess it looks like with 3 guys packing for a two week trip, here's a picture.
Normally, my room is very clean. I promise...
The roads in Utah were clear and dry all the way to the border. We hit a snow flurry heading up into Wyoming but it passed in seconds. Everyone tells horror stories about I-80 through Wyoming, but things looked good as we hit Evanston. Then we began to realize something. Wyoming really does not do much to clear their roads. All the way through Evanston we drove through slush on the road. There were tracks where everyone else had driven, so I put my tires in those tracks and drove. Right outside of Evanston, it got worse. All of a sudden, what was just slush became packed snow and the tire tracks were almost non-existent in areas. Then it got even worse. The road was covered in ice. For the next 100 miles from Evanston to Rock Springs, the road was ice. For about half of it, we could put one side of the car in a track that had less ice. For another quarter of it, there were times there were almost two full tracks to drive in. But, for many more miles than I ever want to drive on again, there were sections, including one especially frightening downhill stretch, where we were driving on nothing but packed ice. Here is a picture of what the roads looked like in the better stretches.
Through that 100 mile stretch, we saw eight 18-wheelers who had gone off the road. Almost all of them had completely turned around as their load swung them around and off the road. We also saw a couple small cars and trucks, usually ones with light trailers (which were banned through Wyoming during this weather), that had also wrecked. You could feel us slide a bit here and there, but through divine intervention, I managed to keep calm and navigate the impossible roads for 2 hours.
When we hit Rock Springs, the roads became much, much clearer. They were dry mostly with a couple slick, icy spots you could see.
The further east we went, the less icy spots. As I mentioned before, we had a window to beat before the weather hit again. We were within probably less than an hour of missing that window. When we hit Laramie, it began snowing. The snow itself was not blowing, but the nature of this snow was such that when you drove over it, you kicked it all up like dust. You could see the road for the most part, but when the 18 wheelers would pass, visibility went to about, well, zero. The cloud of snow they blew all over almost sent us off the road several times. We would have to slow down rapidly to let them pass and even trying to stay on a straight course, by the time we could see again, we would be on the opposite side of the road. Thank goodness for the rumble strips. They saved us at least once. It did not take long to realize we would not make it very much longer in life without taking action. I realized that the blowing snow pushed to the right, so, I did what usually is the wrong thing to do. I stayed in the left lane and forced every 18 wheeler to pass me on the right. When they did that, not a bit of snow blocked my view. There may have been a few truckers that cussed me out, but, honest truth, that very easily may have saved our lives. We stopped for gas in Cheyenne and having driven through 2 hours of ice and an hour and a bit of blowing, near-death snow, I let Myles drive. I pulled up the weather satellite and found we were in the heart of the storm but the edge of the storm was only 20-30 miles down the road, so, I told Myles to stay in the left lane and we would beat the storm. Sure enough, as we neared the Nebraska border, the snow lightened and pretty soon the snow was gone. We had beaten the storms and slipped through our narrow window.
In order to stay ahead of the weather, we had to drive straight with minimal stops. Myles drove through the night, then Mike took over, then me again and we switched as our tired eyes needed. After Lincoln, Nebraska, we cut down to a more southern route to avoid any chance of snow along I-80. We drove through Missouri and across the grand Mississippi River.
Here's the grand Mississippi. On the west bank is Hannibal, Missouri. It is a quaint little town with lots of Mark Twain history and I recommend stopping a few hours if you are ever here. On this trip, we couldn't, but our family stopped before. On the east bank is a nice park you can have a picnic on the banks of the river.
Not much of consequence happened through Illinois. Ok, actually, that is not true. The highlight of our trip was in Decatur. We were getting weary from driving so I figured we needed a good hour stop. We could either stop at a truck stop and shower, or stop for a good breakfast. No one in their right mind would really want to shower at a truck stop, so, as if my guardian angel wanted me to find it, I happened across my Cracker Barrel map in my glove box. Lo and behold, a Cracker Barrel right off the interstate in Decatur. We stopped there and enjoyed a HUGE breakfast of good country cooking.
Eggs, ham, steak, biscuits, gravy, grits, hashbrowns, fried apples, juice...oh yeah..I love me some Cracker Barrel.
After Illinois there was little of consequence.
We drove through Indianapolis.
Into and through Ohio.
Then in and out of West Virginia, through a bit of Pennsylvania, back into West Virginia, then we ended up on a scenic route through who knows where really on the border of West Virginia and Virginia. After that odd delay, we found our way to main roads again and around 12:45 am rolled into Nokesville, Virginia and onto the farm. Only my sister who we called upon our arrival knew we were coming that night. Everyone expected us Thursday night. We snuck in, set up our beds in the downstairs living room and went to sleep.
I left this sign on a chair blocking the way into the living room. It says "SURPRISE! WE'RE HOME!"
They also didn't know Myles was with us.
Thursday morning, one by one as they got up, they came down. My mom was first. She walked in, looked, counted 3 bodies and laughed as I told her we brought Myles. Then little sister Angela came in. She had to go to school and was mad she would have to leave when she knew we were here. Finally, my dad came in. He too was surprised to see us and even more surprised Myles was here. Camilla, the sister who left the door unlocked when we got here, knew we were here but was still surprised because she didn't know Myles was here.
Once again, I managed to surprise my family when I came home. Some may remember, others missed it, but in May I came home for a week and no one knew I was coming. I planned it so I got here while they were at church. I sat on the lawn with the dog and waited for their return. That was a complete surprise, but this time around it was still just as good coming a day early and having Myles with us.
Well...there is a lot to do here in Virginia, so I'm off to enjoy my break!
Song of the Day is "Feels Like Home" sung by Chantal Kreviazuk.
The most important factor I watched in the days leading up to the drive was the weather. For weeks it was clear, ideal winter driving weather. Then, at the worst possible time, a winter storm hit. The storm was first forecast to last 5 days and clear up Wednesday morning. If we left Wednesday and drove straight through, we would avoid the storms that would develop later in the week along the rest of our drive. Each day, I continued to monitor the weather across the entire 2,100 mile stretch. Knowing things could change quickly, I made sure all of the final preparations for the trip were done by Monday. I loaded half of the car Monday night and told my brother and Myles to be ready to go at a moment's notice. By late Monday, it looked as if there may be a brief window Tuesday to leave. The storms would hit hard Monday night but be clear Tuesday, then would slam east Wyoming Tuesday night and then Wednesday and Thursday would begin to hit even harder along the rest of the path. I told everyone we would leave at 3 pm Tuesday when I was off work.
Tuesday morning, I looked at the weather and at the road cameras along Wyoming. We had to leave ASAP. I went into work hoping to be off by noon and leave by 1. Jeff said I could leave immediately but I knew Myles and Mike weren't ready, so I called and gave them an hour's notice. At 10 am, I went home and finished loading up and by 11 am we were on the road. If you ever wondered what a mess it looks like with 3 guys packing for a two week trip, here's a picture.
Normally, my room is very clean. I promise...
The roads in Utah were clear and dry all the way to the border. We hit a snow flurry heading up into Wyoming but it passed in seconds. Everyone tells horror stories about I-80 through Wyoming, but things looked good as we hit Evanston. Then we began to realize something. Wyoming really does not do much to clear their roads. All the way through Evanston we drove through slush on the road. There were tracks where everyone else had driven, so I put my tires in those tracks and drove. Right outside of Evanston, it got worse. All of a sudden, what was just slush became packed snow and the tire tracks were almost non-existent in areas. Then it got even worse. The road was covered in ice. For the next 100 miles from Evanston to Rock Springs, the road was ice. For about half of it, we could put one side of the car in a track that had less ice. For another quarter of it, there were times there were almost two full tracks to drive in. But, for many more miles than I ever want to drive on again, there were sections, including one especially frightening downhill stretch, where we were driving on nothing but packed ice. Here is a picture of what the roads looked like in the better stretches.
When we hit Rock Springs, the roads became much, much clearer. They were dry mostly with a couple slick, icy spots you could see.
The further east we went, the less icy spots. As I mentioned before, we had a window to beat before the weather hit again. We were within probably less than an hour of missing that window. When we hit Laramie, it began snowing. The snow itself was not blowing, but the nature of this snow was such that when you drove over it, you kicked it all up like dust. You could see the road for the most part, but when the 18 wheelers would pass, visibility went to about, well, zero. The cloud of snow they blew all over almost sent us off the road several times. We would have to slow down rapidly to let them pass and even trying to stay on a straight course, by the time we could see again, we would be on the opposite side of the road. Thank goodness for the rumble strips. They saved us at least once. It did not take long to realize we would not make it very much longer in life without taking action. I realized that the blowing snow pushed to the right, so, I did what usually is the wrong thing to do. I stayed in the left lane and forced every 18 wheeler to pass me on the right. When they did that, not a bit of snow blocked my view. There may have been a few truckers that cussed me out, but, honest truth, that very easily may have saved our lives. We stopped for gas in Cheyenne and having driven through 2 hours of ice and an hour and a bit of blowing, near-death snow, I let Myles drive. I pulled up the weather satellite and found we were in the heart of the storm but the edge of the storm was only 20-30 miles down the road, so, I told Myles to stay in the left lane and we would beat the storm. Sure enough, as we neared the Nebraska border, the snow lightened and pretty soon the snow was gone. We had beaten the storms and slipped through our narrow window.
In order to stay ahead of the weather, we had to drive straight with minimal stops. Myles drove through the night, then Mike took over, then me again and we switched as our tired eyes needed. After Lincoln, Nebraska, we cut down to a more southern route to avoid any chance of snow along I-80. We drove through Missouri and across the grand Mississippi River.
Here's the grand Mississippi. On the west bank is Hannibal, Missouri. It is a quaint little town with lots of Mark Twain history and I recommend stopping a few hours if you are ever here. On this trip, we couldn't, but our family stopped before. On the east bank is a nice park you can have a picnic on the banks of the river.
Not much of consequence happened through Illinois. Ok, actually, that is not true. The highlight of our trip was in Decatur. We were getting weary from driving so I figured we needed a good hour stop. We could either stop at a truck stop and shower, or stop for a good breakfast. No one in their right mind would really want to shower at a truck stop, so, as if my guardian angel wanted me to find it, I happened across my Cracker Barrel map in my glove box. Lo and behold, a Cracker Barrel right off the interstate in Decatur. We stopped there and enjoyed a HUGE breakfast of good country cooking.
Eggs, ham, steak, biscuits, gravy, grits, hashbrowns, fried apples, juice...oh yeah..I love me some Cracker Barrel.
After Illinois there was little of consequence.
We drove through Indianapolis.
Into and through Ohio.
Then in and out of West Virginia, through a bit of Pennsylvania, back into West Virginia, then we ended up on a scenic route through who knows where really on the border of West Virginia and Virginia. After that odd delay, we found our way to main roads again and around 12:45 am rolled into Nokesville, Virginia and onto the farm. Only my sister who we called upon our arrival knew we were coming that night. Everyone expected us Thursday night. We snuck in, set up our beds in the downstairs living room and went to sleep.
I left this sign on a chair blocking the way into the living room. It says "SURPRISE! WE'RE HOME!"
They also didn't know Myles was with us.
Thursday morning, one by one as they got up, they came down. My mom was first. She walked in, looked, counted 3 bodies and laughed as I told her we brought Myles. Then little sister Angela came in. She had to go to school and was mad she would have to leave when she knew we were here. Finally, my dad came in. He too was surprised to see us and even more surprised Myles was here. Camilla, the sister who left the door unlocked when we got here, knew we were here but was still surprised because she didn't know Myles was here.
Once again, I managed to surprise my family when I came home. Some may remember, others missed it, but in May I came home for a week and no one knew I was coming. I planned it so I got here while they were at church. I sat on the lawn with the dog and waited for their return. That was a complete surprise, but this time around it was still just as good coming a day early and having Myles with us.
Well...there is a lot to do here in Virginia, so I'm off to enjoy my break!
Song of the Day is "Feels Like Home" sung by Chantal Kreviazuk.
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