The Christmas Saga
Christmas plans in our family tend to revolve around when my brother will get his kids for his week. Last two years it's been before Christmas, this year he was due to get them December 26 for a week. Mom asked her standard question, "Will you take me to see my grandchildren for Christmas" and I, of course, said "YES!". My boss was fine with me taking off between Xmas and NY, so the plan was to drive down Christmas Day.
If you've friended me on FB you've seen the highlights...
First there was snow:
After 2 or so days of hard rains and warm temps, we left home in plummeting temps and snow. Highways were forecast to look good (until, possibly, Oklahoma) and since I'm a reasonably decent driver, we set out. Figured Oklahoma had all day to plow and salt, and with luck we'd be ok once we got there.
The first few hours were pretty awful. The roads were ok, but there was a lot of snow and it was blowing LOTS. The wind was quite strong and I was driving mom's Blazer, which is a LOT bigger and boxier than my tiny car. Was a struggle to keep it between the lines, and it was slow because of the blowing snow. Shortly before we hit Rolla the combination of falling and blowing snow got really, really bad, almost to white-out, and I seriously considered whether or not to turn around. Thankfully it never got all the way to white-out and didn't stay there very long at all. By the time we hit the next exit several miles later it was back to what I'd considered "normal". Icky winter, but not impossible.
Things got much better after Rolla, and, for a while after we left Springfield, the roads were clean and dry and I was able to spend about an hour with cruise-control on at about 3 mph over the posted limit. Nice indeed! Managed to do that all the way to the MO-OK border!
Then it got AWFUL!
When we hit the state line I had to hit my brakes immediately! The change in the highway was DRAMATIC to say the least. Where the MO highway was clean and dry, the OK highway looked like it hadn't been PLOWED. It was snow-packed, barely 2 lanes (only 1 lane some places) It was incredibly hazardous to even try to go 40mph, though I gave it my best. They'd put a bit of salt down on some of the bridges, but it was incredibly bumpy and slippery and scary as cars did try to pass each other. What should have been a drive of less than 1-hour at a speed-limit of 75mph, was a 2+hour torturous and incredibly scary creep across the state to our normal exit.
At the toll for our exit I asked folks what the word was for 69-south, and was told "about like this". Not that I liked it much, but I figured I could handle more of it. Didn't really have a choice.
They were WRONG! Was bad-but-ok for about 10-miles, then it devolved into "guess where the highway is". We had barely one lane open, it had never been plowed, was snow-packed and you could tell that it was merely a guess where the highway actually was! 20mph was "too fast" for conditions and it was Beyond Awful! I gave up and headed back to the highway to head to Tulsa to take a longer way around. That was also nightmarish.
Finally got to Tulsa as the light was starting to go. By that time I was getting close to being a mess from fighting the roads all day. Also, the sheer amazingly high number of cars off the road, some in spectacularly horrific crashes, was taking its toll on me. Traffic was also heavy in Tulsa, and there were lots of "new" accidents being worked. I was about at the end of my rope and ...
We holed up for the night, far from home:
...we eventually stopped at a Best Western for the night. Thankfully they had plenty of rooms, but still! Our Christmas Dinner came from a stop at a QT. Mom had a corn dog and Campbell's tomato soup, I also had soup and ate a can of Chef Boy R Dee Ravioli. Cold. Using one of my hair-sticks as chopsticks in lieu of a fork, which I didn't have. There was tea, as I'd packed some. And we were alive, which had seemed rather a dicey prospect much of the day.
The thing is, when driving in conditions like that you really can't permit yourself to worry or tense or panic, that only makes things worse. So, for HOURS, I'd been forcing myself to relax, to remain alert, to be ready for anything but not to be fretting about it all. And, I admit, I did all of that WELL. However, once we were holed up, it all HIT, and hit HARD. All the panic and fear and doubt and worry I'd been shunting aside all day to keep us alive hit mostly at once and I became a total WRECK. Shaking. Crying. I felt AWFUL! I've had horror-drives in snowy conditions before, but nothing like this, and always before I was solo. It's one thing to face the possibility of death alone. It's quite another to know that a mistake (or just bad luck) could also kill or seriously injure my mom. In retrospect I think I handled it about as well as I could have, but I didn't handle it well, by any stretch.
Special thanks to rogue461 who "talked me down" out of my delayed reaction. You were more help than I can say, my friend, and I'm forever grateful to you. I eventually calmed enough to sleep, which I desperately, desperately needed!
Finished the trip:
We awoke on the 26th, checked out, and were on the road around 8am. Had awful snow-pack and slippery conditions for the first hour or a bit more, and took the wrong turn which threatened to take us down an AWFUL road, but backtracked to the turnpike and things started to get better. By the start of the 2nd hour things were actually approaching "normal". Highways were mostly clear, mostly dry, and the spots that were wet were wet, not frozen. By the end of Hour 2 we were back at "cruising speed", flying south. It wasn't an easy drive, as I was still reeling from the day before, but it wasn't difficult, either. Made it to my brother's house about 1:30pm on the 26th, instead of the 8pm we'd hoped for on the 25th. But at least we were alive, and I was ok except for needing some serious down-time and sleep!!
Aftershock...We unloaded (ok, they unloaded, they were FAST while I took a much needed break) and we unpacked all the gifts we'd brought and arranged everything under the tree. My brother had arranged with his ex to keep the kids a bit longer than originally planned so we had a couple of hours at the house before the kids arrived, and I even managed a desperately needed 30-min nap.
I'm still feeling the effects of that drive. I made it, and we didn't really even have any close-calls, but I hope never to do that again. I'm desperately tired but felt like I couldn't sleep until I got some of this down in my journal.
Christmas, though belated, turned out very well. I love the gifts I was given, the gifts I gave were loved in return, and we all made out like bandits! Dinner was a ham, which is a favorite of mine, and we closed the evening with some crafts (Puzzle Balls and SPIROGRAPHS!) and games (EcoFluxx!) before we turned in for the night.
I'm grumpy, mostly from the stress and exhaustion, but trying to control it. Have announced my intention to sleep in tomorrow, hope I can. Hope I manage a LOT of sleep in the next several days. I need it.
The kids are great, though youngest niece is sick and we're not really sure why. Lots and lots of medical tests show that she's perfectly healthy but she's barely able to eat, and throws up most of what she does get down. She's lost weight though had put on weight in the last year so she's not reached 'skinny' just yet. It's heartbreaking to see her try to make a dinner of a few dry crackers while we feast on ham, but it's all she can manage, and can't always manage that! (yes, they're continuing to see an army of doctors and having more tests to get a firm diagnosis)
Not sure what all the plans are for this week. I'd like to hit a few fabric stores. There will be lots of gaming! The S family is coming over (or we're going there) for even more gaming and togetherness which will be fun.
The drive home is Sunday, January 3. If snow is threatened, we'll go to Plan B. Not sure what that is just yet....
Merry Christmas, everyone!
If you've friended me on FB you've seen the highlights...
First there was snow:
After 2 or so days of hard rains and warm temps, we left home in plummeting temps and snow. Highways were forecast to look good (until, possibly, Oklahoma) and since I'm a reasonably decent driver, we set out. Figured Oklahoma had all day to plow and salt, and with luck we'd be ok once we got there.
The first few hours were pretty awful. The roads were ok, but there was a lot of snow and it was blowing LOTS. The wind was quite strong and I was driving mom's Blazer, which is a LOT bigger and boxier than my tiny car. Was a struggle to keep it between the lines, and it was slow because of the blowing snow. Shortly before we hit Rolla the combination of falling and blowing snow got really, really bad, almost to white-out, and I seriously considered whether or not to turn around. Thankfully it never got all the way to white-out and didn't stay there very long at all. By the time we hit the next exit several miles later it was back to what I'd considered "normal". Icky winter, but not impossible.
Things got much better after Rolla, and, for a while after we left Springfield, the roads were clean and dry and I was able to spend about an hour with cruise-control on at about 3 mph over the posted limit. Nice indeed! Managed to do that all the way to the MO-OK border!
Then it got AWFUL!
When we hit the state line I had to hit my brakes immediately! The change in the highway was DRAMATIC to say the least. Where the MO highway was clean and dry, the OK highway looked like it hadn't been PLOWED. It was snow-packed, barely 2 lanes (only 1 lane some places) It was incredibly hazardous to even try to go 40mph, though I gave it my best. They'd put a bit of salt down on some of the bridges, but it was incredibly bumpy and slippery and scary as cars did try to pass each other. What should have been a drive of less than 1-hour at a speed-limit of 75mph, was a 2+hour torturous and incredibly scary creep across the state to our normal exit.
At the toll for our exit I asked folks what the word was for 69-south, and was told "about like this". Not that I liked it much, but I figured I could handle more of it. Didn't really have a choice.
They were WRONG! Was bad-but-ok for about 10-miles, then it devolved into "guess where the highway is". We had barely one lane open, it had never been plowed, was snow-packed and you could tell that it was merely a guess where the highway actually was! 20mph was "too fast" for conditions and it was Beyond Awful! I gave up and headed back to the highway to head to Tulsa to take a longer way around. That was also nightmarish.
Finally got to Tulsa as the light was starting to go. By that time I was getting close to being a mess from fighting the roads all day. Also, the sheer amazingly high number of cars off the road, some in spectacularly horrific crashes, was taking its toll on me. Traffic was also heavy in Tulsa, and there were lots of "new" accidents being worked. I was about at the end of my rope and ...
We holed up for the night, far from home:
...we eventually stopped at a Best Western for the night. Thankfully they had plenty of rooms, but still! Our Christmas Dinner came from a stop at a QT. Mom had a corn dog and Campbell's tomato soup, I also had soup and ate a can of Chef Boy R Dee Ravioli. Cold. Using one of my hair-sticks as chopsticks in lieu of a fork, which I didn't have. There was tea, as I'd packed some. And we were alive, which had seemed rather a dicey prospect much of the day.
The thing is, when driving in conditions like that you really can't permit yourself to worry or tense or panic, that only makes things worse. So, for HOURS, I'd been forcing myself to relax, to remain alert, to be ready for anything but not to be fretting about it all. And, I admit, I did all of that WELL. However, once we were holed up, it all HIT, and hit HARD. All the panic and fear and doubt and worry I'd been shunting aside all day to keep us alive hit mostly at once and I became a total WRECK. Shaking. Crying. I felt AWFUL! I've had horror-drives in snowy conditions before, but nothing like this, and always before I was solo. It's one thing to face the possibility of death alone. It's quite another to know that a mistake (or just bad luck) could also kill or seriously injure my mom. In retrospect I think I handled it about as well as I could have, but I didn't handle it well, by any stretch.
Special thanks to rogue461 who "talked me down" out of my delayed reaction. You were more help than I can say, my friend, and I'm forever grateful to you. I eventually calmed enough to sleep, which I desperately, desperately needed!
Finished the trip:
We awoke on the 26th, checked out, and were on the road around 8am. Had awful snow-pack and slippery conditions for the first hour or a bit more, and took the wrong turn which threatened to take us down an AWFUL road, but backtracked to the turnpike and things started to get better. By the start of the 2nd hour things were actually approaching "normal". Highways were mostly clear, mostly dry, and the spots that were wet were wet, not frozen. By the end of Hour 2 we were back at "cruising speed", flying south. It wasn't an easy drive, as I was still reeling from the day before, but it wasn't difficult, either. Made it to my brother's house about 1:30pm on the 26th, instead of the 8pm we'd hoped for on the 25th. But at least we were alive, and I was ok except for needing some serious down-time and sleep!!
Aftershock...We unloaded (ok, they unloaded, they were FAST while I took a much needed break) and we unpacked all the gifts we'd brought and arranged everything under the tree. My brother had arranged with his ex to keep the kids a bit longer than originally planned so we had a couple of hours at the house before the kids arrived, and I even managed a desperately needed 30-min nap.
I'm still feeling the effects of that drive. I made it, and we didn't really even have any close-calls, but I hope never to do that again. I'm desperately tired but felt like I couldn't sleep until I got some of this down in my journal.
Christmas, though belated, turned out very well. I love the gifts I was given, the gifts I gave were loved in return, and we all made out like bandits! Dinner was a ham, which is a favorite of mine, and we closed the evening with some crafts (Puzzle Balls and SPIROGRAPHS!) and games (EcoFluxx!) before we turned in for the night.
I'm grumpy, mostly from the stress and exhaustion, but trying to control it. Have announced my intention to sleep in tomorrow, hope I can. Hope I manage a LOT of sleep in the next several days. I need it.
The kids are great, though youngest niece is sick and we're not really sure why. Lots and lots of medical tests show that she's perfectly healthy but she's barely able to eat, and throws up most of what she does get down. She's lost weight though had put on weight in the last year so she's not reached 'skinny' just yet. It's heartbreaking to see her try to make a dinner of a few dry crackers while we feast on ham, but it's all she can manage, and can't always manage that! (yes, they're continuing to see an army of doctors and having more tests to get a firm diagnosis)
Not sure what all the plans are for this week. I'd like to hit a few fabric stores. There will be lots of gaming! The S family is coming over (or we're going there) for even more gaming and togetherness which will be fun.
The drive home is Sunday, January 3. If snow is threatened, we'll go to Plan B. Not sure what that is just yet....
Merry Christmas, everyone!