Winter Storm Thor

I have been back from my trip for a few days now, and am also doing my best to adjust to losing an hour to the Daylight Savings Time switch.  This one is so much harder than the change back to standard time in the fall!  My travels took me to Las Vegas for a few days and then on to a very nice hiking trip in Death Valley, California.  This was an organized group tour, and we were in the desert just in time to view the spring bloom of the wildflowers.   Getting there was a whole different story.

I had planned on flying from the Durango airport, which is about 60 miles east of my house, to Las Vegas.  The flight was to leave at 3:30 on Saturday afternoon.  as those of you who live in the US know, we had a humongous and long lasting winter storm that affected almost all of the country last week.  That was Thor.  Cute, eh?  As I was packing for the trip on Friday afternoon, I was keeping an eye on the weather, and the outlook was not very good.  At that time, several feet of snow was being predicted for the area around the airport, and it was looking doubtful that my flight would be leaving on time, or leaving at all.  In addition to that, the route to the airport goes over a mountain pass that can be very treacherous if the weather is bad. 

What was I to do?  The tour started on Sunday afternoon, and I really didn’t want to miss even a single minute of it.  I could have gotten trip insurance at that late hour, but even if I was delayed getting into Las Vegas I would still have had to find my own transportation to Death Valley to catch up to the group.  Big stress was starting to set in about that time!  My mind was spinning. 

As can often happen in these situations, a solution can just pop in when you least expect it, usually during a time when your mind relaxes a bit.  My guidance came through and said “Just drive!”  Whoa!!!  Just drive?  I hadn’t even considered that possibility amongst the others that I was mulling over.  In that instant, my whole plan did a switch and I canceled my flight.  I then started readjusting my packing, got out my maps, and readied my Garmin GPS to use in the car.  By the time I went to bed on Friday night, I had thrown everything I would need in the car, including food, water, and a blanket, and figured that I would sort it all out when I got to Las Vegas. 

On Saturday morning, it was not snowing here when I got up, but an hour later, there was already an inch and a half of new snow on the ground.  I had to get going quickly.  Off I went.  The streets in Cortez were a sheet of ice, but I just drove slowly and carefully out of town.  I was on a mission!  Griping the steering wheel, and white knuckled, I drove straight south about 140 miles to Gallop, New Mexico.  That was the worst part of the trip, and it took about 3 ½ hours.  The roads alternated between ice and snow packed, wet and slushy, to sometimes easy and dry.  On one stretch south of Shiprock, on what was a divided highway with a 65 mph speed limit, I was limited to driving about 25 mph while staying within the ruts that previous drivers had made going through at least 6 inches of snow.  That was probably the scariest.  Fortunately, the predicted high winds combined with the snow did not materialize at that point, as very dangerous whiteout conditions would have occurred. 

Once on the interstate, I could drive the 75 mph speed limit and make up some time.  I could finally relax a bit, as there was no snow there, only high winds.  The whole trip took about 10 hours and 570 miles, including a few stops.  To this day, I still do not know if the Durango Airport closed down, but I do not regret doing the drive.  What an adventure! 

The whole point here is to follow your guidance.  A solution to any problem will be provided if you are open to hearing that inner voice.  The next step is to act on that guidance, no matter how nonsensical it may seem.  I could have easily gotten myself into a whole heap of trouble driving through such dangerous conditions, but I like to think that I did it in a safe and sensible way.  What about other drivers who were not so safe and sensible, and who might have gotten me into an accident?  I just trusted that that possibility was not in the cards for me that day, and concentrated on the goal at hand. 

So what if a situation happens to you where you need to make a move fast, or relocate in a hurry?  Just look at the weather disasters we have had in the US in recent years.  Floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and blizzards to name a few.  What about fires, train derailments, or plane crashes?  What if there are several choices of what to do?  How do you choose?  Our Higher Selves know exactly what we should do or where we should go.  The trick is to listen and not let our analytical minds get in the way.   Then trust and act.  I do not regret doing the long round trip drive.  It was exhausting but at the same time, it allowed me to drive through a beautiful part of the country that I was unfamiliar with.  I trusted and acted and received many gifts in the process.