Stupid Snow

Ok, I know it is pretty close to winter, but c'mon! We got hit with a freaking blizzard last Friday just after we left town for a road trip. I have to say it ruined the "awe, first snow of the season" for me. Here is the story.

Last Friday Mike and I had the girls and all our stuff loaded up in the Explorer ready to head over to Puyallup. We took the utility trailer because my wonderful brother is donating a TON of stuff to the Baby Holliday cause. Isn't it nice having an older sibling!?!? We left Eburg at about 6 p.m. and just finished watching the evening news where a nice lady was standing on top of Snoqualmie Pass saying how it was just raining and snowing a little, but otherwise conditions were good. GREAT! We headed out, made it about 20 miles outside of town and snow started. Ok, let's give that 4 wheel drive a try for the first time! Everything was fine, we slowed down to about 50 mph but were going along. THEN............BLIZZARD!!! OMG! It was insane. Out of nowhere it started snowing like crazy! Huge snowflakes coming from every which way. Mike could hardly see. We are now down to 20 mph with the hazards on - remember we have the trailer on the back and it doesn't have running lights, so hazards were a must. We went about 10 miles or so like this. 20 mph, 10 miles, you do the math...it took forever and we haven't even started up the mountain. Of course we have the yahoo's passing us going way too fast which added to the level of stress. Finally Mike said he was calling it, that this was crazy and we haven't even made it to the pass. Just then we see one of the before mentioned yahoo's on the side of the road in the ditch. That clinched it for us. Been there, done that!! We finally were able to get off and turn around. Saw 3 more cars in the ditch on the way back and westbound traffic was at a standstill because of a wreck in the middle of the road. You couldn't even read the signs on the side of the road, they were covered in snow. It was like this all the way back to Ellensburg. Mike checked the trip odometer, we went 66 miles total and took us just over 2 hours. Super fun. We also checked the pass when we got home and it was closed both directions.

I was so bummed I missed out on the weekend. We were suppose to spend the night in Puyallup and then head to the Oregon coast to see my family before winter hit. I guess next year we will make it a late summer trip because you never know when winter will hit around here!

We ended up having a nice, relaxing weekend. But still, would have much rather spent it hanging out with the family. Oh well, we might try again - really pulling for a Pineapple Express, but I have a feeling winter has just started. Ugh.