35 is shut down! Not what we wanted to hear when we were stopped with nowhere to go and with a 16 month old in the back seat and not a lot of snacks in the truck. So we were in panic mode. What do we do? We were not going anywhere! Cars, semis, snow, were everywhere with no place to go. We could see the access road, but the only way you getting over there was via the ditch which didn't turn out to be too successfull for a few people already. So now what? We knew we had to get a hotel so I called and the closest one was 2 miles away! Like an eternity when the highway is stopped! So room is booked, but how we going to get there? After 2 1/2 hours of not going anywhere we knew we had to do something. So we inched our way on the shoulder of the interstate. (It had a wide shoulder) We drove it as far as we could before we saw this....
Okay so this is why noone is moving. They can't! We decided that the only way we were getting off this highway was to take our chances in the ditch. Gavin got out to see how deep it was. It went almost up to his calf but he thought if we put it in 4 wheel high we could make it. {Remind you he drives a F450} He backed up a little so he could hit the ditch going full speed. Snow goes everywhere!!! We couldn't see anything. I just sitting in the passenger seat praying "please lord, please lord..." whiled KK is in the back saying "weeeee." Someone forgot to tell her this is a state of emergency! :) We made it to the service road. I don't know how but thank God! So we take some side streets over and run into a CVS. Heck yes! Gavin runs in there and gets some snacks and milk for us. I call the hotel to get exact directions on how to get there. We were making the last turn onto the street the hotel is on when guess what....we get stuck!!! Yes the F450 isn't making it out of this. Gavin tried. Even took one of KK's Christmas presents she got and used it as a shovel. No luck.
his truck is on the left (there are two other abandoned stuck vehicles, too)
We decide to bundle up KK and take off walking to the hotel. It is about 150 yards away. Remind you the wind is blowing 40 mph so it is quite difficult to walk yet along run in. We make it to the hotel and check in. They had a snow shovel that Gavin borrowed. We went up to the room, while daddy shoveled the truck out of the snow.
not a care in the world!
Well, needless to say we are stuck at Comfort Inn & Suites in Norman, OK for the night. We are sad that we did not make it to my parents for Christmas Eve and won't be home Christmas morning, but we do have a lot to be thankful for. We could be one of the 100's of people stuck out on the interstate with no heat! We have the alarm set for 6:00am to head out, so hopefully we can make it home for Christmas dinner. We plan on decorating our Santa cookies tomorrow night and have Santa stop by Saturday Morning instead. At least I don't have to explain to KK why Santa didn't stop by the hotel. :) For now I will leave you with some winter wonderland pictures...
It's a blizzard out there....for real!
a view from one of the hotel doors
she has no idea what's going on
what would you like for dinner honey?
still happy as can be!
the view from our room...
that's one big snow drift!
Merry Christmas Eve!
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