Vacation...in Rawlins, WY?!

When going back and forth from Colorado Springs to BYU, my dad forbade my sisters and me to travel via I-80. He said you could get stranded and die out there and no one would even know! Perhaps he said this because he was protective of his girls, or maybe just knowing what poor "luck" our ancestors had when traveling across Wyoming, he didn't want us in the same predicament. Nonetheless, his words of caution proved to be true this weekend!

Mike, Andrew and I set off to Utah for a BYU information session for his MBA program this Fall. We had heard that there was some bad weather, but checked weather and roads all the way across Nebraska and Wyoming and only found light snow being reported. All roads seemed clear and safe, so we decided to leave a few hours early and travel mostly in daylight just to be safe. The trip started out great. The sun was shining and the temps were in the 70's. Andrew was happy with his bucket of toys and cute as can be. At one point he got quiet and I turned around half thinking he'd be asleep. Instead, this is how I found him, smirk and all! Ha! What a crack up! By 8:00 p.m. we came to a stand still on complete ice just 15 miles West of Rawlins, WY. After talking to some nice truckers, we learned that four semis had jack-knifed and 20 cars had piled up behind them! We sat there from 8p.m. to 12 a.m. Here is a picture of Andrew behind the wheel, happy as he could be to push all those buttons he always sees, but can't reach. What's not pictured is four long hours of trying to stay warm in 20 degree weather. We didn't know how long we'd be there, so we'd run our car for 10 minutes to heat it up, then turn it off for an hour. Andrew and I snuggled up in the back seat. He did pretty well considering circumstances, but it was kind of scary. We didn't have a ton of food, but we did have my trusty Luna Bars that I have loved this pregnancy (thanks Rach for getting me hooked!). Because I'm pregnant and eat every two hours, and having Andrew with us, we didn't like the idea of sitting on I-80 all night. Thankfully, we didn't have to!

Once they opened roads we chose to drive back to Rawlins, rather than 85 miles to Rock Springs. We got one of the last hotel rooms (some people didn't get hotel rooms and had to sleep in the local school or in their cars!) and were happy to be warm and safe. The next morning we learned that I-80 was closed both directions. In fact, every road heading out of Rawlins was closed! Here's Andrew taking his nap in our hotel room!
Around 1 p.m. the next day they opened I-80 Westbound so we decided to go to Utah! We got two miles outside of town and hit a patch of ice/snow/something and spun off the road and landed in a ditch! We braced ourselves for the car to roll, but thankfully we didn't. AAA got a tow truck out to us withing 20 minutes and had us out of the ditch. Here are some pics of us when we were just about out of the ditch of snow.

We were very lucky to get our hotel room back (they were actually booked when we called back, but someone cancelled a reservation). We finally decided we ought to make a vacation of this trip and bought Mike a swimsuit and some shorts for me (the pickings were slim in Rawlins, WY) and we hit the pool!
The next morning I-80 was open Easbound and we decided to just go home! We had a nice long drive and were so incredibly happy to pull into our driveway that night! So, we didn't make it to Utah, be we had a great family vacation to Rawlins, WY!