Snow in May!??

This is also a late entry, but I HAVE to write it down for our family history!!

Let me apologize ahead of time, this is going to be a LONG story... hopefully entertaining... but not nearly as LONG as the night we spent in the Suburban, driving to Bismark, ND.

Where does the story start? I have a new position with MOPS International as a Field Leader, providing training and support to the MOPS groups in Western SD and ND. That is a big area... and our training meeting (Council meeting) was in January in Rapid City, the day after a pretty big snow storm. Needless to say, no one from ND was able to make the trip. My husband mentioned it might make more sense for me to travel up there (one person to travel) instead of all of them travelling down here (10 + groups of 8 ladies). I also noticed that one of the churches with a MOPS groups was Grace Lutheran Brethren Church, and Pastor Al Shaner... a good friend of ours from the days at Alpha Way Bible College and Hillcrest. He was also Dirk's pastor the year's Dirk lived in Grand Forks, ND.

OK -- so fast forward -- I planned a council meeting for the first weekend in May. Dirk and I watched the weather all week and decided the stormy weather was just bad enough that if I was going, he would definately drive. We were going to make a lovely family weekend out of it -- stay over at a hotel with a pool, let the kids swim and have a relaxing time.

Thursday the weather reports were not sounding any better -- we expected snow in the Hills, and rain in the outlying regions. I called Dirk at work and mentioned the idea of me packing up and driving up to Belle Fourche to pick him up -- then heading out for Bismark from there (50 miles closer than leaving from home). I heard from the girls in Bismark the forcast there was only rain -- so we thought we'd probably head out of the snow as we travelled and hit rain somewhere along the way. It was predicted that our neighborhood could get as much as 14 inches of snow... so I was motivated to leave the night before to avoid getting stuck in town.

Dirk agreed -- so I packed in a rush and headed north to Belle. It was after 7:30 when I finally got to him... we hadn't eaten supper, so it was a quick drive through at Taco John's. The roads had already gotten slippery and slushy... Dirk confirmed again that Bismark was just getting rain? As far as I knew, yes, just rain. There were a couple of pickups heading out ahead of us on Highway 85, going North -- so the plan seemed to be coming together. I had packed a lot of snacks and milk, so we wouldn't have to eat out the whole trip -- at least enough to keep the kids happy, etc. I didn't think about packing extra winter gear, however... and had taken most of the extra blankets and snow boots OUT.... Well.... it WAS May!!

So -- now Dirk was driving (thank you Jesus!!)... and it seemed like the roads were yucky, but not horrible. We were in a caravan of 4 pickups by this time, pulling up the rear. We had the best driving conditions possible, since everyone else was cutting the trail for us. We were driving through quite a few inches of snow by this point -- probably 6-8 inches at least, maybe more.

The kids had eaten their suppers, and the girls had gone to sleep. Thor was enjoying playing his PSP, now it was time for sleep, since it was getting close to 9:30 p.m. he was hoping to stay awake until we got to Bismark -- no chance of that now!! There was NO rest or sleep for Dirk or myself... the tension of driving on those roads was more than enough to keep us away the whole time. The snow was falling in huge flakes, coming right at us. The visibility was low, and the road was slippery beneath the freshly piling up snow.

For those of you who don't drive in Northern South Dakota that often, especially highway 85... the main problem was the distance between towns. There is NOTHING on Highway 85 -- a small town called Buffalo is about 60 miles north of Belle Fourch, and then nothing more for 60 more miles to Bowman, ND. I kept thinking if we can just get to Buffalo, surely the roads will get much better after that.

Buffalo was completely DARK. There were a few vehicles pulled off on the side of the road in town... but not so much as a gas station or convenience store in sight. (We didn't know it then, but the power had gone out in the whole region from ice and snow build-up on the power lines). There was no point in stopping, we kept going.

The roads got worse. We didn't really think it was possible... but they did. Now the snow was 14-16 inches deep. One by one, the other trucks pulled off, some temporariliy to know ice build-up off their windshields, etc. For the last leg of the road we were the #2 vehicle in the caravan. A 3/4 ton pickup was ahead of us... at the worst point, going up a hill on a slight curve in the road, he was fish-tailing and slipping around the road. Dirk was attentive, and tried to stay where he could have better traction... but we were fish-tailing as well.

Somewhere in that last section of road we came across a regular sized white car, stuck. It was sitting at a 45 degree angle in the very middle of the road with it's flashers on. It was not hard to get around around, I kept looking for a person ... but there was no one there. We kept thinking, if we stop in this, it might be two days before anyone could get us out... there wouldn't be any possiblity of calling for help... even if the cell phones did work, no one would come before the sun came up. The forcast was for snow to keep coming until 6 p.m. on Friday night (the next night -- nearly 20 hours later).

We've been driving more than 4 hours now -- and had driven less than 100 miles. We hardly spoke the whole way, partially because of the tension of the conditions, but also to be sure the baby stayed asleep. She occasionally woke up and cried, but always went back to sleep fairly quickly.

I forgot to mention, I had to pee so bad... I couldn't think of anything else. Dirk offered to pull off on the side for a few moments... but I couldn't imagine squatting in the snow and ice... it probably wouldn't have worked anyway.

The next thing we knew... the road was turning more slushy... we could see the black of the highway in the tracks, instead of just packed snow. Somewhere in the next mile we noticed the snow was not nearly so deep... maybe only 6 inches or so. Then the snowflakes got smaller... next they turned to rain... and the road was clear... no snow. Dirk was still driving very cautiously, wondering if it was black ice, ... or ?? He couldn't see very well for some reason. He got out of the Suburban and checked the front end... We had a chunck of ice/snow built up over the headlights about 6 inches deep! After he knocked that out of the way, he could see just fine!

We couldn't believe how quickly we drove out of the snow... after 4+ hours of driving through muck and yuck ... in less than a couple of miles, we were now driving in only light rain! How crazy was that??

Bowman, ND was just a few miles ahead. The gas station in town was the first stop for all the other pickups in the caravan with us. We now saw the faces of the other people who had come through this mess with us! They were all men, driving north for work... I guess we were the only crazy family out that night?! Dirk thanked the driver who had been in front of us the whole way... Everyone was chipping off chuncks of snow and ice, enough to make quite a few snow men!!

We refueled, had a bathroom break, got more Pepsi and snacks, and decided to go until Dirk was too tired to drive. It was still 3 hours to Bismark, but Dickenson was only about an hour away -- which was a big enough town to have some hotel options.

Obviously I was much more comfortable now, with the roads clear and easy driving. The next thing I knew we were just outside of Bismark -- Dirk was asking me what hotel we wanted to stay at. We found the Ramkota Best Western - advertising an indoor water-park. We got in right away, unloaded and got the kids settled into beds. It was now just after 4 a.m. Dirk was finally able to relax and let down. Thankfully we all slept in quite a bit... I took the kids down to the pool area first, while Dirk went across the street to the grocery store for breakfast. He and the baby went back to bed after a couple of hours for a nice nap.

Thor, Anika and I enjoyed a fun, relaxing afternoon at the pool. There were occasionally other groups at the pool -- but most of the time we were the only ones there. By 4 p.m. on Friday the pool was starting to get busy, so we got out, cleaned up and went out for supper. We strolled through the mall for a couple of hours, then picked up Cold Stone Creamery on the way back to the hotel.

I got ready for my MOPS meeting, the next morning, and we hit the beds early, thankful for a wonderful nights rest. Saturday went by very quickly -- my MOPs meeting went very well, a lovely lunch with the girls. Dirk and the kids went to "Space Aliens" with Pastor Al and wife Margaret (pizza and arcade place) -- by 3:00 p.m. we were packed up and heading back to Rapid City! The road were perfectly clean and clear. We saw quite a few electric poles down once we hit the "snow zone" again... and were amazed to see the piles of snow and running water everywhere. There were drifts over 4 feet deep in our front yard!