The Trip

The Saturday after Christmas was spent doing a lot of clean up and packing - we were all preparing to head out the next morning! Actually Chad was planning on heading out that am, but as we looked online and called some travel information numbers we all kept hearing highway closures for the roads we intended to travel on....the road south to Chadron where Chad needed to go, I-90 was closed the entire length of SD. It was looking less and less likely that any of us would be able to head out!

By the next morning Jenna had decided to drive the 1,000 mile trip to Illinois - which she did, in one day! So, by the time we all got up for the day, Chad was headed out the door and Jenna on his heels down south through Nebraska. Five hours later Chad made it safely home, seventeen hours later Jenna made it safely to her parents. Our story went somewhat differently....

But before we get to that, here is what Buffalo Gap looked like before we left! It is amazing to me how this town can go from ugly to beautiful with a simple covering of white=)

Unlike the southern route that Chad and Jenna had taken, our north-eastern route was still closed. We went about preparations as usual, zipping up our suitcases, packing the lunch cooler, loading up the Expedition....checking the Internet every half hour or so to see if I-90 was open yet. Finally at 9:30 am we got the green light to head out! Little did we know that about an hour and half later we would find ourselves on some of the worst road conditions we have EVER encountered.

There is no other way to explain how we too arrived safely at our destination, other than to say that the Lord answered the prayers of many family and friends and kept us upright and on the road!!! The roads appeared completely dry but there was fine drizzle coming down that glazed the roads and turned them into what better resembled an ice skating rink than an interstate! We saw close to 30 vehicles off the road....every thing from cars to pickups to vans to semi's! Probably over a dozen times we also felt the rear end of our vehicle start to slide...about 5 of those times we were both convinced we were headed for the ditch! Amazingly, between our 4x4 and Matthew' driving, we would start going straight again. Then, a few miles down the road on a completely straight stretch without touching the brakes or anything it - would happen again.

About 9 1/2 hours later we were both so tensed up that we had to call it a day. The entire trip that day should have taken us 10 hours....however we were only about 2/3's of the way. With no other recourse we holed up for the night in a hotel. This is how we all felt!!!!!

The kids blew off some steam in the pool (thanks to their gracious Daddy who had to brave the elements to get all the bags down off the top of the vehicle so Mommy could find the swimsuits, and to the desk lady who kept it open an hour longer just for us), stayed up late, read books, and then crashed for the night.

Matthew and I went to bed shortly after the kids but sleep was elusive for both of us....I didn't figure it out until the next am, but I think all the different little shots of adrenaline we'd had throughout the day on our rather hair-raising ride kept our minds alert while our bodies begged for sleep. The cool thing was that I was awake for the 1am text from Kendrick saying "Jenna is here, all is well"....and the 2am text from Jenna saying "ALISHA! OH MY GOODNESS! SO COOL! YOU GUYS ARE GOOD LIARS!!!" (Side note: If I hadn't been so tired I would have jumped up and down in bed myself, so excited that the surprise had worked!!!!!!!!!!!) Then at 3am I checked on Jesse who had hit his head really hard in the pool that night, and somewhere between 3 and 4am I went to sleep thanking the Lord for our safety. A loss of sleep is a small price to pay for what could have happened. THANK YOU, LORD!!!