What a trip that was. Ok really just the trip down. Tonya moved up here in September and has decided to make some extra money by going back to Chico every 7 weeks to do hair. This happened to be one of her trips and we went with her. We hopped into the car at about 7 in the morning. It usually takes us 9 1/2 to 10 hours to get there. A couple of hours into the trip, Tonyas mom called us and told us that the roads were bad from Reno to Chico. We didn't worry about it because we checked the road reports before we left. Little did I know, we were supposed to check the weather reports too!
There ended up being a 12 car accident at the top of interstate 80 that left 4 people dead. It had been snowing pretty good. We got to Reno and stopped to find chains. That took us about an hour because either places were closed or didn't have chains! We just held onto them and waited until we thought we needed them. We took an alternate route to Chico through Quincy. It was snowing hard! The roads were covered, and it was thick. We finally decided that it was time to put the chains on. We stopped at a little gas station and asked a man who had stopped with his wife if they would help us put the chains on. We learned they were sooo flippin easy that we could have done it ourselves.
We drove for a good hour and a half with the chains on and then the roads were good enough that we thought we would be safe to pull over and take the chains off. Not 5 minutes later we come around this bend to a long line of cars at a dead stand still. We weren't sure what was going on because the beginning of the line was hidden around a bend. We sat there for quite a while. There were probably about 75 cars in front of us and the line behind us was growing too. At one point about an hour into our sit, we saw a car pass us from the other direction and thought, "Oh finally! we are moving!" but after another hour of just sitting, we realized that it was just a car from the front of the line that had turned around to head back to Quincy.
We chatted with the car in front of us and behind us. I even bet Tonya $2 that she wouldn't get out and flag the next car down and ask them what was going on up there. She did! We found out that a horse trailer had tipped over and was accross both lanes of traffic. The emergency vehicles were so busy with accidents all over that area that they would just get there when they did.
Fortunately we had just filled up with gas in Reno so we could leave the car running and the heater going. Unfortunately this trip had always gone so smoothly in the past that I didn't bring anything for my kids! No food, No bottle for Grant, nothing. We had stopped for food last at lunch time. We were so frantic about finding chains that we forgot about dinner. The kids were hungry and tired. Grant just sat there crying because he didn't understand. I was able to talk to other 2 into going to sleep. Tonya had grabbed a big bottle of water and bag of potato chips so we let them eat as many of those as they could and had big drinks of water. I just couldn't find a way to pacify Grant. I just sat in the front seat crying while I listened to my hungry baby crying in the back seat.
Some cops finally showed up. Still nothing happened. But one did stop about 30 cars back from us and looked like he was talking to the people. A while later, 2 boys came walking from the direction of the cops. I rolled down my window and asked if they knew anything. They didn't really have updates. I then (jokingly of course) said "Oh hey, if you guys find someone in your walking that has some milk, I have a baby in here the could really use some." One boy said to the other boy "hey, doesn't your mom have some milk in the cooler?" They walked all the way back to their car, and then all the way back to ours with a half gallon of milk. I cried as I thanked them, I really think they were sent up that line of cars for us. Truly our angels! I poured Grant a bottle which he drank and fell asleep. I looked back and he was asleep and hugging his bottle! It was the sweetest sight.
Not more than a few minutes later the horse trailer was hoisted up and moved off the road. It came driving past us with what looked like minimal damage. We were on our way again. The funny part was that we were less than an hour from home! Less than an hour later we were snug in our beds at Grandpa and Grannys house! We felt a sort of bond with these people that we had sat in this line with. Which by the way ended up being 3 hours that we sat in the same spot! Our trip ended up taking us over 17 hours.
It was truly an adventure. I now know how to put chains on and take them off. I will never travel unprepared again! My children will have more than enough food and diapers! And the weather reports will be checked along with the road reports. I am so glad we all made it safely. Thanks Tonya for being my buddy through all that!
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