to this:
Eeek! When we landed in Dallas, we knew that the storm was heading to Denver and that it was supposed to snow a lot. I was really afraid of getting stranded in Dallas, so we tried really hard to get on the earlier flight and just managed to squeak on. I meant to check if our original flight was on time, but we were just relieved to land in Denver at 8pm rather than 10. We waited there for the bus to take us up to my mom's - she didn't want to come out in the weather and I can't blame her! We waited inside most of the time but went outside a few minutes before the bus was supposed to come. Of course we hadn't brought winter coats with us, so we were standing in the blowing snow, 20 degrees before wind chill, in our light jackets. We were VERY happy to see that bus when it arrived.
Our original plan was to leave the next morning (Thursday) and start our drive back to New York. We planned to do the drive in three 8-10 hour days. But the roads were all still closed the next morning.
Chris shoveled my mom's driveway (we don't do much snow shovelling in NYC!) and we decided to make the most of our forced delay.
We went to our favorite Westminster brewpub - Rock Bottom! I was glad to spend a little extra time with my mom.
Then we headed up to Fort Collins after picking up Lilly. My sister was kind enough to watch her for the whole week, so she got to play with her cousin Jake in their backyard in the snow!
We stayed in Fort Collins at Chris's parents that night, hoping to get out the door the next morning (Friday). We didn't know if we would still do the drive in 3 days or shoot for 2. Two days was pretty brutal on the way from NYC to CO. But the next morning, we woke up to find the highways still closed. Again, we made the most of it, and grabbed lunch at one of the restaurants we miss in Ft Collins. Also had to hit New Belgium Brewery!
By later that afternoon, the sun had come out and I-70 was reopened. Our plan had been to go up through Nebraska and take I-80 towards home, the northern route:
But since I-70 was open, and the storm that had blown through was supposed to be heading northeast - we decided just to head back down to I-70 and go back the same way we'd come.
The highway didn't reopen till mid afternoon, so we just packed up the car and hit the road, originally planning to stay in Denver with my mom for the night and leave the next morning. We ended up just getting on I-70 to get a few hours of driving out of the way. We spent the night in Goodland, KS.
To be continued!
