Palm Springs Part 2

We hit the road on Sunday afternoon with our GPS telling us that our arrival time at home would be 10:52 PM. "Great!", I thought, "the kids will still be able to go to school and I'll go into work (even though I had requested the day off) because I'll get a decent nights sleep". Do you ever feel like you jinx yourself? Well, I did.

As we left Palm Springs it was overcast and breezy. I knew a storm was moving in because I had been tracking the weather all week to see how warm it was going to be while we were there. As we headed north up the freeway, it started to pour. I mean, POUR buckets!! The further we went, the worse it got. I was busy planning my weekly dinner menu, reading my book, and skimming facebook. Ryan said to me at the base of the Grapevine, "How cold do you think it is outside without looking at the temperature gauge?". I guessed 54 degrees. I was way off. It was 34 degrees outside and we were in short-sleeves, shorts, and flip flops. Pretty soon the rain looked like it had some snow mixed in with it and that's when it all started.



The further up the Grapevine we went, the worse it got. Traffic finally came to a stop and we sat for five hours. Five!! We didn't move and I started to have a small panic attack. We had one blanket, no food, and because we had sat for so long, we started to get low on fuel. I had all sorts of scenarios running through my head and wondered if because I was the only girl in the car, if my carnivoral family would decide to eat me first! I felt so stranded!

After inching our way along and using the freeway as a bathroom (hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go) we finally made our way to an exit. Along with everyone else on the freeway, and I'm not kidding, we sat another forever and waited to get fuel. At 2:30 AM we finally made it to Bakersfield with three hours still to go.

I drove the rest of the way home and we pulled into our driveway at 6 in the morning. Needless to say, none of us went to work or school. I don't know what it is with our family and being stranded on mountain passes but we seem to have bad luck in that department. Every time I know we are going to cross a mountain pass, I am taking plenty of provisions to last us.

Hurley made the statement that he was never going with us again. He was going to stay with Laura or Geniel from now on. Guess who loved the snow the most, though? He would put his little head out the window and let the snow fall on him. He loved it and everyone around us were totally entertained by him.