12/24/09-12/25/09

Getting there is half the fun.

We spent Thursday and Friday involved in an escapade that could only be described as the drive from hell. We packed up the Tribeca and left early Thursday morning aware of storm warnings in the plains. We brought plenty of extra food and water, a shovel, warm clothes and everything we might need. Our first day of driving involved rain, snow, wind and ice. But it really wasn’t that bad. We stayed overnight in Kearney, Nebraska – the biggest leg of our drive was over and we planned to drive on Friday and arrive in Park City around six in the evening.

We woke up early on day two of the drive and started our drive through I-80 in Wyoming. This route saves about 3-4 hours compared to taking I-76 and I-70 through the rolling mountains of Colorado. The first five hours through Nebraska and Wyoming were tough: it was so windy that we were constantly steering against the wind. (We later found mounds of snow that had somehow blown into our car and our Thule rack in the high winds.) Still, it was drivable.

We got to Cheyenne, Wyoming to find that a huge stretch of I-80 and the neighboring state roads were closed. In the winter, the only options are to wait out the storm or to drive down to Denver and through Colorado. Dirk checked Map Quest and found that the drive from Cheyenne to Salt Lake was predicted to take 6 hours; the new route was predicated to take 10 hours.

We ended up deciding to make the drive. We knew it would be long and tiring, but we really underestimated just how horrible it would be. We passed Vail, CO around 4:00pm. We typically end our journey at Vail, but yesterday we drove by knowing that we had eight more hours of driving to go.

Our scenic tour of Colorado

We arrived at midnight (Utah time), and it was so late we had to call a random number to have a security guard check us in. The positive was that our condo is awesome: it’s by far the best RCI exchange we have ever locked in on. Walking into a condo with two flat screen TVs, a nice, clean bed, new carpet, and a full kitchen did somehow make the hellish drive worthwhile.