Stuck in a National Lampoon Vacation Movie…
What an adventure this weekend was!
It all started Friday night when we left Cheyenne, headed to Rock Springs and the Sweetwater County Bridal Expo. Before we even got to Laramie, a +50mph gust caused us to fishtail on roads that were sheets of ice, a good time to stick it into 4WD and take it even slower, we were already well below the lowered speedlimit.
Four and a half hours later we finally pull in to the hotel, get our room an head straight to bed, driving in those conditions is just draining.
Saturday started off great! We got set up early, got a good breakfast and loaded up on Starbucks! Life was good and everything was going smoothly, many great conversations with some truly wonderful people, then about 2 hours into the event, the unrelenting wind causes the power goes out. Things slow down a bit and the fashion show part of the event moves to another location with natural light. Erin goes out to the truck to sit with Simon, our little red dog.
Fifteen minutes later I get a call from her and the only words I hear over the sound of the wind: “*static* lost *static* Simon *static* across *static* street *static*” In a panic I rush out to the truck just as the power came back on, grabbed some dog treats, forgot my jacket, and ran. Had I known how far they actually were I would have grabbed my jacket, or bet yet drove the truck over. By the time I did find them, Erin had managed to grab Simon, about 1/4 mile away, while he was busy investigating the remains of a dead bird. When I met up with them and we started heading back, Erin realized in the heat of the chase she lost her scarf, worse still, she lost her keys! She went and backtracked, I took Simon and put him back in the truck and got back inside to the bridal show as quickly as i could to warm up my now numb extremities.
When Erin got back a few minutes later, just as the show was concluding, she had successfully found her keys, and more importantly her scarf! We checked the road conditions online and thankfully it was still open. We started packing up our samples and display items, keeping our eye on the road conditions website. As we got everything packed neatly and ready to load in the truck, we watched as the interstate slowly closed section by section.
Figures.
Oh well… better safe than sorry… we book room for the night, finish loading the truck, and prepare for another night in Rock Springs. We had some dinner and good conversation with great friends (Yes that’s you Kati, Levi and our new friend and fellow photographer, David) who were stuck with us. So it turned out to be a good relaxing night, even though it was forced upon us.
… but wait, our adventure does not end there!
We get up first thing in the morning, eager to hit the road, get home to get some work done and unwind from the events of the weekend. The roads are open so we get moving as quick as we can. Just as we start pulling into Rawlins the signs start showing that the interstate from there to Laramie had just closed! DANG IT!!!!
We meet up with Kati and Levi at one of the gas stations and debated on what to do: do we wait in hopes that it eventually opens, or do we head north to Casper and then back down to Cheyenne on I-25? Someone listening to our dilemma, having just come down from Casper, advised us that after about 15 miles out of town, the road north was dry. Eager to get home, and thinking that even if the road does open, it’ll be icy and nasty, we opt for the longer, dry route.
Tired and weary we finally pulled into Cheyenne around 4pm, Plenty of time to unload the truck and head down to the dungeon to spend several hours editing photos and trying to catch up on a lost days work!
