This year we decided to spend Christmas in Pennsylvania visiting Dustin’s family and friends. The Manmillers invited us to stay with them for a week and spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with their families.
We decided to leave Friday afternoon after the RCR Christmas Luncheon and thought for sure we would be ahead of the snow storm that was on its way throughout the East Coast. We left the house at 2pm despite the sleet that had been coming down since 9am and the snow that started falling an hour earlier. We figured we’d be fine and would just plod along even if it took us a few extra hours to get through the weather. Being from California I’ve always seen on TV during the winter the stories of folks stranded for hours on the highway in inclement weather and had yet to realize that we were going to be one of those stories. As we were driving we started counting the numerous NC drivers who don’t know how to drive in snow that were off in the snow bank or had wrecked somehow. Counting 27 in the first hour of our drive was a little scary. As we got on 81 North we laughed at the folks who were going South as the traffic was backed up for miles. Little did we know we too were going to be stuck soon. We got to Blacksburg, VA and the traffic trickled along for 3 hours. Once we got through the clear I was talking to my sister, Chris on the phone and she advised that even though we had 3/4 tank of gas we should top off just in case we get stuck again (she had heard of NY folks stuck on the highway earlier in the week and highway patrols were having to bring them gas to keep their heaters running). So we took a bathroom stop and filled up the tank. It was a good thing we did because not far past our stop we got stuck behind a few cars and big rigs who couldn’t make it through the snow because the highway hadn’t been plowed. We sat for 13 1/2 hours on the highway!!!! Praise the Lord we had enough gas to idle that long with the heater running and that we had packed enough snacks and water and that we happened to be stuck right next to a rest stop so we could use the bathroom. The whole event was so unreal I still can’t believe we went through it. So the next morning the cars were dug out of the snow and we were able to pull away…I think Abby learned the Hallelujah chorus because Dustin and I could not stop singing it! Through the mountains of VA the roads were still pretty bad and it felt like we were driving through our yard full of snow going 30 mph. Amazingly enough through all of this the Lord kept us calm and we didn’t kill each other and Abby was really good(thank you portable DVD player and Baby Einstein) until about the last 2 hours. We stopped at a rest stop and changed her diaper and she did NOT want to get back in her car seat…can you blame the kid? She was so miserable from being in that car that she didn’t even want Dustin or I to talk and she squawked every time we started to. It actually became quite comical and the humor of it was what got Dustin and I through to the Manmillers.
So a trip that normally takes 8 hours took us 29 hours as we arrived in the middle of the Manmiller’s Christmas Party looking a mess at 7pm on Saturday.
Needless to say I am going somewhere sunny for Christmas next year…who’s up for Orlando and Disney World?
These last few pictures are what we saw after we got stuck as we drove along the road. The big rig must’ve just happened before we drove by because there were guys running across the highway to see if the driver was ok. God definitely had His hand on us our whole way there!
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