One of my 2010 resolutions is to run 500 miles this year… and today I completed mile 6.  :)  Happy Tuesday!

SO… as most of yall know, I am from West Texas… a small town Abilene girl transplanted to the Metroplex to work as an accountant for Corporate America.  BUT when it comes to the holidays, I take it back to my roots and head out west to kick it with the fam.  This is a short trip that take about 2 1/2 hours (actually less but I’m saying when I drive only 10 mph over the speed limit).  I was SUPPOSE to work a 1/2 day Christmas Eve, and I was just going to drive down when I left at noon putting me home mid afternoon with enough time to shop for gifts.  Well, let’s just say my Christmas eve was not as planned… AT ALL!!!  So I find out about 8 am there is a serious snow storm brewing in Abilene, call my boss to see if I can go ahead and hit the road, get the go ahead, throw everything in my car and pray to God I can make it over Ranger Hill before the roads ice.  I hit the road, the snow was coming down hard in Weatherford but after that it wasn’t that bad.  I made it to Ranger Hill no problemo.  Below Ranger Hill, snow wasn’t even sticking….. I get to the top and OMG a winter wonderland, but the roads were fine… till Eastland.  That is where it started to get NASTY  i.e over turned FedEx truck with half the trailer on I-20 and the other half and truck in the ditch ( camera in back seat BOOOOO), driving 30 mph on I-20, making my peace with God, ya know the usual.  White knuckles clinched to the wheel, trying to breath and not go into another panic attack or cry… telling myself just 45 miles…  I tend to focus so intensely on the road in bad weather that I honestly have no clue where I am exactly.  Then it happened, I see brake lights and slow down to a stop.  Now I had just stopped before Ranger Hill, got almost a 1/2 a tank to make it to Abilene.  Now in the Metro, I am use to stopping in traffic and then you start moving again slowly… not so much this time and instead of the Metro I was in the middle of nowhere around Cisco TX.  5 hours I sat there and moved 1/2 mile.  My 2 hour 15 minute drive turned into 9 hours of Purgatory.  My car was SOOOO hot, but if I turned off the windshield defrost, it would freeze in less than a minute even with the windshield wipers going full blast.  … now on to the slideshow ( I’m a photographer so yes I took pics and even while driving on sheets of ice cause Mark (you know Mark II  my camera) is the only companionship I had on this trip)

I sat at this stop for 2 hours before getting to move a whole 1/2 mile…. but I think this was part of the original problem… YES that is a minivan on a truck, on a truck, on a truck, on a truck.  Yes a minivan and 3 trucks on the back of another truck WITH NO ONE ANYWHERE IN SITE…. UGH!!!!!  OH and after begin stopped for that long, 18 wheelers can’t move.  Not sure why but that was a HUGE cause of delays cause they are just stranded…..

Then this was my view for the next 3 hours as the blizzard hit… I was B O R E D  and cranky (thanks to all those who put up with my mood during these hours cause it was not pretty :)   )

Then this happened… after the storm, the car in front of me unleashed the CUTEST thing ever… it put the BIGGEST smile on my face… *sigh*  puppy, you melt my heart just as your tinkle melted the snow :)

It was really pretty had I not been driving…

Then the sun started to come out and we eventually got moving and saw what damage was done…

AND BEING ‘THAT GUY’ PASSING PEOPLE WHEN EVERYONE IS IN A SINGLE LINE DRIVING TRYING TO SURVIVE…..

IS ONLY OK IF YOU ROCK A VOLVO… No joke this guy was cruising no slower than 5o while we were all going 2 0mph… VOLVO… you go you ugly car you

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!