The Impromptu Road Trip

Phoenix to Portland. A flight path that would have no problems right?

Wrong.

One might call it a national disaster. A winter storm that had all the airports in chaos mode. People stranded for days in spaces that were not made to be in for more than an hour.

Of course Phoenix though is its own little bubble. Winter weather is a foreign concept to us as we live (most of) our days in the sun and 65 degrees. But when a plane can’t fly out of Phoenix, especially the one you need to get on to return home from Portland, things get a little complicated. And that is exactly what happened.

The trip had been going smoothly. There would be an ice storm hitting Portland right after we would land, but we knew the freezing rain would hold off until we were out of the city.

But nothing can be that easy.

When landing, the plane had to fly through wind gusts in the Gorge (mountains outside Portland) that were upwards of 100 mph. It’s not very fun when the plane has to circle the airport and fly right into the wind to land if you ask me. But alas after those really fun 20 minutes we had touched ground. The drive down to my hometown from Portland was easy (as it can be) and we escaped the freezing rain just barely.

The next day brought freezing temperatures and a solid layer of ice on the roads. Meaning we couldn’t go anywhere besides the confines of our hotel.

But alas after the temperatures finally got back above freezing after the next morning we could go outside our hotel room and get on with our plans.

And so we went with our plans the remaining days of the trip until the day after Christmas, also known as the day we were supposed to leave Oregon and head back to Arizona.

An email came in early that morning saying our flight had been canceled and it would be days before we could get on another flight out. I later learned the plane would have been coming from Phoenix, but thought it was weird as we were having no weather problems back home.

And then we saw that hundreds of flights were canceled throughout the day. Ours just happened to be one of the many.

My mom and I looked at each other not knowing what to do next. We could spend 2-3 hours going to the airport and getting in a line to find our next flight. We could extend our stay at the hotel we were in until a flight had open seats. Or we could see about keeping the rental car and driving to Phoenix.

Option C was the lucky one.

We packed up the car around 7 am and left not knowing what was in store for us over the course of the 1300 miles between us and home.

It was a long two days. Honestly, some of the longest days in my life. We didn’t roll into our neighborhood until midnight on the second day (so you could almost say it took us three days). The trip brought us rain, fog, times where it was hard to see, tears and new experiences that I didn’t ask for. And of course brought all the interesting gas station moments in towns you’ve never heard of before.

Would I ever do a road trip like this again?

No.

(At least let me be prepared next time).

So while I didn’t particularly love the idea of taking an unplanned road trip, we made it and I’m grateful for that. There were times where my mom and I tried to have the most fun we could even when the road seemed to drag on for miles. We did what we could to get back home, but for now I don’t think I’ll be taking anymore impromptu road trips.