Our Second Home: The Car

I think I could write a book about our experiences on the road as a family. It doesn't seem to matter if it's sunny or snowy, I always seem to have something to write about. Without doubt, we had yet another eventful trip to Reno this past weekend. It was my bright idea to leave for Reno on Friday night. I thought everyone would be heading out earlier in the afternoon, so I figured we'd leave later in the evening and be driving late enough to miss the traffic. This so-called thought of mine made me feel pretty much everything but bright. We ended up leaving town around 7pm and arrived in Reno....oh, around 1:30am. Yeah, good times had by all. Crazy traffic, we were surrounded by other bay area people, and the traffic was moving no faster than 5 mph through the mountains. People were jumping out of the car and into the woods to relieve themselves. People were just getting out of their car to stretch and make small talk with the car next to them. One car was nice enough to entertain all of us as the passenger stood up through the sunroof and serenaded us with a beautiful song on his guitar. Thankfully, the kids slept much of the way since it was so late.....it made the drive just a tad bit easier!

Anyway, I'll just skip the entire weekend we spent in Reno.....we had a wonderful time, celebrated my Dad and Noah's birthday (again!) and before we knew it....we were back on the road.

Lucky us, we realized the storm had already hit the base of the Sierras by the time we woke up that morning. So, we stalled and hung out. Tim was getting more and more nervous as he kept hearing these loud blasts as they were doing avalanche control in the mountains. I, on the other hand, was in no hurry to leave town and was already making up excuses in my head about what I was going to tell my work. But now that I have a kid in school, I was feeling the pressure to get on the road and get home. This time, I made the effort to document what it's like in the winter where I'm from. Here's a few pictures to share.....I'm sure I didn't annoy Tim AT ALL taking pictures while he was sweating bullets driving!

Not too far out of Reno, we come upon the dreadful sign telling us about chain controls ahead. Good thing we were already traveling only 5mph!!! At the last minute, we decide to try and avoid the standstill traffic by going through the ski resort areas and then eventually cut back through.

Okay, we can handle this...not so bad. We're doing our best to take in all the beauty surrounding us, but did we have to drive by the Donner Party statue? Really? Thankfully, the kids aren't whining......yet.

Hmmmm......the roads are getting worse. I'm trying my best to keep the kids somewhat quiet while Tim is focused on driving. See the height of the snow on the right? That would be about twice the height of our SUV. Meanwhile, he's starting to sweat and feels the need to roll down his window in the middle of a blizzard. Awesome....I'm afraid to say anything, so I make sure the kids are warm in their blankets while I am losing valuable degrees of body heat.

Tim's doing a fantastic job driving and I am promising myself I will never travel again during the winter months. This sucks, the DVD keeps skipping out on the kids, and I am daydreaming about flip flops and suntan lotion.

What does that sign say? A little hard to see since THE SNOW has buried it! This is pretty much the last picture before I freak out and put the camera away. Not that my backseat driving is going to help Tim one bit, but I'm too nervous to document anything.....let's just say we made it through, slowly but surely! We actually made it home in just under 6 hours so I consider that a success! I'm so ready for spring.....get here now!