Oh, The Places We Will Go

Well, well, well......we made it home. For those who have heard some of our travel stories, things to take away from our trip.
1. Our Dog can out whine any child, period!
2. Our car is not meant to hold two people, a dog, and gifts galore!
3. Our jeep is not a 4x4, which makes getting out of snowy situations a little difficult
4. Blair and I truly enjoyed the time we could spend with or families, but did come to the realization that we spent over a full 24 hours in our car.
5. A little doggie downers and some extra licks on children faces plus a little Miko chasing you around can definitely K.O. Wauzee for about 5 days.
6. Finally, while traveling in the worst weather to possibly fall from the sky while driving in a non 4x4 sanctioned jeep (minus tornadoes, hurricanes, and actual major snow falls) laughing is great medicine, along with watching your Husband, your quiet, sweet, never a temper Husband, freak out is pretty awesome as well.

Oh the true tale of our travels......
Twas the Saturday before Christmas and 8:00 am CST arrived, Blair and I packed the car on a sunny, yet chilly Chicago morning. Our previous night travel from Bloomington to Chicago was uneventful, minus Sam having a a lack of food incident and Wauzee whining for the first hour prior to his doggie downers kicking it (Got to love Benadryl...shout out to my vet!). So, we packed and stated it should only be about a 6 hour trip towards Minneapolis. We gave Wauzee some doggie downers to calm his little (88 lbs) fears said our good byes and off we went. We made it over into Wisconsin, up past Madison....the skies grew dark, a light snow started to fall. I was given the opportunity to drive (which I love to do!) and noticed that traffic on the other side seemed a little slow (Missed Opportunity #1 to turn around and head towards my parents lake house about 30-45 minutes back towards Madison). We get back onto 90/94/39 and notice the roads and getting slick, the snow is definitely starting to fall a little faster, Wauzee is moving from a low pinch whine to a higher pinch whine and is starting to fog up the all the windows in the car. We pull over (not one exit after I was given the opportunity to drive), switch drivers, and head off again. Luckily some snow plow trucks had salt/sanded the roads, we are driving at half the speed, Wauzee is in full whine mode and we are not even half way to Minnesota. Fast Forward to a stop in LaCrosse Wisconsin for some much needed lunch! (Missed Opportunity #2 to be able to stop and crash with someone in LaCrosse). The snow is falling pretty steady at this moment, Wauzee is completely freaking out, Blair looks exhausted from driving at half speed with slick roads and not a salt truck within 100 miles (probably). We press on.....(side note Blair and I have made the trip from LaCrosse to Minneapolis in about 2 hrs) to the part in the story I would like to call the WORST DRIVE PART EVER!!!!! The drive from LaCrosse to Rochester....picture this, Sam getting into the backseat to try and reason with a 88 lbs dog to relax and enjoy the terrible driving weather conditions, Blair doing his best to remain calm and collected while driving in previously stated terrible weather conditions, and Sam trying to tell Blair that we should probably stop to let Wauzee out to go to the bathroom which leads to our car getting stuck for about 5 minutes Blair completely having a meltdown and beating the steering wheel as if it were a punching bag and having to push our car out of a slick situation, leading to a stop at a rest area in which Sam and Wauzee go running through the snow to try and get him to CALM THE FRICK DOWN (pardon my language) and the great Blizzard to blow in to create more awful driving conditions, and on and on it went. The fast end to the story is the winds picked up the snow started to blow onto the road creating a part in the story in which we were driving on the wrong side of the road to avoid the snow drifts, we get to about 5 miles from Blair's brother's house and SLID INTO A DITCH!!! Overall, Our total trip time was only about 12 hours and it totally SUCKED!!!!! However, we did make it safe and sound to Blair's brother's house and had a great time with Blair's family.
Oh, well another another long blog....I hope to have another short one soon!

Thanks for reading!