Okay, so my attempt at this entry will be fast and short and to the point. I would love to elaborate on details right now of my crazy drive across the country to get to Tennessee, and then tell of the excitment that I have experiences thus far, but I just can't find the time. So using a paper journal that I have jotted notes down in I will attempt to update everyone on my little life....

Last week, Thursday night, a week ago today, you get the point, Randi and Chris wanted to hang out with us one last time before we left. Cool we all thought. No big deal. Well, that was until they kept me from getting all my laundry done, stayed until 2 in the morning, and we were no where near ready to leave by 6 AM. We didn't wake up till 11:00. Remember now that my plan was to leave out at 6AM. We finally left around 1:00. But then had to stop at Walmart for that oh so important "last minute stuff" we just HAD to have before hitting the road. So we weren't officially on the raod until 2:00PM. The husband was livid. (Before I go any further, I just want to state that we're NOT mad at Chris and Randi for staying over late, we just wish that we didn't let it happen.) Okay, so anyway. After a while of driving, the husband calms down. We reach Ogden, Utah. A small little town and we decide to stop for lunch/dinner whatever and let Kailee play in the McDonald's thing. That was actually a great idea.

Then we're back on the road. Around 5:00PM Friday afternoon. Things are fine. Weather is perfect. We reach Wyoming, stop for a bathroom break, and get back on the road. At this point, it's night, around 9:00PM. The husband had been driving the entire time. I decided I should nap for a while, and I would take over driving later that evening so he could nap. Well, that changed.

We started to see white stuff hitting the windsheild. I honestly couldn't tell if it was bugs, snow, sleet, or rain. No clue. So I stick my hand out the window and it was definately snow. Roads were clear though, so we didn't stop in the last little town before it becomes NOTHINGNESS for miles. No, we thought it'd be fine. Boy were were wrong. WRONG. The snow thickened, and the roads got worst. Zero visibility. ZERO! Semi-trucks were speeding by us, almost hitting us too. It was very scary. VERY. SCARY. I thought we were going to get hit bad. We were looking for an exit with services for miles. NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. The state of Wyoming is literally no man's land! We drove on at 20 miles an hour for two hours before we FINALLY came upon a small service station. I made the husband stop, I couldn't handle it anymore. We got out and went to ask the clerk how the weather was going on out. She said bad, but we weren't far from the small town of Laramie, Wyoming, and we could stop there to spend the night. Well, we were not prepared for cold weather. I had light jackets with us, and some pairs of long pants so did the husband as well. We layered our clothes up, like four layers because we were concerned about running off the road and being stuck for hours. We then decide to hit the road again. It was still bad, but for only a few miles. We actually reached a speed of 60 with out sliding. So we decided to go on out of Wyoming like we had planned. But just then, when we decided that, we hit some ice, BLACK ICE, and slid for about 500 feet. That was it. We pulled off at the next exit and spent that night.

We did check the weather, and it was supposed to clear up, and not snow again in that area till later the next day. So we go to sleep and deicde to head out around 9:00AM the next morning. Well now it's Saturday, 8:00AM and my Mother calls us. She says to get the hell outta there and get out fast. The weather changed and more snow, lots of snow was coming back in. So, we rushed out in like 10 minutes. We hit the road again, and boom, right in the middle of a blizzard we were! It was awful. Scary and awful. We braced ourself for the worst. Praying every second. We had to go up a huge fucking mountain with an elevation of about 12,000 ft called Laramie Pass. Then we had to go back down it. It was the worst thing I had ever been through in my life. I was never more scared for my life, or my family's life ever! When we finally get out of the mountains and come down in elevation, the snow settled, and the roads were better. Then we got in Nebraska. Nebraska was nice. Good weather, clear roads, and it was FLAT. No mountains to drive through.

The worst part of this all was we were thinking that if we had just gone to bed on time Thursday night we would have gotten up and left on time and we would have beaten the blizzard and not had to drive through it. So we were definately kicking our own asses for that one.

Finally by Saturday evening we were in Missouri and we stop for some dinner. I get outta the car and lock my keys in there! Yea, as if the trip didn't have enough craziness already. We called the locksmith and went on. Back on the road we head through Kansas City, Missouri. Then across the state head towards St. Louis. Well, we were getting tired and my Mother was begging us to stop and spend the night soon. So I decided to start looking for a hotel. We stop at a gas station for a bathroom break and I'm walking around with Kailee letting her stretch her legs when my husband comes up and tells me to get in the car fast. I do and as we were leaving there was a gang, not kidding, a true gang grouped out in the parking lot starting to fuck with this Mexican family that was there. It was sad. Poor people weren't doing anything wrong, but this gang of guys was fucking with them, and it was just sad. So we had a run in with a gang sort of. So we decided to stop and start looking for a place to stay just west of St. Louis. No vacancies. I will never forget how those words rang in my head at many many hotels. NO VACANCIES. I mean we must have stopped at 10 hotels. We drove on through St. Louis, and still nothing. Crossed the Misssissippi river and in the state of Illinois and FINALLY we found a hotel to stay at. Thank GOD for the state of Illinois! But by this time it was already 4:00 AM. Nice.

So knowing that we were only about 4 hours from home, we decided to sleep in. No more exciting stuff happened thank God and it was so great to see the "Welcome to Tennessee" sign when we crossed the state line.

We arrived at my husband's parents house around 5:00 and I went on to see my mother around 6:00. And I'll tell the story of this past week in my lovely HOME state of Tennessee another date. I have to get going now. Need sleep! Hope everyone is great and have a good rest of the week!

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