The Trip To TN (Days 1 & 2)

Day 1 (Tuesday 12/19):
It all started so well. We got up at 4am and were in the car before 6am. The traffic was easy, the weather was nice, and we had Chick-Fil-A for breakfast. We decided not to stop in Lake Havasu - figured we'd save it for the drive back. When we got to Albuquerque, it was snowy but the roads were clear. We decided to go to the eastern side of the city before stopping. When we got to Tramway, a cop car was running a rolling roadblock and traffic was being narrowed to one lane. We decided we'd gone far enough and pulled off instead of sitting in traffic. When we got checked into our room, we found out the interstate had been SHUT DOWN from Tramway to Texas (the State of Texas, not some interstate exit...) - that's about 200 miles of major US interstate shut down. We went to bed with the idea the roads would be cleared in the morning.

Day 2 (Wednesday 12/20):
We got up at 4am again and turned on the tv - I-40 was shut down both east and west out of Abq and I-25 was shut down going north to Santa Fe. That left us with I-25 south. We decided to drive south to El Paso, Tx and head home from there. At least it wouldn't be snowy that far south. We got going and found the roads to be slushy, but not bad if you were cautious. After getting gas, we made our way to I-40 and headed back to the interchange so we could get on I-25. About 3 miles in, the cops had a roadblock going. Everybody had to get off the interstate. We listened to the radio to find out they had shut down the I-40/I-25 interchange because of ice (it's all bridges and overpasses). Damn. Luckily, we rememberd the basic layout of Abq from having visited while in SF with Used Guys. We took surface streets over to the west side of town, planning to get on the 25 from there. No luck, the cops had the access ramps blocked. Stopping at a gas station for a map, I told the ladies behind the counter I was hoping to find a route down through town that would get me past the blocks. They suggested I just take the access road and directed me to it. Sweet. We got on the access road and took it all the way to the end before we were able to get on I-25 south. I was starting to worry we wouldn't be able to, but it worked out. We were on our way to El Paso. We found out later they had shut down the access roads to keep people off the interstate. Thank dog we left when we did. 1100 miles later, we stopped for the night in Hope, Arkansas (home of Bill Clinton). It was a long damn day.