Under the dimmed light of our dining room chandelier, Mom and I sat across from each other with various maps and weather forecasts pulled up on our phones and laptops. I studied them with an intense scowl. I wasn’t quite liking what I was seeing.
“Wyomin’s almost always horrible this time of year…” I growled, “We oughta go through the mountains. Here, to Vail, to Glenwood, to Grand Junc-“
“No.” Mom shook her head, “The mountains are snowy. Let’s take the highway from here to Fort Collins, then I-80 through Wyoming to Salt Lake. It’s safer because it’s more well-traveled, and there’s no snow in the forecast.”
“But, there’s wind and existing snow.” I pointed out, “Lots and lots of wind. I don’t like that. Semis start to tip in forty mile-an-hour crosswinds. The wind’ll be gusting to sixty tomorrow, and even stronger the next day. Going through that is a very bad idea.”
“Maya, we’re driving the 4Runner.” Mom retorted, “The wind doesn’t matter. So long as there’s no snow or ice, then it’s safe.”
“The problem is…” I immediately began, “Is that with a wind that strong, it’s gonna pick up existing snow and create ground blizzards, as well as blow over semis around us. I-80 is not a stretch of highway I wanna be on during a calm day, let alone in high winds, let alone in cold and snow.”
“It’ll be forty degrees!” Mom replied, “And blue skies.”
“With a sixty-mile-an-hour wind and snow on the ground.” I snapped back, “The mountains are better. They’re easier and faster and more protected. I’d rather hit ski traffic than go through whatever godforsaken weather’s in Wyoming!”
“Well… grandpa Lyle says that Wyoming is much safer than the mountains.”
“In the summer!”
“No, it’ll be fine in the winter, too. Just relax. It won’t take long for us to get through Wyoming.”
“Alright…” I sighed, frustrated and not wanting to argue further, “If you’d rather we get crushed by a semi than deal with ski traffic, then I guess we’ll do just that.”
“Oh, whatever!” Mom rolled her eyes, chuckling as she closed her laptop and headed to bed.
It was then that I realized Mom didn't know what a ground blizzard was. To be fair, most people don't know what a ground blizzard is. But, that's because ground blizzards are fairly rare in most parts of the country. Wyoming, more specifically, almost the entirety of I-80, is known for its intense wind for a reason.
Wyoming is in the center of the country, where the jet stream tends to sit over. In places where the jet stream frequently rushes right over, the winds tend to be much stronger. There is also a break in the Rocky Mountains in southern Wyoming, made up of high, flat plains for as far as the eye can see, running mostly east-to-west through the center of the Rockies. The jet stream winds get funneled through that break in the Rockies, wreaking havoc on the barren, flat prairies of southern Wyoming. Especially in the fall through the spring, when weather patterns are much more volatile.
Add in east-to-west, straight highways with no protection in sight, dangerous cold, loose snow, ice, and traffic, and you get to experience what it would be like if Hell froze over.
However, I struggled immensely to explain this to my mom, who was convinced we would only encounter "just some wind", which in her mind, wasn't a big deal. To be fair, it wouldn't have been a big deal had it just been "some wind". But, Wyoming winds in winter are very different from a typical windy day in Denver.
Too bad I couldn't explain it properly to my mom, however. We were going through Wyoming, no matter how bad of an idea I thought it was.
By 5:30 in the morning, we were driving past the city lights of downtown Denver, though still somehow stuck in traffic.
"I still think we ought to go through the mountains..." I grumbled, "I don't want to play stupid games."
"Oh, c'mon!" Mom sighed again, "It's just some wind. Wind's never hurt anyone."
"It's not just wind, Mom." I argued again, "It's wind plus snow plus ice plus big semitrucks. It's not that the wind's blowing, it's the fact that it's extremely cold, gas stations are few and far between, and there will be tons of semitrucks just asking to get knocked over on top of us. I wouldn't be whining so much if it was just high winds."
"It'll be fine." Mom said, "Take a chill pill and go to sleep. After Denver, it shouldn't take us more than six hours to get to Salt Lake. Then, at three this afternoon, you'll be meeting your new puppy. Think about your puppy, not about the drive there."
"I wish that's how my mind worked..." I sighed as I cuddled up against the window and stared out at the city lights of Denver shining against the dark, predawn skies.
Obviously, I couldn't wait to meet my new puppy. He was the largest cavapoo of his litter, which unfortunately meant that he didn't get adopted out like his siblings did, as people don't tend to want larger, less energetic puppies. For several weeks, he remained at home with his parents and ads across various websites, with not a single person asking to see him. As a result, the breeders were considering just keeping him, but just a few hours before they took down his listing once-and-for-all, I called and asked if he was still available.
Unfortunately, due to his age and size, he couldn't be carried-on an airplane as he couldn't fit underneath the seat. So, Mom and I agreed to take a weekend to drive to Utah to pick him up. His breeders were in Provo, and my mom's best friend, Jen, still lived in Salt Lake City. However, Priscilla (my mom's other best friend who lived in Salt Lake City for many years) moved to Dallas, Texas in the spring of 2022 for a job opportunity. Needless to say, we couldn't stay with her again like we did during the summer of 2020.
At first, we figured we'd stay with Jen. But, Jen's house wasn't big enough to accommodate myself, Mom, and Priscilla (who decided to fly out to Salt Lake to see us and the puppy for a night, as well as help out Jen with taking care of her family for a week). Plus, I didn't want to spend a lot of time in Utah. Had we stayed with Jen, I suspect our trip would've lasted quite a bit longer than just one night.
So, Mom and I found a dog-friendly Airbnb to stay in for the night with the puppy.
At least, assuming we managed to make it to Utah on I-80 in the 4Runner.
Why did we decide to take the 4Runner instead of the Xterra? Well, unlike the Xterra, the 4Runner fit in the garage, and therefore didn't get frosted overnight. Not wanting to spend the first part of our morning scraping ice and snow off the Xterra, we just decided to pack into the 4Runner. Plus, I was curious to see how road-tripping in the 4Runner would be like, especially in the winter. Would it live up to our standards, or would it leave us stranded?
Well... there was really only one way to find out.
That isn't to say that I was looking forward to the drive to or from Utah. Obviously, I was scared shitless. I don't like to drive or ride shotgun on quiet streets on the outskirts of town (I may have some minor PTSD from getting rear-ended in my mom's shitty little Volkswagen Jetta almost a decade ago). I get sweaty palms just driving to my college campus from home in good weather. The mere thought of driving across Wyoming in the winter, with weather warnings all over I-80 from Cheyenne to Rock Springs, freaked me the fuck out. Which is why I wouldn't stop trying to convince my mom to go through the mountains instead.
After all, I'd rather get stuck in ski traffic than get caught in a Wyoming ground blizzard with nowhere to hide from it. But, Mom thought otherwise. So, off to Wyoming it was!
The first signs of trouble began in a valley west and north of Fort Collins. I noticed snow blowing across the road each time we crested a hill. It wasn't much, but it was enough to wake me up and start to bitch about it again.
"Go to Walden while we still can." I practically yelled as I woke up, "Wind's picking up. It's gonna be bad in Wyoming."
"Oh, stop it." Mom laughed, "There's barely any wind or snow here. It's gonna be just fine. Relax!"
"No, you don't understand..." I scowled, struggling to hide my increasing fear, "I'm not just having an anxious moment. The mountains are much safer this time of year. Just- just trust me. Go through to Walden. Please."
Just then, the 4Runner made a bell noise very similar to the bell that precedes an announcement on an airplane. In a robotic voice, the 4Runner said, "Welcome to Wyoming." (Yes, my mom's 2022 4Runner is equipped with an annoyingly sophisticated GPS system).
Sure enough, we were passing by the "Welcome to Wyoming" sign, which characteristically had huge icicles hanging off of it, perpendicular to the ground.
"Well shit..." I thought to myself as I yawned to relieve some stress from my body, "The puppy better be worth it!"
Miraculously, however, the wind actually decreased from there, and they didn't pick up for the rest of the six-hour drive. Things were smooth sailing from Laramie to Salt Lake City, with only one little bottleneck in the road between Echo and Summit Park, Utah!
"See, it wasn't so bad!" Mom smirked as we pulled up to Jen's house just after 2:00 PM.
"Yeah, yeah..." I rolled my eyes, "You were right this time."
"You definitely need to increase your Prozac dose..." Mom trailed off as she exited the driver's seat.
"She might be right..." I thought to myself as I stepped out onto the sidewalk in Jen's cute Daybreak, Utah suburb.
Note: I'm still trying to figure out how to word things carefully when they come to the main reasons why we didn't stay with Jen (as it's still ongoing and I don't want to misrepresent anything if I can help it), so I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut at the moment and instead write about my most recent traumatic exp- er I mean, the drive back from Utah.
The wind was already picking up in Utah at 5:30 in the morning. It was a painfully cold wind, biting at my bare hands as I heaved our luggage into the 4Runner. And, according to all of my weather apps, shit was only gonna get worse the further east we drove, especially in Wyoming.
But, because I'd more-or-less cried wolf on the way to Utah, there was no point in arguing with my mom any further. She had her mind made up already: we were going back the same way we came. Honestly, I felt a little nauseous about driving back home through Wyoming, as I knew we wouldn't just encounter a little wind and snow. A cold front was making its way through as I was loading up the 4Runner, blasting Wyoming with sub-zero temperatures, a fresh layer of snow, and 60-80 mile-per-hour winds. The weather back home would be nothing like the cold breezes we encountered on the way to Utah. But nothing I could say or do could get my mom to take a different route home.
Things didn't get too interesting till we reached Rock Springs; our first gas stop of the morning. Thankfully, there was no wind, but it was still a painful -5 degrees outside, with dense fog that frosted everything it touched, including the 4Runner's heated windows and mirrors.
"While I take Toby to go pee, you get the gas pumping and start scraping the frost off the windows and mirrors." I told Mom.
"Okay." She replied.
I took Toby across the road to some open prairie near a wide open pasture. Toby wasn't interested in sniffing around very much, but was quick to relieve himself then tug at the leash back towards the truck. I picked him up and put him back on the warmed seat, and gently shut him inside. I half-expected Toby to freak out and bark for me, but instead, he simply curled up in a little ball on his blanket.
From there, I located the scraper and went to work de-icing the car the best I could. Unfortunately, no matter how much I scraped, it seemed like more frost and ice immediately replaced it. That's when Mom got an idea.
"Here!" She shouted as she handed me a half-full gallon of antifreeze, "Use this!"
"To do what?" I scowled.
"Watch!"
Mom took back the antifreeze and proceeded to splash the frozen side-view mirror with it. But, instead of solving the problem, the antifreeze immediately froze over the side-view mirror, adding another layer of ice to scrape off.
"Christ..." I sighed as I bowed my head into my hand, "Give me strength."
Mom burst out laughing as she turned bright red with embarrassment. But, I wasn't embarrassed. Rather, I was very concerned about the journey that lay ahead of us. If we couldn't competently defrost the 4Runner, how on earth were we gonna drive through two-hundred miles of blizzard conditions?
"Mom, I really think we need to go through the mountains." I whined again as I used my fingers to pick the ice off the rear-view mirror.
"Maya." Mom scowled, "We've had this conversation, already, and I've already made up my mind. It's just cold right now, and it's cold in the mountains. I'm glad we're taking this route because there's no ice on the roads here."
I side-eyed my mom with frustrated disappointment. There was, in fact, ice everywhere on those Wyoming roads. Everywhere we stepped there was ice. We were just lucky to have a vehicle that had enough weight and traction to keep us from sliding without any wind. But, I was very worried about what might happen when 60-80 mph crosswinds came into play. Mom, on the other hand? Not at all. She was just annoyed that I kept crying wolf and begging to go through the mountains.
So, against my better judgement, we pressed on.
The first signs of real trouble began just after we passed by Point of Rocks, where we exited out of the foothills of Wyoming and onto the exposed, wide-open plains. It began with just the occasional little gust of loose snow, gently drifting across I-80 as we charged down it full-speed. There were still plenty of vehicles traveling easily down I-80 with us, and going toward Utah on the opposite side of the highway. But, conditions rapidly deteriorated, as we sped past Table Mountain towards Red Desert and Wamsutter.
The winds were starting to impact the semis around us. Some semis weren't just being impacted a little bit. It was easy to tell which trucks were carrying lightweight or nonexistent loads, as those were the ones who were getting pushed into the other lane by the wind. For this reason, more and more vehicles were pulling off at emergency stops and rest areas to wait things out, though we continued still.
I stayed silent, but in my mind, my thoughts were reeling as my anxiety increased. We were nowhere near the official warning areas, yet things were already getting really sketchy.
"Oh shit..." I thought to myself as Mom finally began to slow down, as gusts of wind blasted us with increasingly heavier snow, "I knew this would fucking happen."
