SoCal Christmas - The joy is in the journey right?

Time for a fix.  

Luke planned the excursion, I just went along for the ride...... plan was to hit the road as soon as he got off work, drive until Vegas, stay the night with family in Sin city, and then roll into Oceanside and Camp Pendleton sometime in the am.

Legit plan.  Until the storm.

First off - let me clarify, we are in the Cooper. 

Yeah.  It's so dang cute and great gas mileage, but not so much a "more than two person ride".  S'okay, no worries.  Packed myself, my luggage, Luke, his luggage, Mindy, her luggage, and then SoCal kid's Christmas....all.in.the.car.

Splenda was worried based on news reports of snow packed roads, I had tried to find us a place in St George just in case, but when we finally pulled out, we had no back up plan other than find a hotel room or sleep in the car if worse came to worst.

I drove for the first 3 1/2 hours.  Made it as far as Beaver.  From Provo, that is about an hour extra on time.  Snow packed in spots but mostly slippery, icy, slushy and windy.

We made the swap in Beaver and Luke climbed behind the wheel.  I took a muscle relaxant since gripping the steering wheel and exerting all my energy to keep the car on the road had tied my shoulders, neck and back into huge knots.  I dozed waking only occasionally when I felt us go over the rumble track or the tires slipping.   We got as far as a Lake Mead exit.  Snow packed, blizzard like, slippery and slow until St George.

Luke was tired now, but I was wide awake.  

time and temp in Vegas - freezing cold and 9 hours into it.

I took over, refueled in Vegas and then another quick stop in Baker.  

Just in time for the sunrise

A nice stretch the legs break, crack the back and neck into proper alignment again and off we went. 

Luke and Mindy are now just plain rummy and the lame, punny jokes are being flown about.  Not gonna lie though, I do love watching the sunrise over the desert.  A quick breakfast at Denny's in Barstow and back on the road for the final stretch.  Side note observation made whilst in the Denny's in Barstow:  Wicked old people come in three pairs at about 8am and either have no idea that they are producing loud flatulence or don't care.  And subsequent to that observation, when you have 3 immature, rummy-from-sheer-exhaustion people in the same area - there will be laughing.  Loud laughing.  At which, the wicked old people still either have no idea or just don't care.  Still trying to figure out if I should be mortified for them or give them a standing ovation.

We finally hit base at about 10:30am.  What is usually a quick 10 to 11 hour drive (max) turned into about 15.  We cleared the gate, found home, unloaded, showered, dressed and ready for naps all within about an hour.

Dinner out 

Crashed early (school night).  Tomorrow's agenda will include finding a car wash and ridding the Cooper of the white, disgusting road elements it's accumulated.  It resembles a salt lick right now.