Snow Trip

(I wrote the majority of this entry when I couldn't sleep during the trip)

 Bert was not enthusiastic about the trip from the start. The drive was mostly unremarkable. We stopped in Sonora, which is the foothill to the mountain. We went to Walmart to buy a scraper/brush for the car. When we started back up the mountain, a wintery mix was in the air. We had to stop about 5 miles from our destination to put chains on. It took a while to get there, since we had to drive slowly with the chains and the slush on the road.

When we arrived there was a backhoe plowing the parking lot, and a good amount of snow on the ground. We figured we'd stay for the rest of the day, and tomorrow go out and do the fun things. We realized we had no cell reception at the hotel AND their Internet was down. (Minor to big problem). We parked the car, brought our stuff in and the kids went to play in the snow. There was probably 2 ft-ish on the ground. They enjoyed trying to knock icicles off the gutters.  

I realized I neglected to bring a few things, namely, things for me to do. I didn't bring a book, sudoku or my sketchbook. I didn't download any tv episodes, as there was supposed to the Internet. I had assumed we'd be busy, and I wouldn't need those things. I also didn't bring any drinks (fizzy water, diet coke), because I assumed we'd be in and out everyday, and we'd get drinks. I did think to pack food, mostly snacky things, cinnamon rolls, muffins, a pack of spaghetti and sauce. So we had dinner. Kids were bored off and on. I was bored. I had a lot of time, and nothing to do. And because the hotel Internet was out, the TVs in the cabin also didn't work. I didn't think to bring games aside from cribbage. Aaron and I played a lot of cribbage. And some gin, as well. We went to bed fairly early, with plans to go to the snow park in the morning.

However

It snowed overnight, probably 8-10 inches. So we said, well that's ok. The plow will come and we can leave the parking lot and go to the snow park. At 11 we asked when the plow was coming, and he'd been called. We waited. I did a lot of napping, for lack of other things to do. The kids were in and out. Around 2, Bert started panicking. We were never going to be able to leave. By the afternoon, we'd decided once the plow came we would just go home. It was getting too late for the snow park, and everyone was bored. So we waited. Bert panicked more. At 4, Aaron went back to the office to ask about the plow. We were told "any minute now". We packed the car. Aaron tried to see if he could get out without the plow. Then one of the chains broke (you had one job). So we waited more. Is started getting dark, we unpacked the car. At 6pm the plow showed up. Fortunately by then, the snow was nearly done, we only got 1-2 inches after that. We had snacks for dinner, since I only brought one real meal, assuming we'd be eating out most of our meals. We went to bed fairly early, 830 ish, because there was nothing else to do. Which brings us to now, 3:46am. Bert and I can't sleep, so we're in the living room. Oh, and we woke up at 2, because Monty was barfing. So, fun trip.

840. Aaron successfully extracted the car. We are nearly packed and ready to hit the road. I'm ready for this to be over 

During our de-brief after we'd been home for a bit, we talked about what we'd do differently next time.  Bring more "just in case" food, and/or stop at Walmart on the way up for things like a frozen pizza, milk, yogurt etc.  While at Walmart, buy snow things for the kids, shovel, sled etc.  Bring more things to do: family games, download tv episodes, more books for me and Aaron, art stuff.  We would buy chains from the auto store, not Amazon (even though they had good reviews).