I am sitting here at my computer desk blogging by generator. Yes, I said generator. As a lot of you have seen on the news we were hit with a HUGE ice storm a few days ago. Barry and I were traveling back from the annual Dude Ranchers Convention, which was held in Tucson AZ this year. We had not watched the news or weather so we had no idea what we were in for.
First I would like to say that we had a nice time in AZ - the convention was hosted at the Tanque Verde guest ranch. The desert there was very beautiful with all the different varieties of cactus and the ranch was amazing.
Now back to our "fun" ride home. The trip was a two days drive, approx. 20 hrs. On the way home the first day went as usual - except we took a slight detour to Tombstone AZ. The second day went well until we came to Amarillo and we noticed some snow flurries but stopped at a western wear store anyway (Cavenders - it is the main store and has a great selection). When we came out of the store about an hr. later we could see the snow had started to stick. Hmmm...
By the time we got to OK City it was a mess. Our second day that was suppose to only last approx. 10 hrs ended up being 16 1/2 hrs and we didn't make it home...we stopped in Russelville, AR. (See photo of Jetta below).
Day THREE of our trip we called Martha to bring the kids, pig and the Excursion to our motel - we traded beings and vehicles and made our way up hwy 7 to our home - the 1 1/2 hr drive took approx. 3 1/2 hrs. but did not seem that long due to all the interesting things along the way...
Needless to say -we are home (2 days now) with out power. 435 power poles in our district broke and they do not know when power will be restored. So we are indoor camping. We will have to keep you posted...Photos below show the events. Enjoy!
The truth is don't eat the Mexican food here or suffer the consequences later... wonder if they write the name of the town on their letters, hmmmm.... (New Mexico)
Welcome to Arizona
Saguaro National Forest.
Got your tongue...(look closer)
Here we are with the Garnick girls (who are no longer Garnicks - they are both married now) Savannah and Jessica. It is strange to think I am the same age (37) that Cameron Garnick was when we worked at their ranch, the Heart Six Ranch in Moran WY, where we met - these two were not very old then.
Our visit to Tombstone Arizona on the way back to Arkansas. We passed a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) on the way there - turned around and attended their sacrament meeting - it was neat to see all of the church members.
(Tombstone is more than just a frozen pizza (Jennifer) just in case you were not aware of that.)
I just had to share with you that metal toilets are very cold...I don' recommend them.
The first Jetta picture is when we finally got a ways out of Oklahoma City - that took forever due to the weather. The second photo of the Jetta is when we finally arrive in Russelville, AR. We decided to NOT try and make it home on hwy 7 in the dark. Notice how the ice has built up even more in the second photo.
We followed this county road crew a lot of the way up hwy. 7 or else we would have never made it home. We purchased a chainsaw before we left Russelville but we didn't need to use it because of this crew. Barry did help move some of the limbs out of the road.
Trucks were having trouble getting around on hwy. 7 due to the low power lines covered with ice.
So sad...our red plumb tree - don't think it is going to make it.
This morning the tree damage was very bad... all through the night you could hear them popping and breaking. It was an awesome but sad thing.
The pond at our house. If you look really close or click on the photo you will see the tops are broken off the a lot of the trees.
Hwy. 74 to the ranch this morning - the trees are so heavy with ice.
Barry and Chad starting on the ranch road - this is at the very top.
We had cleared the ranch road the afternoon before. This happened over night.
We are missing that 75 degree weather in AZ 'bout now.
