A dear friend of mine is always telling me that I never blog enough. What I find humorous is that this person is not necessarily up to date with the blogging world or - no offense my friend - probably even sure where to begin when it comes to blogging.  All she knows is that she gets my xanga via email and thinks that it should happen significantly more often than it does. Now that's saying something.

So, dear friend of mine, this is just for you. And because I know you are already giggling to yourself - my recent, very long trip to Spokane...

I tend to travel from time to time for my job. This often includes trips to Spokane (those unfamiliar with the state of Washington, it is on the opposite side of the state and typically takes 5 and a half hours to drive their from Olympia. Only 59 minutes by plane).  Our agency was hosting a huge conference in Spokane and we were all set to fly over there on Sunday.  Unfortunately the weather was too bad (aka - lots of snow) and all flights were cancelled.  So what do we, as the intelligent state employees we are do? We decided to caravan over there. Logic would tell you if the weather is too bad for airplanes that perhaps it would be too bad for cars, but apparently we are illogical people.

The drive over took 7 hours in the middle of the night. I was grinding my teeth the entire time.  At one point I completely hit a patch of ice and spun around 2 and a half times in the middle of the freeway landing in a ditch. After changing my underwear, I continued on the journey.  Only it was so cold that regardless of having the defroster on at full blast and sweating myself out of the car my front windshield kept freezing.  So I would have to keep pulling over on the side of the highway to scrape the ice off my windshield.  During one of these many stops I lost my favorite brown scarf on the side of the road. It's tragic I know.

Because this story is getting too long, and I am sure you all have tired head by now I will just say this. I was suppose to come home on Wednesday. I was snowed in until Friday. Every mountain pass in the state was closed on Thursday and the one I went across on Friday was the only one opened. (There are about 5 major passes you can cross in the state). However, other main roads to this pass were also closed so I had to go significantly out the way to get there. The trip home took 10 hours (did I mention it normally takes 5 and a half)? I also continuously slid down the hill, got my car stuck in the snow, and got a huge hole in my boot. One morning I woke up and it was 9 degrees. That's not even mentioning the wind chill.

I thought I was finally getting used to living here. Apparently not. Welcome to Washington Carrie!

These are some pictures that were taken on my friends cell phone on the way home just outside of Spokane.