2010 Cross Country Trek #1

So back when The Man & I got married we somehow needed to move me and my stuff from the east coast to the west coast.  We had to do it ourselves since we weren't married when he got the orders so I wasn't on them.  Big pain in the butt, especially since I was the once with furniture & kitchen stuff,  but oh well.  After looking at all our options, we decided to rent a trailer and haul my crap across the country.  The only problem is that my car doesn't have any towing capabilities.  So my mom, being the wonderful mom that she is, offered to let us take her Jeep.  She loves her Jeep so this was big for her.  I'm glad to know she loves us more than the Jeep!  So we took the Jeep and have had it for the past year and couple of months.  She really wanted her Jeep back so we hatched a plan.  My dad would fly out and drive with me to East coast.  I'd stay there for about two weeks and then The Man would fly out and drive with me to the West coast in my car.  Great plan.  Until I realized that I was driving cross country TWICE in a month.  Fun times for me!

I'm going to be honest and say that I wasn't looking forward to it.   The part that was freaking me out the most was getting over the mountains.  We've been hearing about how bad the winter going to be, that we're going to get a bunch of snow and how it's possible to get it early.  I was remembering the crazy passes that we went over in Wyoming & northern Idaho.  I was not looking forward to driving over them, possibly in snow.  The Man knew this and mapped out a route that took us over as few passes as possible.  Unfortunately there's no way to get across without going over at least one pass.  So we went over Snoqualmie Pass and then down over some plateaus.  Even after The Man showed me the route I was still apprehensive.  It didn't help that I checked the weather for the pass and it was supposed to snow.  It was snowing the day & night before we left and the day we left.  Great.  Having to drive over the pass in the snow.  I was so not looking forward to it!  I worried and prayed about it for at least a month before we left!  I knew that once we got that behind us I'd be fine.

So dad & I got going.  We hit a little bit of traffic getting on to I-5 but that's normal.  The day was overcast but the sun was trying to come out.  I kept catching glimpses of it as we drove.  As we start driving up the pass it was still overcast but over to the right I could see bright blue sky.  I kept driving and at one point it started to drizzle but over to the left I could see a patch of bright blue sky.  This kept happening as we drove and went around turns.  It was overcast but somewhere within my line of sight was a patch of blue sky.  It was so comforting to see it!  I felt like God was holding my hand taking us safely over the pass.  He was telling me that He was with me and no matter what the weather was we were going to make it just fine.  We could see the snow line and at one point we were even with it.  The roads were clear and we had just a little rain and a lot of drizzle.  For the rest of the day, no matter how overcast it got, there was always a patch of blue.  I'm so thankful for a God that answers prayers and goes beyond what we ask for!

And being the crazy person that I am, I checked the pass once we were in a hotel in Idaho.  It snowed on the pass later in the day.  The roads are clear but it did accumulate on the sides of the road.  I've included photos from the cams the highway department has set up...there was no snow on the trees when we drove over it earlier.