It all started about a week ago...As many of my fellow DC people know we got hit by 2 feet of snow the weekend before Christmas. Now in theory my plans for Christmas involved trying to get to Vegas to be with my family and most importantly my 5 year daughter...the original plan called for me to leave on Sunday...
Long story short due to mother nature, some miscommunications, my nutty family and finances I ended up at a point where it was looking like I wouldn't be able to go. Then my daughter said something very profound to me on Monday and basically it was at that point I decided I would do whatever it took to get to Vegas...those words "whatever it takes" came back to kick me straight in the ass...
Because of the airline situation at first I actually contemplated driving to Vegas...I swear I wouldn't do this for anybody other than Drey, but finally on Tuesday I managed to snag a one way train ticket. I'm thinking 2 days...I'll suck it up be a little uncomfortable, but be there Christmas Eve and surprise her. I started this journey TUESDAY NIGHT (keep this in mind). Everything was ok until I hit St Louis...
By now it's Wednesday late afternoon. Mother nature heffer that she is decided to build her own personal skating rink...over Colorado, Utah and Kansas. So when I got to the Lou all I see is a handwritten sign saying all outbounds to KC, Denver, VEGAS, L.A. canceled due to a severe ice storm.
Hmm... ok. At this point I'm almost at the halfway point and I'm facing being stuck...I stand in this really long line and with a little "creative re-routing" I'm told I can still make it and only be off schedule by about 3 hours. Allow me to define "creative re-routing"...it means I would be detoured through the states of Missouri, Oklahoma, north Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Le grand sigh...at this point I don't have much of a choice.
So we get back on track so to speak (no pun intended)...the whole time I am reminding myself that this is for Drey and I can take a minor setback. It's pretty darn cold but the weather was holding out for a little while. Then I woke up Thursday morning Christmas Eve in Oklahoma and saw nothing but a solid wall of white. I mean I've seen snow (I did go to Syracuse afterall), but this was crazy...it for REAL looked those Discovery Channel documentaries on the South Pole. When we got to points where we could see the highway I saw SEVERAL flipped over tractor trailers just laying across the road it was insane!!! when I said I wanted a white Christmas this was NOT what I had in mind.
We make it as far as Texas...we make it as far as Texas...sigh...we make it to TEXAS!!! (damn it almost there!!!) and the second we walk in they've shut the whole station down saying nothing goes in or out until 9 am...on FRIDAY.
They had gone as far as to call shuttles in to take people to hotels and the Salvation Army shelters..the funny part is it was cold as hell...like arctic tundra cold but the roads were perfectly clear by this point.
Something told me not to leave.
In the ensuing 4 hours you pretty much saw the same repeating look of desperation and dread with everyone thinking they would have to spend the night in Texas ( and not even like huge city, but small town Texas) on Christmas...eating whatever was on the diner menu for Christmas dinner. I start working on plans D, E, F, G, H and I trying to figure a way out...local airport shut down. Can't get a rental car one way...too much money....hmmm... (I was so desperate to escape I contemplated renting a U-Haul 1 way and carting people like they do over the border). I get narrowed down to a) resigning and waiting it out b) catching a ride with 3 guys (random strangers) who were headed to Phoenix and managed to get a car or c) catching a ride to Albuquerque with a mother and her teenage son who had family coming to get them, but this would require waiting several hours for them to get there.
Then the reprieve...
They decided to let all westbound travelers go. God is GREAT!!!!!
I'm outta that building faster than Speedy Gonzales... on speed...lol You're thinking by now, this trip can not have had anything ELSE go wrong... that's enough of a mess...
Le GRANDE GRANDE DELUXE SIIIIIIIIGH.
So how bout it's now late Christmas eve...I've now made it as far as Albuquerque.
According to what I'm thinking IN THEORY I should hit Vegas by early morning maybe 9-ish local time...
HA!!!!!
Come to find out the place where we are supposed to make the last connect in BF nowhere Arizona...is shut down Christmas day so they have to divert us...to Phoenix (um...for the geographically challenged they basically took us almost 3 hours in the opposite direction of Vegas).
At this point I'm exhausted, sleep deprived, disgusted and my ankles look like two cans of popped biscuits cause they swole from the days of sitting...at 7 am on Christmas I watched an Arizona sunrise thinking to myself there is still only ONE person that I would go through this for and it still looks like I wont get there in time...
So finally at 8:30 (AZ time) we get to Phoenix.
And just when I thought it couldn't be worse...
option a) wait until 12:40p to catch a connection to Vegas (and not get there until after 8:00 PM!!!) or b) leave in 15 mins and be diverted...through San Bernadino...CALIFORNIA...
lemme get this straight...you took me 3 hours in the opposite direction only to take me 3 hours in the opposite opposite direction...SERIOUSLY?
I lost it.
I go on the phone and guess what...that same ice storm that snafu'd me in the beginning opened up a one way ticket on Southwest Airlines from Phoenix to Vegas for cheap. I hailed a cab and had this great cabbie hightail my ass to Skyharbor. My pilot this really cool Hawaiian dude dressed like Santa.
The flight took all of 45 mins and they got us in 20 mins EARLY (you better believe I am writing a fantastic letter to Southwest!!)
Grand total... 2500 miles, 13 states, @65 total hours of travel, a snowstorm an ice storm...and totally worth it...because one of the first things out of Drey's mouth---after she ran up and down announcing (read: screaming lol) that I was there and we had the ubiquitous Hallmark Christmas moment -- she leaned over to me and said "Mommy this is the BEST Christmas EVER!!!!"
I totally agree.
Merry Christmas
