slide off, its about a foot shorter than a normal bed and about 10
bricks harder........ So neither of us slept well, but I was woken up
with an evil little voice asking me if I wanted pics of the snow
before it all melted.... I have to admit that I had hoped that we had
left the white stuff behind us, but noooooo. So I went and took a few
pictures, more out of duty to my camera than anything else...
By now Allie had realized that we were on the move again, so she
started hyperventilating........sigh. Sophie was all over the place
wanting to know what was happening. The slide out froze in the out
position and we had to have both of us pulling on it to help the motor
to pull it in again. We could hear the ice scrunching on the top of
it and later during the day, felt the melt water dribble down the
walls......another sigh. It was cold today! We had icicles hanging
from the part of the RV that hangs over the front - and I watched as
these grew during the next good many hours...... yes grew.
There were huge flocks of geese filling the skies - all headed north
and away from this cold........yes, North!
And so we headed off back to the interstate smugly thinking that we
would get 'way past' Oklahoma City by days end and out of the cold
white stuff..... suuuuure thing! The trees and shrubs on the side of
the road got prettier and prettier with the dusting of snow and the
camera jumped and performed and caught some lovely ice photos and
frozen trees and then we saw a little slush in the road........and
then, well, and then the day got pretty much ruined. From one minute
to the next the road disappeared and an ice road appeared. We drove
for about 5 hours on solid ice about 2 inches thick, most of it
breaking up and terribly uneven so that our maximum speed was around 7
miles per hour - for hours and hours and hours. The noise was
indescribable and the microwave bounced loose from his screws, not
falling out, but having to be reseated.
I don't quite know how to describe those hours of 'driving'. Some
people thought it was just great fun and screamed past us at high
speed (15mph) throwing slush, sand and salt all over the windshield.
The road was reduced to one lane at the best of times and much of the
time it was just a free for all, wherever-you-can-drive-and-make-the-
least-noise-and-bumps piece of ribbon through an endless white scenery
with trucks backed up front and behind us, over the hills and into
other counties. We were nearly smashed into by one idiot with a
trailer and three cars on that - it was really close and Frank got rid
of some frustration by leaning heavily on the horn.....not a funny
moment at all.
The ice on the trees broke many branches and created an awesome and
ethereal scenery to keep me and the camera occupied and eyes away from
the road. After about 2 hours of this, the beauty became secondary to
just trying to stay on the road and hoping something on the rv would
not break. The exit ramps were simply not accessible at all, so we
could not stop, could not get off and just had to keep going... I
know hell is supposed to be hot, but this was the cold version..... If
anyone ever asks me when my 'hot sweats' started - the answer to that
is "about 100 miles east of Oklahoma City!".
Allie stayed in her 'cave' all snug and warm and Sofie came and acted
like a little blanket on my lap - she really is becoming a soppy
little doglet :)
Many of the trees had started budding already and they had a pink
tinge underneath the ice that had thoroughly coated them - quite
pretty. We saw more wrecks today than we had seen in all of our other
trips combined. At least 5 trucks ended up on their sides, many many
cars skidded off the road, one poor family was moving their stuff in a
little UHaul trailer and it turned over and spread all its contents
over the interstate.... One accident had three 53foot tractor
trailers involved - one a double-doozie! We were really very lucky -
there were many close calls with us and trucks and others just pushing
it too fast, but Frank pushed and pulled and dragged Skilpad through
it all. Fortunately the noise disguised most of my squeaks and not-so-
silent plea's for an end to the horror so he did not have to deal with
that too often.
We are now in a KOA Campground about 20 miles east of Oklahoma City -
yup - still this side...... but happy to be stopped and not stopped on
the interstate in the dark and ice. The campground is totally white
with snow and getting out of here tomorrow morning is going to be
interesting, to say the least. Funny how quickly trees grow into
obstacles rather than just trees.........and there are many of them
here!
On a happier note, Mo Crow hooked up with us again today! Mo Crow is
a big black crow that seems to follow us on all our trips, whether its
to the Carolina Coast or Alaska - he and his family keep dropping down
on the side of the highway to see how we are doing. Nuts, yes. But
its amazing to see just how often these crows are everywhere one goes.
I am trying to get photos up onto the photobucket website, but the
connection here is in slow-mo..... The link is below each email -
hopefully I will have some pics soon.
Love and light
Annie
http://photobucket.com/BajaBaggs09
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