Road trip home

It turns out that last post was incorrect. That wasn't my last day in Phoenix. We were completely packed up, in the car, on our way towards Flagstaff. We took the 101 to I-17 and then my mom called. She said one of her co-workers' husband was stuck on a road up in Flagstaff. She said this storm was going to be pretty intense, and maybe we would want to reconsider driving through it. So we exited the highway and found a local library. We looked up the weather for Flagstaff, Santa Fe, and Denver for the next few days. All three had winter weather advisories. Flagstaff's ended the next afternoon, Thursday. Santa Fe's went until midnight Thursday night. And Denver's warning lasted until 6am Friday morning. So basically we would be driving all 12 hours through a blizzard. No thank you. We turned around and went back to Daniel's parents' house. Thank goodness we checked. It would have been miserable. We probably would have ended up stuck in Flagstaff for 2 nights waiting out the storm. Both I-17 and I-40 were closed.

We spent the rest of that day and the next helping Rennie move into his new home. I went shopping with Julie for all the basics- cleaning supplies, bedding, towels, kitchen supplies, etc. We unpacked and cleaned while the rain poured outside. It even snowed for about 5 minutes at Rennie's house! It had been 12 years since it snowed in Phoenix. I was really glad we stayed because that meant I got to have dinner with my family twice more, and I got to see my grandparents again as well.

We left early Friday morning and drove all day. The roads were still a little icy between Flagstaff and the New Mexico border. The temperature reading in our car hovered around zero, sometimes dipping to negative 3 degrees in places. The ice let up and the roads were clear through New Mexico and most of the way into Colorado. Around Trinidad, about 11 and a half hours in with still 2 or 3 hours to go, Jackson got antsy. He started whining and acting really strange. We pulled over and let him out, but he didn't go. He doesn't really like to relieve himself while on a leash. So we got back in the car and kept driving. Then he promptly pooped in the backseat. Not just poop, but diarrhea. It was disgusting. We pulled over at a rest stop. It was about 6 degrees outside while we tried to clean up the mess. And we didn't pack any winter clothes of course, because it doesn't get cold in Phoenix. Luckily, we put towels down on our seat to keep the dog hair off. So most of it was on the towel. We just threw that out. But the rest of it was on our duffel bag. We rearranged some things and put that duffel in the trunk so the car didn't stink the rest of the way home. Once we got home, we put it right into the washing machine. Problem solved. Poor Jackson must have felt really sick to do that in the car.

Once we got home, it was about 13 and a half hours. That's 90 minutes longer than usual, and it felt much longer. When we got home, we had to unload our car full of Christmas presents and two weeks' worth of clothes. The driveway and walkway were covered in an inch of ice and about 8 inches of snow. So we tracked that through the house while trying to unpack. It took a long time to get everything put away, but it feels so good to be home. Even though it was New Years' Eve we went to bed at 9:30. We woke up early the next morning and took turns shoveling. But now we have a nice path in the backyard to take out the garbage, and our entire driveway and walkway are clear. We also took down our Christmas tree and lights, put away lots of our Christmas presents, and did laundry. It was a productive morning. Today my goal is to get ready for the first day of school tomorrow. I have some homework to do, and other little tings. It is so nice to be back in my own bed in my own home with just me and Daniel. We work so well together. Now it's one week until the in-laws are here for their annual skiing trip. Then another week or two until Nicole comes. It never ends!