Thursday February 11, 2021 - Travel Day to Big Bend NP in an Ice Storm

Yes you read right.  As we drove from San Antonio to Big Bend NP, we hit a very severe Ice Storm.  We saw this car flipped over on our way.  It was very scary out there today.

Scotty and I didn't even think about checking the weather because it has been so nice.  The only thing that I felt, was that we needed to leave very early this morning to drive to Big Bend.  First of all, I knew that the drive was going to be long.  According to maps, it would take a normal car 7 hours to get there from where we were.  Which meant that it would take about 8 driving hours for us plus stops.  So, my feeling was to leave very early and get most of the drive out of the way before the kids woke up. Little did I know that leaving early would actually save us from heavily iced  roads. 

I drove today because Scotty had to work.  We drove about two to three hours before I realized that we were going to hit a storm.  At that point, we pulled over and made the kids get in the truck.  We only let them travel in the trailer in perfect weather.  The temperature had dropped to the low 20's.  Wind had picked up and it started to rain.  I figured we were going to be driving through a rain storm.  With in minutes, the rain had turned to slush, and that slush froze instantly on our windshield.  I had never been in an ice storm so this was very new for me to drive in. I grew up in UT driving in the snow so I know how to drive in weather and it doesn't bother me. . . but seriously. . . ice storm while pulling a 44 foot long trailer????  You've got to be kidding me.  Talk about stressful.

At first the streets were just wet, so we proceeded.  Then, the streets slowly started to ice over.  All the cars were driving on the right lane of the road as was I.  This made it so that there was a perfectly paved trail to stay on that wasn't icy.  There were also men driving big trucks spreading sand and salt on the roads. This helped a lot.  So the roads actually weren't that bad for most of the drive. I just had to be very careful.    The bridges were the worst. They were ALL iced over all the time.  I leaned quickly that the bridges ice over before the roads,  and stay iced over.  I drove very slowly and carefully over them.  I used the engine brakes so to not slide. I have to say, Doug did awesome!!!

At one point, the ice did get so bad that I turned to Scotty and asked him to find us a safe place to pull over so that we cold wait out the storm. We didn't HAVE to be driving today. We have our own schedule and there was no reason why we had to be putting our family in a dangerous situation. It was silly to me to be out in the storm.  We should have been in a safe place waiting to leave when it was safe again.  These were all the thoughts that went through my head.  Scotty looked and the next place we could pull over and be safe was 45 minutes away.  He also was following the storm as we were driving through it and said that we were almost out of it. We both decided to keep going and get out of this nightmare.  We all prayed and kept going.  With in minutes, the roads cleared up and we were out of the worst of it. 

We did end up pulling over at the stop that was 45 minutes away at the Flying J for gas, lunch and a break. I had been driving for about 6 hours at that point.  Scotty and I took pictures of our iced over Doug and Homie. Ice dressed our vehicles.   

I thought this looked so cool!!

We stayed at our stop for about an hour and a half while Scotty took a call.  It was freezing outside and our trailer was frozen so we all stayed in the truck while we waited. This was when we found out that the ice stormed caused a 100 car pile up in Dallas and like 9 people died.  For any of you who were praying or even thinking of us, thank you. We know that our angles were watching over us again and protecting us.  

 We still had a long drive ahead of us.  The cloud cover followed us until we got off of the 10 freeway and headed south towards Mexico.  When we were about an hour away from Big Bend, the skies cleared!!!!

Our travel day lasted 12 hours.  Exhausting!!!! When we pulled into our campground, I might have burst into tears.  One can only handle so much.  

The whole family pitched in and set up Homie.  We will be here for a week!!  

Pepper made pancakes for dinner from scratch as it was one of her goals.  She made them Magnolia style and they were delicious!!!  Graham made his favorite chocolate pie with whip cream!!  We celebrated getting through today as a family!!!

This is where we are. The Rio Grande is what separates the US border from Mexico. We are the blue dot and the blue river south of us is Mexico.  

Scotty got cream on his mustache while eating Grahams pie and I was dying laughing!!  

Taj took this picture of me.  You can tell it was a stressful day.  It's going to take a few days to recover.