Winter Wonderland

For Christmas we went to Idaho (as close to the North Pole as I ever plan to get) to visit David's family. It was freezing! And it snowed pretty much the whole time.




We left for Idaho on Christmas afternoon. It was snowing hard enough that we could only go 20 mph on the freeway, and we were seriously tempted to turn around. But once we got past Salt Lake the roads dried out for a while. Going across the Malad Pass was quite an adventure, though. There were about 6 inches of snow on the freeway, and it was snowing heavily. We kept wondering where the snow plow was, until we got to the top of the pass and found it. The snow plow had slid off the road into the center median, where it was stuck! You know it's time to get off the road when the snow plow can't handle it. Despite all the snow, we made it safely to David's sister Hilary's house.

Talk about winter wonderland! It snowed the whole time we were in Idaho. The kids had fun riding on sleds behind Hilary and Brian's snowmobile (who needs a hill), and having snowball fights. The adults had fun visiting and playing games, warm and dry inside!



Christmas night we headed to David's brother Jeremy's house to sleep. It was snowing heavily, and the wind was howling. We had to travel many miles of country lanes that weren't plowed. Having been there before, we knew we were driving on a 2 lane road, with 3 foot deep ditches on either side, surrounded by fields, but that night it didn't look like we were on a road at all. The ditches were filled with snow and the only way to tell where the road was, were the tire tracks of a few brave souls who had gone before.

After a few miles, we came upon a car that had strayed a bit too far from the tracks and had slid into the ditch on the right. We stopped to help and learned that a truck had just gone to find a place to turn around and was coming back to pull him out. We waited, and waited, and waited, until we realized that we could see the truck down the road. While trying to turn around, it had driven into the ditch and it's 2 front tires were stuck! Jeremy was driving his truck, so he drove down and towed the truck out of the ditch. Then the freed truck came back to tow the car out. I don't think he really knew what he was doing, because as he was backing into position, he got too close to the ditch and slid down into it. Stuck again!

Jeremy tried to pull the truck out again, but the stuck truck was bigger than Jeremy's and it was really stuck this time. Just then, another bigger truck came along. The newcomer was so confident that he could pull the truck out, that he didn't even bother to turn around. He just hooked the tow rope to a bar on his front bumper, and started to back up. Bad choice. His truck fishtailed around, and slid into the ditch. We now had 3 stuck vehicles, one of them for the second time. More and more people were showing up to help. Someone had shovels in their car, so they set to work digging the snow from around the first car. I suggested that we just offer rides to the stuck people, but no one listened to me. Through a combination of shoveling, pushing, and towing, we were able to get the car unstuck. Without a backward glance, the car took off, leaving the whole mess (that had been created trying to help him) behind.

Just then, another truck showed up, a big truck, with a driver who knew what he was doing. It took 10 to 15 tries per truck, but he was able to get both trucks out of the ditch and back onto the road. Hallelujah!!!

After 1 broken hitch cover, 1 tow rope, 3 shovels, 4 stuck vehicles, 8 vehicles stopped to help, 12 people helping, 18 degree snowy weather, 20 mph winds, and 90 minutes of effort, we were able to go home to drop exhausted into bed, secure in the knowledge that we had REALLY gone the extra mile. (p.s. When I say "we", I don't mean to take any credit for myself. I watched the drama unfold from my toasty warm SUV! I thought about taking a picture of the chaos, but I didn't want it bad enought to go out into the cold to get it ;o)

Though I hate the snow and cold in Idaho, it wasn't all bad. It was really fun to get together and hang out with everyone. The only people who weren't there were Mark's family and Beth's family. (We missed you guys!) I am glad we went, and I wish we could have stayed longer. Thank you Jeremy and Carren, Hilary and Brian, and Dad and Fran for your hospitality!