Birchell Family: LONGEST drive ever...

My Mom, Stac, Brilee, and I left for California on Monday. When they got to Roosevelt to pick Brilee and I up we were happy because it wasn't snowing. We got to Myton and had to turn on the windshield wipers. By the time we were in Duchesene it was snowing hard. We stopped for a drink in Duchesene and were told by a stranger that Strawberry was not good! We were nervous and debated turning around. We decided to drive and if it ever got scary we would just turn around. Strawberry was slow (4wd the whole way) but not scary. We had planned on going to visit my cousins, aunt, and grandparents in Salt Lake but due to weather we decided to just go through Provo so we could get to Cedar and get off the road!!! We headed about six miles up Provo Canyon and got turned around due to an accident. We asked how long the canyon would be closed and were told 4-6 hours. Luckily, that meant we got to go and see Amy, Cathy, GMA, and GPA!!!! It was such a nice break to be able to visit with them. Brilee got some fun presents... she now sports a pink hoodie that says "Brilee Bear", and it has two cute ears on the hood. She.Loves.It. After our visit we felt good about our travels. Brilee fell asleep before we got to Provo and took a nice nap until we stopped in Nephi. It kept snowing/raining the whole way. We kept saying it would quit soon. Wow, we were wrong. Brilee was a good girl and watched a lot of movies, read some books, and did a little yelling. We were going real slow (back in 4wd), the snow was pounding us! When we came to a traffic jam right after Cove Fort. We put the truck in park, got Brilee out of her seat, and started trash talking the other drivers. Stacia got out of the truck (we told her not to...) to see what was going on. We were told there was an accident seven miles from where we were. Then it happened all at once... cars started getting into the emergency lanes and driving fast. We were sooooo mad! We were yelling at them and Stac was flipping them off. Then the two lane freeway was a four lane freeway all jammed up! The snow plow was trying to get through to get to the accident to plow in front of the tow truck. He was doing his best, but he ended up hitting our mirror with his blade. It sounded and felt like he took our whole front end off. We all screamed. Stacia jumped out of the truck and ran and jumped in the cab of the plow driver to tell him he had hit us. He had NO idea, and he felt bad about it. We got his information and then saw a police officer. We asked if he would do the report and he said, "Sure if you just want to pull over and wait for this mess to clear up." UH NO THANKS! He then asked us to not move where we were at, and told the van next to us the same thing. Pretty soon traffic started moving and we didn't know what to do. The van rolled down the window and asked if we were not going to move. We said I guess not. We waited another minute and then the police officer came through, and didn't even wave. We took off right after him. We went slow, and we got passed by idiots driving way too fast for conditions. One of those idiots spun out and started coming straight towards us. My mom freaked a little but handled the situation. She accelerated right passed the car (which was now spinning doughnuts), but the car and semi behind us didn't avoid the collision. After that we didn't see head lights behind us for a long time. We stopped in Beaver and were told that the weather would improve soon! We were happy and decided to keep going to Cedar (we debated getting a room in Beaver). The weather NEVER improved. Poor Brilee was soooooo scared by the time we got to Cedar she was hiding in a blanket and would not take it off her face for 45 minutes. The big trucks would throw snow when they passed us, and she HATED it!!!!!! It broke my heart that she was so scared. We finally pulled into Stac's apartment at 2145. WOW! 14 hours to Cedar City. Brilee had a bad night (rightfully so) and that meant I didn't sleep either. We woke up early Tuesday morning and took off. Luckily, it didn't snow (only rain) in Cedar. It rained so hard though!!!! We have never seen anything like it. The St. George golf course is now the Virgin River, the Virgin Gorge looked more like Bridal Veil Falls, and Primm has a new lake that is about 95 miles long. We got into another traffic jam at the bottom of Cajon Pass. Del called and looked it up for us and said if we could find the Cleghorn exit it could take us where we needed to be. Luckily, we were right at the exit. We cut a couple people off and then everyone started following us. It was a little scary as the water was about to reach the road... but we made it! We finally got up the hill and have NEVER been so happy to get out of the truck. Our windshield wipers were on from Myton until Lake Arrowhead. The storm of the century will never be forgotten by us!!!!!! Now we are in Lake Arrowhead and LOVING our holiday season. Merry Christmas to everyone!!!!!!!!