We took pics at the hotel trying to keep a positive attitude.
Me and my pup
Jake and I
My puppy's favorite position and question, "does my butt look big?"
So that was the first night. The second day we get rolling on the earlish side and Nori decides to be a whiney butt for about an hour and half while Jake is driving so we switch places and she calms down and rolls up in a ball and goes to sleep. Are you kidding me? I don't know why she's such a goober with me me! When I start to drive we go through terrible patches and fine patches of road. I go between 40 mph at some points where there is ice and snow and strong winds to 75 mph (which is the speed limit. I was not speeding. Wyoming has a high speed limit. Somewhere around 5 PM we see a sign that says Hwy 80 (the only Highway through Wyoming) is shut down!! What!!! Not even dark yet, we could still have potentially made it to Salt Lake City (SLC) and we get can't any further because they shut down the ONLY HIGHWAY in Wyoming!! So I call my mother in a state of panic as we exit the high way behind some really large semi trucks and are just sitting in the exit because no one is moving. Annoying! We exit to a po-dunk town called Fort Bridger (Now if anyone from that town or a small town ever reads this, I apologize, but the population in the town was less then my graduating class so one could understand why I say that and also that I was a bit distressed when I was feeling this way. My brother kindly gets on the ohone (because our phones were barely working and had no internet access) and he gets us a room at the local motel! Hahahahahaha!!! (When I say motel, I mean motel. Not hotel...motel.) But first we had to get there. So Jake gets out and investigates what's going on. We call 911 and ask if there is an accident off the ramp keeping people there. Nope. So Jake off roads (in my little Mazda) and we go around all the Semi Trucks to find that they're just chilling there. They will probably be hanging out there until the highway opens. So then we go in search of our MOTEL. And what a lovely motel it was...from the outside. I was in the car looking at my friend Jake saying uh-uh, no way, not happening. And Jake was MR. Positive. This will be fun Bree. We'll see what Ft Bridger is all about. Don't worry about it. The motel was advertising that they have color TV's! Not joking folks! That's what kind of motel this was (which I'm sure is a very nice establishment), but if I'm gonna be stuck somewhere for another night I at least want a comfortable space and bed. So Jake gets back on the phone with my brother and they figure out another place and we gladly go there (they have an internet site!) And it turns out to be a very cute place that rents out personal cabins for travelers, etc. They had comfy beds, our own cabin, AND...a pizza hut across the street. Not gonna lie, that comfort food made all the difference. We went to bed early and woke up early the next morning to get on the road hoping that the highway would be open. It wasn't so we researched some back roads in the morning and decided to try it. (I wish I had pictures of the cute cabins).
So we get on the back roads and they don't seem so bad and we're about a half hour in when I go online and see that highway 80 just opened! Dang it! But we keep going and then we hit this spot that is not snowplowed. Jake and I both lookat each other. We both think in our heads, don't do it! But do we listen, no! So what happens, we go for it (IN MY MAZDA, have I mentioned I have a Mazda 3. Itty bitty little car that doesn't do so well in Minnesota winter weather. But we decide to go off roading in it). So at a couple other points we both think we should turn around but we don't and then what happens! We totally get stuck in a ditch in a snowdrift. We try to dig ourselves out and that doesn't work. And at one point Jake asks me for gloves but I don't know where they are so I trhow him a pair of simply wool socks to pull over his hands while he's digging at the car's wheel. After 5-10 min of pushing and trying we get back in the car and look at each other and sigh and I go, Okay I'll call my mom for the AAA number. As I am on the phone with her (telling her not to worry and yes we are fine) a truck goes by us. I wave them down and they tell us they're pulling their kid out of ditch cause their grand kid needs to get some medicine at the hospital and once they're done with them they'll be back for us! yay!! We're saved! Then the Sheriff rides by on his...wait for it...snow mobile!! (I love this town!) and he says he'll be back to help us. So, 20 min later after jake and I shoot a bunch of funny pictures cause all we can do is laugh this entire time they come back. We have the sheriff, his deputy, the man, and woman from the truck and they pull us out in a jiffy, we turn around and head back to the main streets to get back on I-80 and head to Salt Lake the way we should have in the first place. The remainder of the trip (the last 3 hours if that) went smoothly. The roads in Wyoming were pretty dang bad but once we crossed into Utah. It was smooth sailing and we made it there without any bumps or bruises or anything bad happening to anyone.
I have some great pictures of when we got stuck.
trying to shovel us out with the window ice remover thingy. It broke :(
Look make shift mittens
Keeping a positive attitude
Here we got stuck
where are we? Nobody knows!
Our rescuers!
Jake hung out for a week with me in Utah. We had a blast and then it was time for him to go. Now Nori and I are settling into life here in Utah. The weather was amazing the first week and Nori and I got in two jogs outside in the beautiful weather before it snowed and got too cold for jogs (just walks). But all in all I'd say we are settling in fine and I'm trying to figure out the whole job thing. But I've got a lot of people rooting for me so I know things will work out well for us.
So there is the adventure of Bree, Jake, and Nori on the road to Utah.
Peace Out!
