I’ll start this post by saying we are all safe in our hotel for the night.

Today was my birthday! It’s been… Different. We started the day in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The plan was to drive west to Bismarck, ND, but the weather this morning showed major snow on the north route, so we decided to head a bit south to Rapid City. The first portion of the drive was great. Clear skies, and clear roads. Before we crossed into South Dakota we hit some pretty rough roads. At this point, my parents were a ways behind us with the big truck, so I was texting updates on the weather and trying not to die from panic. I HATE being on the road in the snow, and I was worried about the big box truck with the conditions and wind we were driving through. We pulled off the highway for a bit to get lunch and let the dogs play at a dog park while we waited for things to either clear up, or at least give the plow trucks time to clear things up a bit. Got back on the road and it was very slow going for about 30 minutes. Almost as soon as we crossed into SD things cleared up. By this point, we were about an hour and a half ahead of my parents and they had yet to hit the bad weather. Thankfully, we all made it through and the drive across MOST of South Dakota was uneventful.

When Kevin and I got about 30 minutes from Rapid City, we hit more snow. It started as sleet and quickly turned into a decent snowfall, but we were close enough to the hotel that it didn’t impact our drive too much. We got checked in and got the pets fed and pottied, and were about to order dinner when we both got an emergency alert on our phones. “National Weather Service: Snow Squall Warning.” First of all, the alert sound they use is panic inducing. Second, what in the world is a snow squall?! We have both lived in Michigan our entire lives where there is obviously a ton of snow, and neither of us knew what it was. The short answer: Snowy Hell. We hit the road at 9am today, so my parents had been traveling for almost 13 hours already, and the last hour and a half was about to not be great. I texted my mom to check in and roads were still clear for them so I hoped they would miss the worst of it and the “Squall” would be over by the time they were close. What should have been an hour and a half drive remaining ended up taking them almost 3 hours, and they most certainly did not miss the Squall. I’ll attach pictures of what their visibility was like. Thankfully they made it here safe and sound and we had pizza waiting for their arrival.

To sum it all up, my birthday started with a reroute, was packed with two snowstorms, and ended with a feeling of dread while my parents drove through what I was envisioning to be an icy apocolypse. It actually truly ended with cake in our hotel room purchased by my amazing mom.

Thank you Mom and Dad for driving the truck on this trip, taking the time to get me cake and making sure my birthday still felt special, and I promise to never again move across the country in early March. Love you both to the moon and back!