stuck and going nowhere fast

We had a great time in Gillette last week. It was nice to sit around and relax! My grandma came over for a few days too and had fun playing with Brecken with his cars. The Easter Bunny left lots of new cars for B, so he was in 7th Heaven.



Yesterday we headed back for home. After Casper, you have two choices for which way you want to continue on to Saratoga- through Medicine Bow or through Rawlins. Each is the same amount of time, and one usually has a bit better roads. We chose to go through Rawlins. As it turned out, that was the WRONG choice!! We left Rawlins and the sign was blinking to tell us the road was closed at Sinclair, 6 miles up the interstate. So we stop at the gate that was keeping the road closed and talked to the highway patrolman, who said that there was a bad 12 car/semi pileup at Ft. Steele, another 10 miles up the interstate and they were working to get it cleaned up. So we pulled in the truck stop parking lot along with at least 100 other cars, thinking it would be an hour or so. We got B out of his car seat and he sat up with Josh in the driver's seat, "driving". He looked out the window at all the cars and said, "Oh geeze." HAHAHAHAHA. I didn't know he knew that phrase! He said it a few more times and we cracked up. :) After about an hour, Jeffrey called because he and Beth were on their way back to Lyman and passed the wreck- he said nothing had been cleaned up yet. So, knowing it was going to be a while, we made our way back to Rawlins. We stopped at the TA Truck Stop in Rawlins and said hi to Beth and Jeff for a very fast minute so they could get back on the roads before the snow, which was falling, became worse. We let B pick out a treat from the truck stop and we settled in one of the tiny little booths from Subway, which was inside the truck stop. This was a much NICER truck stop than the one in Sinclair- no smoke smell, had tables, and was a lot cleaner and friendlier.



There were a ton of people at the TA that were stranded with us, and there was a line of semi trucks so long that I couldn't see the end of it. There was a grandma and grandpa with their granddaughter who was probably 7 or so, and they were sitting next to us. The grandpa asked B if he wanted one of their bananas, and was just really nice. And through this whole thing, B could've been a monster and I wouldn't have blamed him, but he was AWESOME. With no toys or anything, he just sat at our booth and watched out the window and watched the people in the store with us. A few times he wanted down and would run around for a minute or two but then would sit down again. He was incredible.

Josh had been in touch with the dispatcher from Saratoga's police dept., who was giving us updates from the Highway Patrol. As we were sitting and waiting, waiting, waiting, we got the bad news that National Weather Service had called and said we were getting a big storm at 7:30 (bigger than what we were getting already!) and that the HP wasn't going to let anyone through on the interstate. Even "local traffic" (those of us that live in Saratoga). That totally bummed me out. We were making plans to stay overnight in the truck stop when Josh got a call at 8:00 or so from a guy he knows, who was also stuck in Rawlins, saying the HP was letting us go through. So we hurried up and got ready and headed out. It was pretty eerie- the usually very busy interstate had two of us on there- our car and the guy Josh knows. However, I much prefer that to traveling with all those trucks and the 7 bazillion cars that were waiting to get out!!

I would've documented the whole exciting ordeal with pictures, but my camera battery died in Gillette and of course I didn't have my charger! BUT, we're all home safe and sound.