Baby Invasion: January 2007

I had planned this last Saturday to go to Salida which is a three hour drive into the mountains for my cousin’s wife’s baby shower. Friday it snowed and so I thought I wasn’t going to be able to go but Saturday my Aunt called and said that the roads were better. So off we (me Sam and Anna) went to Salida. The trip down there took about an extra 20 minutes or so because of snow blowing across the road and patches of snow pack and ice but overall it was a really smooth trip. I planned on staying for the shower, spending some time with my family and then heading home. However about half way there I called my Dad who reminded me that everything would be turning into ice after dark. So at that point I was pretty sure I needed to stay the night. I did and it was really nice. After the shower we went and visited with some friends for awhile and then we went to my Aunt’s house. We had fun. The guys were working on cars in the garage so Sam did his very best to get in there with them every chance he could. Us girls sat in the living room and talked about baby stuff. Then Grandma called and I packed up the kids so we could go visit her for awhile. It was so nice. We looked at old pictures and she played with the babies. It was getting late by then so we headed back to my Aunt’s. The guys were still working on the car so we hung out some more until they finished. Then we followed my cousin Laura and her husband Adam over to the cabins. That’s right the cabins. My Aunt works for a place that rents out cabins with hot springs. When people cancel like they happened to that weekend she or family can stay for free. So we did and it was great. Each cabin has its own little hot spring. I didn’t go in but it looked very nice. The shower in the cabin also pipes in the hot spring’s water so I did take a very hot shower once the kids were asleep. It was terrific. The cabin had a wood heat stove and a fireplace. It was so cool. We drank hot chocolate in front of the fireplace. So my plan was to head out the next morning at seven to make it back for bible study but after driving over to the cabins with things frozen over I re-thought that decision. It was like an ice skating rink out there. So I ended up leaving the next morning after some of the snow and ice had melted. Now I logically concluded that since my trip the day before had been pretty nice and it hadn’t snowed again the trip back should be just as nice or nicer. I was wrong. What I did not count on were massive winds that would cause a ground blizzard. So there I was me and the babies the middle of the ground blizzard. It was so scary. Things would be okay for awhile and then a huge gust of wind would hit carrying enough snow with it to completely white out everything in front of me for two to three seconds. Now I don’t know if anyone reading this has ever driven with there eyes closed but that was about what it felt like when the ground blizzard hit. I was going pretty slowly because even when there wasn’t a whiteout visibility was still very low. I could only see about forty to fifty feet in front of the car. However there were people still going fifty five or faster so I was concerned that someone might be coming up behind me and not see me and cream me. I was also worried about someone coming into my lane and not knowing until the very last split second. I was worried about going off the road because there was snow on either side and I didn’t want to get stuck in that kind of weather. I called Chris and asked quickly asked him to pray. A few minutes after I called Chris another ground blizzard hit. When it cleared there was a small bridge about ten feet in front of me. Normally these bridges are no big deal but because of the wind blowing the snow there was about two feet of snow on the right side of my lane piled against the guardrail and then out into the middle of my lane. With no time to react and go around I hit the snow with my right two tires and snow pack and ice with my left two tires which caused the car to go right toward guardrail. When this happened it caused the other front tire to dig into the snow which swung both back tires onto the icy snow pack. This made the car to go sideways into the other lane of traffic. Suddenly I hit the guardrail with the back corner bumper of the driver’s side which knocked me back into the road and I was able to get back to my side. Praise God!!! I immediately started praising God and thanking Him because I know it was His hand on the car that saved me and my babies. So many things could have gone horribly wrong but they didn’t because God was right there. About ten minutes later I got to the next town and called Chris. He had the same reaction I did and just started thanking and praising the Lord. The rest of the trip was long because of the detour. The road I was on was closed the rest of the way to Denver. I had to go over a scary mountain pass around corners in first and second gear. Then when I finally made it to a major Highway it was super backed up. It took us about seven hours to get home. But praise the Lord we got home and are doing great. So there is our latest adventure.