With the vomiting a two-times-and-done incident for each kid and James' fever almost gone, we quickly threw everything together for our trip this morning and hit the road (a couple hours later than planned). The kids were already entertained, Jay installed new all-weather wiper blades (in anticipation of "freezing rain" once we got to Texas), and the cooler was packed with plenty of snacks. We made great time over the river and through Louisiana to Shreveport, at which point we had to break to buy jackets, since we smartly left ours at home. At first we thought we could get by without them (who cares if it's below freezing outside when you're planning to stay inside the 84-degree waterpark for 3 days?!), but as we neared the Texas border and constantly refreshed our weather apps, we realized it was very likely we were going to get stuck in the cold at some point... New jackets in hand, we set off for Grapevine. The temperature was 75 when we left Vicksburg and 72 in Shreveport, but once we crossed the border to Texas we lost a degree of heat for every 5 miles we drove. It was insane to watch the thermostat drop like that. We switched drivers in Shreveport expecting the freezing rain, and knowing that Jay handles adverse driving conditions better than I do. Unfortunately, we had no idea things would get as bad as they did. A thunderstorm that blocked visibility beyond 5-10 feet (I'm not kidding - I was terrified) turned into freezing rain and sleet, then hail and ice, then thundersnow. Did you know thundersnow exists? Neither did we. Let me tell you, when you're creeping along the interstate at 5mph and hear thunderous booms as the snow falls, you get a little scared. What should have taken us 3 hours to get from the border to the hotel ended up taking us 6 hours. There was bumper-to-bumper traffic crawling at 10-20mph for HOURS, accidents and spin-outs all over the place, slippery crunchy frozen slush, and eventually, exhausted kids and grumpy parents. We thought things would be better in the city, but there were so many accidents, and the emergency response vehicles couldn't keep up with the sand/salt need over the many roads and highways, so there were literally people stuck on inclines (overpasses, on ramps, etc.), re-routing themselves to backtrack to exits in the hopes the surface roads would be better. They weren't. Somehow Sandy directed us through the mess (via text and her speedy internet updates) and we arrived in one piece at the hotel. I have NEVER been more grateful to get out of the car. EVER.
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| Not even on the highway and James is sucked into his LeapPad |
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| Thank goodness for the new wiper blades! |
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| Before the storm, a late lunch, a still sickly Cora |
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| Freezing rain and hail (and iced over windows) |
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| Thundersnow! |
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| Iced over slush (crunch crunch crunch...) |
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| Snow boogers on the van at an emergency potty stop. And then it all REALLY stopped being amusing. |
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