12 hours to 36

John and I were really anxious to get on the road to head "home" for Christmas. Just to get an extra jump on the clock, John took off work Friday and I left school during my planning period to begin our journey to Michigan. All was well. John stopped for his Chic-Fil-A and I chomped on some sweets from my kids at school. We put in my new Michael Buble CD---northern winter wonderland- here. we. come.

With our ninja like driving, we made sweet time to Virginia-the roads were deserted from traffic and the weather was bliss (a few drops of dew-like precipitation never hurt anyone).

Around 4 p.m. we started to hit some snow (gross). And before we knew it---we were basically in a blizzard (I'm not joking). Tractor trailers flipped on the highway that we were driving on which caused quite the hold up. We ended up parked on 77 from 4:30 to 10:30. AWESOME.

During that time, the snow piled up and the roads were the worst I had ever been on. We decided to turn around and head back to Charlotte; all hotels were full and the only other option was spending the night on the highway in John's toy car (no offense Honey--that car gets the job done). Once we got off the highway a state patrolman said that all of the highways were closed and that the Red Cross was setting up a shelter (I guess when the number of cars in the ditch exceeds 400 they shut down highways).

John and I spent about an hour killing time in the local Wal-Mart until we were dramatically rescued and taken to a shelter. We ended up getting a few winks of sleep and getting up in the morning to head once again to Michigan.

We got home around 10 p.m.-a day and a half later--a drive that should have been 11 hours--turned into 36.

John smiled the whole time---every mans dream. Being stranded in what he called a "winter wonderland" and lived out what he defined as "an adventure."