Road Tripping

This post contains affiliate links, and I'll be compensated if purchases are made after clicking on the links. Thanks for supporting GuG!

We just returned from our Christmas road trip to Boise, Idaho, and boy, it was a great one! A few weeks before the holidays, Mark and I decided to take Sara to visit his parents and extended family who had not met her yet.

This was Sara's first road trip and first time away from home as well. As usual, I overestimated how much stuff we'd need and over packed. Our car was absolutely stuffed!

We set out early Friday afternoon, as we'd hoped to make most of the trip in the daytime.  It was a 7 hour drive, and included a couple of snowy mountain passes. It was also snowing in the Seattle area, which added to our haste to leave. But because of the weather, it took us over an hour just to make it through the city to start our journey.

I chose to drive first, and crossed the first mountain pass without any issues, but by this time, it was getting dark. We continued on. By the time we reached Pendleton, OR, it was pitch black outside and snowing so heavily, I could barely see the road. We thought about stopping for the night, but decided to keep going, as I was traveling with a small convoy of cars, and we worried the road would be closed the next day, and we wouldn't make it in time for Christmas.

The next pass, Cabbage Hill, nicknamed Deadman's Pass, was really treacherous. Oh, and by the way, what a horrible name for a mountain pass! The road was packed heavily with snow and ice, and it was still snowing hard. I was traveling behind a big rig, which had chains on, and a Hummer H2, which I was thankful for, as they created a path for me to drive in. We made it over the pass, very slowly, and continued down the road. I stayed behind the Hummer for a couple of hours, until they exited the highway, and I'm so very thankful for that car.

It was still snowing hard, and kept snowing the whole way there, so the fastest I could go was 30 to 40 mph the whole time. We finally made it to Boise 11 hours after we started at 2 am.

Mark sat in the back with Sara, and kept her entertained, and she did so good! But she and us were so ready to be out of the car!

We had a wonderful Christmas, which I'll write about in a later post, and Sara got to experience many firsts. Her first experience with deep snow and her first sit down restraunt!

For the return trip on Wednesday, which was a sunny day with no snow, I volunteered Mark to drive, and I kept Sara company in the back. It was definitely a much easier drive! The roads were clear, and we made it home in just under seven hours. Again, Sara did great, but was happy to be home!

We'll definitely going again, but I think next time, we'll try flying!