Two Months Later, and I finally continue the story

Ok, I know it's been more than two months since I first wrote about our roundtrip drive to Omaha, NE, but we've been super crazy and haven't had time to finish what we started writing. The trip to Creighton University has been productive so far, because I am on the waiting list for their pharmacy program. I'm just waiting to hear that somebody had other options and took them leaving me an open space to join the program. Anyway, on with our trip...

So, after getting pulled over by a police office in Bellevue, I drove through the night with Madison waking up off and on talking with me. It was really sweet and memorable to share those quiet times with her at 2 am driving over the Washington mountain passes. I tend to get warm while driving, so I was in shorts and a T-shirt, and we had to stop during the night for gas. It was not only cold (low to mid 40's), the wind chill dropped the temperature well below freezing. So, I had no coat, no socks, wearing flip flops, shorts, and a T-shirt in below freezing temperature with the kids inside the car telling me to hurry so they can go back to sleep, and I can drive another 5 hours so we can eat breakfast in Montana. Anyway, I digress.

So, the drive through eastern Washington and heading into Idaho was great, but the Idaho pass is where we hit our first patch of bad weather. Remember, when we left, it was May and Omaha was in the upper 70's to low 80's (Washington was raining in the 60's - nothing new). But we hit a snow storm (our first of many snow storms) and found nearly white out conditions. Less than 24 hours before, I was sitting in Biochem before heading to 7 hours of work and then more than 8 hours of driving, and now I'm driving through a snow and wind storm. It was one of those snow storms where the snow doesn't fall, it blows sideways. Then we got to the bridge. If any of you have driven I-90 through the Idaho passes, I'm sure you know the bridge that spans a canyon from one mountain to another, and I'm sure it's beautiful when the sun is shinning and the wind is mild. We didn't hit the bridge under such conditions, however, the wind was so high and the road so icy, our car hit the bridge and was turned sideways! The front of the car was pointing over the bridge, and the driver-side door was leading the way across the bridge. I am so thankful that we were the only drivers 'smart enough' to be on the road just before sunrise. Anyway, we made it safely across the bridge, but we all wide awake after that little adventure.

We made it to Montana safely where we got some gas for the car and breakfast for our tummies. We then started driving through the rest of Montana for another several hours before we called it a day.

Our trip through South Dakota was less adventurous and more funny, but that story will come later.