We learned a lot about patience and thanksgiving over the last couple of days. We left our house in Lawrenceville, Georgia at 4:00 on Friday and started to drive to my parents' home in Pennsylvania. This trip usually takes about 12 hours. Our plan was to drive about 6 or 7 hours and then stop for the night and finish the trip on Saturday morning.
When we left GA, it was raining and traffic was heavy. We commented that it may take us a little longer. We had looked at the weather forecast and they were calling for snow in Virginia. As we drove north, the rain changed to freezing rain and ice in South Carolina. When we got around Charlotte, the roads on I-77 really got bad. After 10 hours of driving, we made it to exit 82 on I-77. (We should have made it that far in 5 hours.) The road that had slush on them had droven over and they were so rough that you couldn't drive faster than about 15 mph. We looked for a motel and were unsuccessful. We were told that there weren't any motels available until you got into Virginia BUT they had also closed I-77 at Fancy Gap and everyone on I-77 was now stranded. We parked in the Waffle House parking lot and slept in our car. We stayed warm by turning our engine on and off each hour. We were thankful we had gotten off the interstate when we did. We were thankful we had a restroom we could use. We were thankful we were safe.
We got up Saturday morning and hit the road about 7:00. We were waiting for daybreak so we could see the roads we were driving on. There was no change in the road conditions from the night before but they had reopened the hwy. When we crossed the Virginia state line the roads got better. We were moving pretty good for about 20 miles. Then everything came to a halt. We sat for over an hour when we saw a state trooper walking by. We asked him what was going on and how much longer we'd be sitting. We also asked about road conditions on I-81. He told us that parts of I-81 were closed. We didn't know what to do. We continued on. We were thankful for cell phones. I talked to my parents several times and let them know what was going on. We tried calling for a motel in Christiansburg, Virginia. Six motels - no vacancies. Mom had checked out the Hampton Inn online and they showed a vacancy - they had told me over the phone that they were full. Mom was able to book the room for us -- now we just had to make it that far.
We made it there about 4:00. Nine hours and we had driven 90 miles! We were tired - we didn't sleep well in the car the night before. We were thankful that we made it. We were thankful that it was warm. We were thankful for a shower! We were thankful for a good meal at Cracker Barrel. (We'd been snacking on our Christmas cookies in the car.)
We took off at 7:00 Sunday morning and tried again. We drove the speed limit on bare roads for about 50 miles and then - everything came to a dead stop. We sat for 2 hours. The road was shut down again because of accidents. We crawled up the interstate for about 2 miles and came to an exit. We got off and started hunting back roads. We went about 30 - 40 miles north on hwy 76 and then hwy 11. Finally we could see that the traffic on I-81 was moving again and we went back over and got back on it. (hwy 11 was now snow covered and treacherous) We moved at a good speed from there home. That was another 9-hour day in the car. Total time on the road - 28 hours.
We are so thankful to be with our family for Christmas. We are thankful we weren't one of the 7000 accidents that happened in the state of Virginia this weekend. We were thankful that we were safe. We were thankful that we have food and water in our car. We had a lot of time to spend together in our car and we talked a lot about a lot of things. We enjoyed each other. At one point a friend called me on my cell phone to see where we were. She couldn't believe we were laughing about the situation. When you can't change your circumstances, what does it help to get upset or mad. Staying upbeat was good for all of us.
Enjoy your Christmas and look for little things to be thankful for. They are all around us and we often take them for granted.
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