blizzard bouncing

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It’s the wee hours of Saturday morning, and I think I’m seeped in jet lag, so wide awake at 3am. I went to bed at 8, so shouldn’t be surprised.

Kind of processing all that we’ve moved through in the last three days and a little shock and awe going on here.

We basically leapfrogged the country from one freak massive snowstorm in to another– from PA to AZ–driving in conditions the Department of Transportation in both states begged people to stay off the highways for.

Somehow we made it through unscathed.

What normally takes under three hours, our trip from our home in Lewisburg to Philly took over five, creeping along unplowed 4 lane highways-turned 2 lane, passing semis slid off the road or through the middle barrier, being sprayed on by snowplows.

We made it to our hotel in time to rest for an hour, forego our dinner plans but make it to our sixth row seats I purchased the minute they went on sale, to see the cast of our favorite show Schitt’s Creek Live. Yes, we got to see Eugene Levy, his amazing son Dan Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Annie Murphy and the rest of the cast of the funniest show on TV. At the end, our faces hurt from smiling and hands from clapping.

Fans of Best in Show will remember Jerry and Cookie Fleck and their song “God Loves a Terrier” – a highlight was seeing them bring it back to life by heart, as a birthday gift for an audience member.

We exited the fantastic show on to the rainy, slushy, North Philly streets–cold and hungry–competing with hundreds of other people for the 3 Lyft vehicles in the area. Finally we decided to break from the crowd and find refuge and French fries in the sketchiest McDonald’s I’ve ever been in. After half an hour we were able to catch a Lyft driver who passed right by us in the rain, causing my husband to sprint down the slushy sidewalk to flag him down.

We fell in to bed, exhausted, with about four hours left to sleep before waking for our early flight to Phoenix, headed for the Sedona Film Festival to enjoy our Platinum passes that my Dad gifted us for Christmas.

Yet, another glitch on that end. Another freak snowstorm slowly passing through the normally dry desert. Snow was dropping fast and relentlessly, the highway closed, travel warnings all over the place. After struggling for 2 hours at the airport rental facility, breaking up with Thrifty and finding an AWD vehicle at Enterprise, we were finally on the road. Exhausted from poor sleep and poor nutrition, we succumbed to the clear need to curtail our plans of driving straight to Sedona and got a room.

After a run to my condo that is almost ready for listing (this weekend!!), and handling a few things there, we found a nearby hotel and I fell in to bed at 3:30pm.

With some sleep-breaks, pretty sure I got about 12 hours of sleep on that concrete slab of a bed and woke up ready to conquer Friday. We started our day with a delicious, healthy breakfast at our favorite place, headed back to the condo where I sifted through 8 bags and boxes of stuff I’d not seen in almost a year, (just the beginning of that huge project that still looms for next visit), filled the dumpster and packed the rental car, checking the weather app every few minutes. The hazardous drive warnings continued and snow was still falling. Over 12 inches in Sedona and photos on the internet of snow packed highways.

Finally, we just decided to trust our guts and give it a go. My boy-scout of a husband ran to Ace and picked up 2 shovels, knowing we would have to dig ourselves in to the driveway to get to the garage– and possibly dig ourselves out along the highway. We had water, coats and our own body fat, and took off for Sedona at 1pm, thinking we would hopefully make it before nightfall.

What a surprise to find the roads–all of them–completely clear. All the way, hardly any cars or trucks–just us and the open highway and beautiful snowy vistas all the way. Miraculously, we made it to Sedona in under two hours.

Arriving in Sedona, we found the most beautiful winter wonderland. Our car handled the foot of snow we had to power through to get to the house (my husband had a blast driving through the snow), and we were home. Oh, after stopping and picking up our festival passes and tickets.

After a gorgeous meal out, we were back home, and again I put myself to bed like a toddler at 8pm, which brings me to now–awake like a newborn at 3am.

The Christmas tree and decorations are all still up here from December, which goes right along with our winter wonderland.

I guess I’m just sitting here in some kind of disbelief of all we experienced in just three days, leapfrogging across the country from one blizzard in to another.

What are the odds of that?

3 thoughts on “blizzard bouncing

  1. Penelope Yanez

    I really don’t know how you do all that you do! In that same amount of time, I managed to clean one bathroom, listen to a podcast, watch some television( ok lots of television) and check out your life! You encourage me to want to do more!

  2. Jennifer Baker

    You guys are amazing! Love that your “onward-ho” tendency is tempered by brief moments of sanity that allow you to recharge! Good karma is raining down on you because you’ve done all your work, all the really hard shit that you thought would never end. Truly inspiring, have a great festival, and I love the beautiful snowy pictures of Sedona you shared. 💜✨🤗

  3. welcomeurnot

    WOW Kathy just WOW !!!!!!!!

    Your wonderful 3 days is the entire Winter that Wisconsin has gifted us with. Forgive me if my take is quite different than yours. (LOL) I would much prefer the three days than the several feet we have here.
    Even I can find a heartwarming feature of WI Winter. The snow sparkles are beyond glorious in the early morn when the Sun is rising

    I find you and John’s critiques on travel and excursions so endearing. I hope you never lose that love of living. You are a precious couple. (Hugs)
    Al and I are such a mismatch but I feel we are both good souls that just grew apart after 44 years. In April I’ll be able to claim 45. (OUCH) Adding on the 4 plus years we dated and it’s past 49 years (December is already past). Such a shame he will never get back on a plane. “Goodbye any future travel plans”. My mind works overtime in a good way.

    I’m blown away by the wonderful pictures you share. I’m extra blown away because you were both rushed and the pics are astounding in their quality.

    I do want to share with you the fact that I quit Twitter. I don’t want friends to think I got a heavy finger and went on a blocking spree. Even this reply may end up lingering for a bit as I also deleted WordPress.

    The fact that Arizona had a sizable snow and then your Christmas tree still up is an example of ‘PERFECT SYNCHRONICITY’.

    Wonder what may happen if I decide to travel along with Brian (son) in early March for his business trip? I told him I would book a number of tours depending on time available to me. So far I’ve been told a week or two. Then he chimes in ” Thee place he’s staying is a retirement community” so so sooooo ~ way too much went through this brain (HUGE SMILE).

    Thank You Katie Cool Lady ♥
    Your posts are the most uplifting, spirit lifting, giving off good vibes to those of us lucky to read them. (SMILE BIG) ♥ ♥

    Paula

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