Let it snow, let it snow...MAKE IT STOP!!!

Hello friends. As promised, I'm back to tell more stories.

So...this year for Thanksgiving, it was our turn to go spend it with Jacob's family in Washington. Seeing as how Thanksgiving is in November, we usually fly there. However, this year funds were pretty slim so against our better judgement we decided to drive. You see, we have driven in the past with disastrous results (these results consisting of near-apocolyptic blizzards), and I made very solemn vows to myself not to EVER drive there in the winter again. But...it's amazing how things change when it comes to finances.

A few days prior to our departure I started obsessively hanging out on weather.com, looking up cities along our route to see what the weather would be for our drive. It actually appeared to be pretty decent at first, but the day before we left I saw that we were most likely going to hit a little snow. A LITTLE snow. Ha.

Anyhoo, on Tuesday morning we got up at 4:15am and were on the road by 5:00. During fair weather, the drive to Seattle is 13-15 hrs...but since I figured the weather wasn't going to be all peaches n' cream I wanted to make sure we gave ourselves plenty of time so we'd arrive at a decent hour. Again, ha.

Things were fine at first...we drove for a few hours and made it across the Idaho border without incident. There was snow on the ground but none falling. Once we were about 30 miles from Twin Falls (where we were going to stop to refuel and I was going to take a potty break), the wind really picked up and there were these random patches of road where the snow had been blowing across and had turned to ice. Annoying, but not anything I couldn't handle (I was behind the wheel at the time). However, things became increasingly worse and by the time we were about 20 miles from Twin Falls, the weather had gone from mild to extremely blustery and snowy. A couple miles later we came to a complete stop--cars were backed up as far as the eye could see. Not good. Especially not good for the pregnant lady who needed to pee.

We waited. And waited. Jacob got out of the car and walked up the road a way to try to see what was going on...he dug someone's car out of the snow but they weren't the reason we were at a standstill. He came back and we waited some more. An hour passed. Jacob got out of the car and walked up the road again, this time determined to find the actual cause of everyone being stopped.

In the meantime, I tried to focus on anything other than the fact that I really had to pee. My 2 babies teasing me by hanging out on my bladder, moving off it, and then coming back again was really not making it easy. Eventually, it became apparent to me that even if everyone started moving again at that exact moment, there was no way I was going to make it all the way to Twin Falls to use a restroom. Awesome. In a panic I started looking around the car. Jacob had assured me that he would adequately cover me should I need to go on the side of the road, but I was not sold on that idea (besides the fact that I doubted that he could shield me from everyone's eyes, who the hell wants to pee outside in the middle of a blizzard?? Uh, definitely not me). There had to be something, right?

And then I spotted a can of Pringles...we'd eaten about two-thirds of them. Determined, I grabbed it and started shoving pringles in my mouth. I soon realized that I wasn't going to be able to down all of them without making myself sick, so I looked around for something to put them in. We'd brought a box of fruit snacks and had already eaten most of them, so I ended up putting the rest of the pringles in the box w/the few packets of fruit snacks that were left, then I climbed into the back seat and did what any desperate pregnant woman would have done (maybe). Fortunately, I'd turned off the engine so the windows were all fogged up and I was confident no one could see. After using the makeshift toilet paper I'd created (notebook paper I'd been crinkling and uncrinkling), I shoved the lid back on and climbed back into the front seat.

A few minutes later Jacob came back and apologetically informed me that there was a huge accident about 3 miles up the road...a semi had jack-knifed and a UPS truck had run into it so the road was completely blocked...and it was still going to be a while before we'd be going anywhere. I told him that was fine, I was good. He gave me an odd look since prior to now I'd been rather loudly complaining of the lack of a bathroom...so I had to explain to him what I'd done. He was simultaneously shocked and pleased with my...ingenuity...?

Anyway...FINALLY after 2 hours of sitting, we got moving again. Then we hit snow again in Oregon and Washington...and ended up arriving at my in-laws' house at midnight. 20 hours in the car...sweeeeeet.

Surely the way home would be better, right? NOPE. We once again hit snow in Washington and Oregon, and then in Idaho we hit some more...IN THE SAME AREA. Damn you, Twin Falls. Actually, damn you Idaho. They closed the freeway so we had to drive clear the hell out of our way to Pocatello where we finally were able to meet up with I-15. That was an extra 2 and a half hrs which ended up making the drive back a grand total of...you guessed it...20 hours in the car.

So this is me, stating for the record with the entire blogging world as my witness...we will NEVER drive to Washington for Thanksgiving again. EVER.

And I really, really, hate Idaho.