Days 5 & 6 (December 12 & 13)
Wedding: December 13, 5:30

We are fortunate that all the nasty weather preceded us on our route. Ice storms rolled across the Midwest just as we were leaving Boise, so the roads were mostly cleaned up by the time we needed them.

I forget where I took this picture; it was at one of the rest stops in... Iowa, maybe? Snow and ice covered everything in the Midwest--except the roads, lucky for us. Radio reports said lots of people in the towns we drove through were still without power.

Our drive across Wyoming was done mostly at night because, even though we were really tired, every time we tried to pull over to sleep, huddling in our bucket seats under whatever makeshift covers we had. But, as you can imagine, it got cold awfully fast, so we only stopped for an hour or so every time we pulled over.

Every five miles or so there were gates and potentially blinking lights announcing roads ahead were closed. Fortunately, we were almost to Laramie, Wyoming before we actually encountered a closed road, and we found out that it wasn't due to weather conditions, but that there had been an accident that made a mess out of the whole road. Now, I hope the damage was all to the vehicle and that the person(s) in the car were okay, but we had more than 1200 miles to drive in under 30 hours with questionable road conditions ahead. We decided not to gamble that the accident would be cleared in less time than it would take us to detour through the corner of Colorado, so we took a U.S. highway to I-76 just fifty miles east of Denver. Snow was blowing across the road in snaky theater-fog fashion the whole detour (but the scenery was very pretty--rocky hills and evergreens covered in snow).

Aside from pulling over every now and then to sleep or to get fuel, food or coffee, the race from Boise to Pemberville was uninterrupted by further delays, but we were still going to be cutting it close. When I called my family Wednesday night with a progress report, we were only just getting to Des Moines. They were all skeptical that we'd make it, and I was having doubts of my own (I didn't need theirs, too). But Roger just kept driving. His fatigue didn't really start to show till we were just outside of Chicago, around 6:30 AM. It was not a good time to encounter rush hour traffic full of people who didn't care to use their signals.

But we pushed through, and then just a little while (and a few confusing traffic signs) later we were in (oh rejoice!) Indiana! Less than four hours to Ohio and it was only 7:30! Ah, but wait... there was a time line somewhere in there. So it was 8:30.

Roger convinced me not to cancel my hair appointment, though we clearly weren't going to make the time. (I hadn't showered in two days and I was certainly going to shower before my hair was done.) After I'd called Mom to let her know where we were and what kind of time we were making, Roger arranged for my hair to be done as soon as we got to the salon and then he called Jim, our officiating pastor, and I forget who else he called, but I felt better when he was done and reassuring me that everything would be fine and be at least close to being on time.

I'd said, "Let's just get out of this state!" so many times by now, but do you know the longest stretch of road was actually the hour from the Indiana/Ohio border to Pemberville?

And then, oh my goodness, there was the Lemoyne exit and there was Pemberville Road and there was Pemberville's water tower and oh, my parents' street! We'd made it! 1:00 and hours to go! (Wedding: 5:30.)

Mom & Katie paused their Christmas decorating to help Roger get our stuff inside and I took a shower, and I was barely dried off before I was being hastened into that car again (which I was really quite sick of after over 30 hours or driving, sleeping & eating in it) to go get my hair done, get the marriage license, pick some things up on the way to Jim's house By the time we got to Jim's house, it was 4:30 and when we left his house, it was 5:00, and Roger still hadn't showered.


This is a picture Roger took at the salon after he finished taking the OPI Ink polish off my toes. Amber, my stylist in Bowling Green, was so wonderful--she was waiting for me when I walked in the door.





Next in the sequence: The Wedding
(but you'll have to wait till I get the picture from my mom, who got the proofs first)
or you can go to here, though we probably won't be there for long--we're near the end of the list now. password: 121307)