Payne Family: Goliath

We had been planning all along to leave Utah the day after Christmas to head back home because Brock was in charge of powerlifting workouts on Monday and Tuesday of New Year's week. My mom kept calling me to update me on the weather since there had been many warnings going around the panhandle of Texas that a blizzard was coming and was supposed to hit Saturday night. It was supposed to be epic and it even had a name, Goliath. Yikes!

I kept checking the hourly weather, and I figured that if we left early enough Saturday morning (the day after Christmas) that we should be able to beat it. Well, we did just that. We made it out and were making good time! The skies and roads were clear and the weather was beautiful!...Until we hit Monticello, Utah. The skies were still clear (no clouds) but the roads were horrible (snow everywhere), and the wind was causing whiteouts across the roads in some parts. We kept passing semis that had ran off the road (you could tell it was from the night before), and we had to go really slow all the way until Cortez, Colorado. We stopped at a Burger King where there was an indoor play place. We had to take a break! The kids were going CRAZY! Oh, and the adults, too!

This caused us to be way behind schedule. Great. The good news was that the roads cleared back up in Cortez. I started driving and was cruising along. The closer we got to Albuquerque the darker the sky got. The roads started getting little patches of snow. I was still cruising though. It wasn't slippery. Then it started to lightly snow. Not much longer we hit Bernalillo where the roads were covered in snow. As I slowly came into town, there were cars slid off the road everywhere. At this point I started to get nervous. I turned into a gas station...I mean I SLID into a gas station (hit the curb, luckily no cars) and then really started freaking out. There's no way we could drive on this. I called Dad to ask how the weather was there. He told me that if the roads weren't closed yet in between Albuquerque and Amarillo that we better try to make it through because they would certainly close them after the blizzard hit and then we wouldn't be able to make it through until Monday or Tuesday.

Great. I was super nervous, but we decided to head on. Brock driving, of course. We made it into Albuquerque and saw many accidents, but where we were driving the roads seemed to actually be fine. We got through the city and immediately outside of it the roads got terrible and it was snowing like crazy! (Side story: I was in a car accident when I was in college where my brother Kevin, my friend Bekah, and I were driving up to Utah after Thanksgiving (or was it Christmas) break and flipped a truck (hanging upside down in the truck) on black ice. The Lord was watching over us though, and no one got hurt. Ever since then I am completely paranoid about driving on snow or ice!)

So the roads were getting really bad and I was a nervous wreck! We were almost to Moriarity when I told Brock that I thought that our lives were worth $300 (how much I figured we'd have to pay in hotel costs to stay through the blizzard). He agreed and we exited to find a hotel. I immediately started calling all of the hotels there. Booked, completely booked. I almost started crying right then. So we got back on the road to head to Santa Rosa to see if there was anything available there. The roads cleared up a tiny bit in some parts which gave us the confidence to head on and maybe the hope that we could even make it through! Yeah right...

The roads got worse. I started calling all of the hotels in Santa Rosa. One guy told me that we had too many people and the fire marshal wouldn't allow it. "Is there any way you could make an exception since this is an emergency situation??" Nothing. He was gone. Did he hang up on me?! Who knows? We could have gotten disconnected. I was irate at this point. I called another hotel and the guy referred me to a little ma and pa motel. Called them, no answer. Everything was booked in Santa Rosa.

We passed on by Santa Rosa with patches of semi-decent roads. Maybe we could make it! Once again, the roads quickly changed. It was horrible! I thought we were going to die (or at least get stuck in the ditch) 2 times in particular. One time, we started swerving. Brock corrected and we swerved the opposite direction. He corrected again and we straightened out and made it. Thankfully, I have a husband who knows how to drive on snow. I would have been in the ditch! The other time was when we were heading underneath an overpass. All of a sudden there was a whiteout (all of the snow was coming down from the overpass and blocking the view of the underpass). We saw tail lights to the left and headlights to right! I closed my eyes and braced for impact I was so certain that it was coming. Nothing. We made it! Also, the windshield kept icing over and Brock could hardly see. We had the defroster on full blast! We were all burning up from it.

I'm going to pause my dramatic story to tell you that I KNOW that the Lord was looking out for us. I did nothing but pray from Albuquerque to Tucumcari. I know that He heard my prayers (and everyone else's that was praying for us (I asked a lot of people to pray for us!)). I know that we would have ended up in the ditch, or worse, in a horrible wreck had He not been protecting us.

I cannot tell you how many cars in the ditch and wrecks we saw as we drove. At one point Brock suggested that we start counting how many we saw. I said, Please no! He immediately agreed that that was probably not a good idea. The entire drive I was fighting back tears. Instead of closing my eyes and trying not to think about it, my eyes were glued to the road. It was terrifying. I honestly wasn't sure that we were going to make it. Did I mention that my kids were AMAZING through all of this?! Simply amazing.

My brother Kenney had been calling and texting me since Albuquerque giving me updates on road conditions. At this point, he called to let me know that the interstate had been closed at the Texas/New Mexico state line (Thank you, Kenney, for looking out for us!). We had no choice but to stop. So I started calling hotels in Tucumcari. The first one that said they had a room, I booked it! Hallelujah! But we still had 15 miles until Tucumcari! We finally made it, and as I walked in to check in to the hotel, 3 separate groups were right behind me! I was so thankful that we had made it and that we had a room!

So the rest of the story is that we spent 2 nights holed up in Tucumcari, New Mexico! Luckily I booked a hotel with a pool (the kids spent SEVERAL hours swimming in their "swimming suits" (shorts and t-shirts). Hey, we had no idea we'd be swimming over the Christmas break!) Also, we let them open up their new box of 1500 legos. So we were pretty set. Brock took Brek to get food at the only place that was open, Subway. They stood in line for 2 hours! There were 45 people in front of them.

They finally opened the interstate on Monday, and we took off! We were pretty ready to get out of that hotel! The roads were PERFECT!!! I'm secretly glad that they didn't open the roads on Sunday because I know we still would've been driving on snow and I didn't want any more of that! So, we left Saturday morning from Utah and made it to Childress by Monday afternoon. :)