Our Journey to NorCal

So, the plan was to spend Christmas day at home, with some friends. We were going to get up in the wee hours of the day after Christmas, and begin our 13 1/2 hour drive home to Lake County, CA. But............. being that the kids got an early start on their Christmas break from school, due to a lot of snow, we were ready to get out of the house. Wednesday morning (Dec. 24) I decided that it might be a good idea to leave that day. Jeremy was at work, so I made the call to share my wonderful idea. He wasn't quite sure, but as usual, said "whatever". The boys and I started cleaning...hamster cages, litter boxes, kitchen, laundry... packing up clothes (not enough pjs I now know), and getting ourselves ready for the trip. Waaaaaaahooooooooooooooo....we are leaving today!!!!!

Jeremy came home, we got packed up and the animals all ready to be taken care of, by our wonderful neighbors, and headed out....twice.....

Did I mention that we were having snow flurries at the time? There was 18 or so inches of snow, and a couple inches of ice, on the ground already. Good idea? I don't know. We set out...nervously.

We got through Seattle just fine, Tacoma, fine, Olympia fine, then we got south of Olympia and it was basically blizzard conditions. Good idea? Maybe??? Ice on the I5. Really!!!!

So, it was pretty slow going. Trying to avoid the sheets and moguls of ice on the road.

Got through Washington! yay!! Only 500+ miles to go. Oh...what time was is? 9:30 ish.

Portland was okay. South of Portland, was a whole other story. Ice...lots of ice on the I5. Surrounded by ice. A couple inches this and frozen solid! Stay between the ice. Don't cross over the ice. Now it is blizzarding again. The snow was not coming down. It was swirling all around us. It was crazy!

Got to Salem, whew!!!! The roads and weather were fine from Salem to Grants Pass. Then the snow hit again. We made it to Ashland and had to put chains on. Chains from just north of Ashland all the way into California. Yay...we are in Cali!!! Time? Midnight. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Chains off for about an hour and then chains back on north of Dunsmuir. Another hour, chains off. This is about when I say.."I can't wait to get to Redding to make up for some lost time. We can go 75 after Redding." ha ha ha ha

20 minutes after chains off.....FLAT TIRE! No really. Pull off the I5 at 4 AM in the middle of nowhere!!!!! No gas station, nothing. Snowing. Freezing. Sleeping kids. Christmas. Did I mention 4 AM. Did I mention this trip began at 3 pm? I don't think I did. 13 hours into this blessed trip...flat. We have not had a flat since high school. Thankfully. And, thankfully, at this point we had a sense of humor about the whole trip. Why did we do this?

Back on the road at about 4:45. Had to unpack the trunk to get the spare and pack it all back up. Great fun in the snow in the middle of nowhere at 4:45 AM on Christmas morning.

How fast can we drive on our spare tire? 50 mph. yep! No 75 mph to make up any time. Losing time from here on out!

When we began this trip my gps said that our estimated arrival time to my parents' house was 4:16 am. We were still 4 hours away...if we had been going 75!

So...50 mph down I5 while others are going 75 and 80, with our hazards on!

Did I mention that I am a control freak and have been driving most of the way? TIRED!!!

We stopped in Corning and got the kids and Jeremy some breakfast. I got in the passenger seat and slept..finally...for about an hour. My parents didn't know that we were coming early. The kids wanted to surprise them. My mom kept calling to wish us a Merry Christmas, and I kept ignoring her so that I didn't have to lie. So, driving 50 mph, we arrived at my parents' house at 10:26 am. When was our original eta??? Oh, ya! So we suprised my mom and dad. Made my mom cry with joy and had an enjoyble Christmas with both of our families, but separately.

This was my dad when he saw us. I got a picture of my mom too, but I cannot post it, as she would surely kill me!

Then realized on Friday that Samuel had quite an injury and needed to be seen. Katie, Samuel and I spent a lot of Friday on a trip to the ER. But he is fine. Thank you, Lord! And on the mend.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

p.s. Needless to say, we are not looking forward to the return trip on Saturday!