And yes, that trip was a wee bit more adventurous than either I or my daughter had bargained for. Enough so that I’m glad I decided to go along rather than let her make the trip solo. (She’s just 23.)
The first adventure was just a couple of hours into the trip, when we had a flat tire. Tooling down I-70 somewhere west of the IN-IL border we heard a funny loud rattling sound. Then it stopped. We weren’t even sure whether it came from inside or outside the car, but since we were coming up on an exit, I suggested we pull off and take a look, just to be safe. Good thing we did! By the time we pulled into a gas station and got out, the tire was nearly flat and going down visibly. Lucky us, there was a tire repair place just down the road and even though they normally closed at noon (it was about 1pm) the guy was still there and came over to take a look. He was able to pull the tire, repair it and have us back on the road in no time. We only lost an hour and $60. All adventures should be so easy!
The next day and a half were fun. From St. Louis on, we were basically following old Route 66, though on the interstates. Great way to see the country, I must say, though early February probably isn’t the best time of year to do it. We chose the southern route to LA rather than the slightly more direct one via Denver because of the season. HOWEVER….
Day 3 found us still paralleling Route 66 into Arizona. We were debating the relative merits of a side trip to Sedona or Las Vegas as we approached Flagstaff, when the first snowflakes began to fall. Then it started snowing in earnest, and soon we were facing near white-out conditions. In Arizona! Somehow we hadn’t realized that Flagstaff is 7,000 feet above sea level… I was driving at the time and the wipers were so caked with ice I couldn’t see. I pulled off in Flagstaff to clear the wipers and get gas, and we very nearly ended up stuck for the night at a Circle K. The city streets were MUCH worse than the highway, so once we managed to get back on the road, we decided to brave the interstate again in hopes of driving out of the storm.
Bad idea.
The next exit with lodging was 20 miles away and it took us a full hour to reach it. It was the most harrowing hour on the road either of us had ever experienced, but we safely reached a Holiday Inn in Williams, AZ–both shaking like leaves. However, that blessed Holiday Inn had a restaurant (with full bar) AND an indoor pool and hot tub, and after taking full advantage of both we felt MUCH better.
We discovered the next day that I-40 had been closed just west of Williams due to a 6 tractor-trailer pileup. Good thing we stopped when we did! We passed the remains of that pileup around noon and it wasn’t pretty. But after a late start and a dicey hour or so, we were back on clear roads and made it the rest of the way to LA without incident.
It was a great mother-daughter bonding trip, though I don’t know that I’d advise the blizzard portion! And now I’m back to my tamer adventures in the taekwondo do jang.
