I’ve been on many road trips. Growing up, my family drove from Southern California to Central Utah every summer to visit my grandmother. Something always happened either coming or going there. The radiator would overheat going up the steep grade on I-15, or we’d hit a downpour of rain and couldn’t see two feet in front of us. Nothing was as bad, though, as making the drive from California to Colorado Springs in the middle of winter. 1200 miles with my husband Reid in his car with our Labrador, Max; our 20-year-old daughter Aerin in her car with her 4-month-old son, and me in our minivan with our 14-year-old son Carter. Our older son Brent was going to stay in CA.
We got how far?
We didn’t get very far that first night. I’m not fond of driving in unfamiliar territory at night, so we stopped in Barstow, CA for the night. Reid and I were in one room with Max, and Aerin, Carter, and the baby were in the room next to us.
The hotel from Hell
We got up early the next morning and hoped to get into New Mexico that day, but that didn’t work out. With a 4-month-old baby, we had to stop every 3-4 hours so he could be fed and changed. Each time we stopped it was 20 minutes before we’d be back on the road. It was getting dark, so we decided to stop in Ash Fork, Arizona. We found a motel that allowed dogs in the rooms, but the rooms were horrendous. Paint chips on the floor, cracks in the walls, the windows looked like they hadn’t seen a cloth in ages. We put our sleeping bags and blankets on top of the beds, as we didn’t dare get into the beds. We were quite happy to leave there the next morning.
Nails and ice
We made it to Albuquerque at about 8 o’clock that night. A much better hotel and we all slept soundly that night, because the next day was not a good one.
There was construction on the highway just outside of Albuquerque, so we could only drive 30 MPH for about ten miles, but we were able to pick up speed after that. We stopped at a rest area later that morning so Aerin could feed her baby. As I walked around my car, I noticed I had a nail stuck into the side of the tire! Great. We’d have to find a tire shop to get it fixed or replaced. We didn’t dare drive faster than 50 MPH with the nail in my tire. We stopped in one town so Reid could look for a repair shop but there was nothing in that town, but someone told him maybe in Springer.
We got back on the highway, still only driving 50. We arrived in Springer, and found the tire shop. The tire would have to be replaced because of where the nail was. Two hours and $200 later, my car was ready and we finally made it into Colorado. We stopped to eat dinner in Pueblo and drove into the icy parking lot of Chili’s. Reid has 4-wheel drive on his car, so he drove in, no problem, Aerin was behind him and in front of me. I’m a very cautious driver, so I was only going about 5 MPH. Aerin was going a bit faster than that. She went to turn, and…didn’t turn! She slid on the ice and I panicked! Luckily, there was a snowy embankment there that she hit and stopped her. She backed up and slowly got her car turned into the parking lot.
Home sweet home
After eating, we continued our journey. Reid and Aerin drove off on the icy street and were well ahead of me. In fact, I lost sight of them. I was scared to drive faster than 5 MPH. They finally stopped so I could catch up to them, and we got back on the highway. Reid assured me that it was safe to drive at least 60 MPH on the roads, since they were clear. I’d never driven in snow before, so I was very anxious, and my stress level was high.
We thought we were on the home stretch once we got off the freeway. Nope. The directions to our new home said to drive “about four minutes” to get to our neighborhood. Right. It was a good twenty minutes to get to that point. And then…we couldn’t find the street! We drove all over trying to find our street. Well, Google maps had labeled a street wrong, and Aerin finally figured out which way to go, then Reid took over and we found our street and our new home!
Any other trip after that one will be a piece of cake!