Home Again, Home Again

At the end of March, we made an unexpected trip to Idaho. We went to see my Grandpa George who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that had metastasized to his liver. The trip was wonderful in that we got to visit with him and the kids got to see him. He was still feeling fairly well so we spent all of our time with him talking and laughing.

The trip was supposed to be a short one: one day to drive up, three days to visit, and one day home. The drive up required chains over the Sierra's. It was a little precarious as it was white out conditions complete with a jack knifed big rig sliding down the mountain toward us at one point. We hit the pass at midnight and white knuckled the two hours it took us to make it over and in the clear.

Wednesday was our day to depart. After our spontaneous birthday party for Lexi, we head out later than planned. We didn't get to Winnemuca until after 9 p.m. that night. The snow was already coming down and we were tired. We decided to set up camp and make our way to Reno in the morning.

Snow coming down in Winnemuca

We ate a quick breakfast and made the trek to Reno. The weather had different plans. The pass was closed. Snow was coming down in sheets in Reno. We knew we had no choice but to hole up another night.

I told Allen we should stay at Circus Circus. Cheap rooms, fun kids activities and a good night's rest. To my shock and disbelief, he'd never been to Circus Circus. He'd been through Reno a bazillion times, but never stopped off to play the games. It was settled!

We had such fun playing the games. They give you coupons so you can play tons of games for a pretty reasonable price. Every half an hour, they have a live circus act perform on the center stage, too. The kids were over the moon.

The next day, we hustled to get ready and get home. We kept hearing talk that the pass was still closed, but we wanted to check it out for ourselves. We drove the twenty miles to the checkpoint and watched car after car after truck turn around and head back toward Reno. Sure enough, there had been an avalanche. They told us to check back in about an hour. The nearest gas station and restaurant was chock full of eager and road weary travelers. We knew that as soon as they cleared the roads, the line to get on the highway would be forever long. We were feeling a little defeated. We just wanted to get home at this point. After some fighting animated discussion, we drove back to Boomtown to enjoy their little indoor game set up.

Air Hockey

Some kind of bucking thing. The kids loved it. Especially the 35  year old one.

As you can see, we got everyone all spiffed up for the occasion.

Exactly 45 minutes later, we tried again. We pulled up and they had just opened the road! There was no line and the sky looked clear. As we got closer and closer to the summit, we soon saw why it had been closed in the first place.

Fuel for the road. What if we got stranded?

It was SO slow going. And can we talk about the idiots who were trying to pass the other cars? Allen and I agreed that if they caused a wreck we would be the first on scene: to kick them in the shins! Forget pulling them from the wreckage, we were going to hit them while they were down.

We left Boise at 5 p.m. on Wednesday and, finally, after 2 days on the road, we made it home at 5 p.m. on Friday with just enough time to get ready for the big birthday bash on Saturday!