Emily’s travel volleyball team had a tournament this weekend 250 miles away. I drove taking Em and three of her friends/teammates with us. We had a very nice drive over, but the drive home was a different story.Last night we started hearing about a winter storm advisory starting around noon today. The tournament started at 8:00 and there were only 8 teams coming so we were hopeful we could get out of town fairly early, but wouldn’t you know the girls won their first match of bracket play and went to the next round (LOL). YEA! We’re very excited they did so well, but by the time they started that round of play, the snow was already starting to stick to the ground. After we lost out of that round (so close.. they lost the last one by I think only 1 or 2 points…), the girls were supposed to ref the next game, but the officials told us we could go ahead and get on the road. I did a quick online check of the weather and found the following advisory:

SNOW IS EXPECTED TO OCCUR THIS EVENING THROUGH MONDAY WITH ACCUMULATIONS OF 8 TO 12 INCHES. STRONG NORTH TO NORTHEAST WINDS 25 TO 45 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 55 MPH WILL PRODUCE BLIZZARD CONDITIONS WITH VISIBILITIES BELOW A QUARTER MILE. THIS WILL MAKE ANY TRAVEL HAZARDOUS THROUGH MONDAY.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS AND POOR VISIBILITIES ARE LIKELY. THIS WILL LEAD TO WHITEOUT CONDITIONS… MAKING TRAVEL EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. DO NOT TRAVEL. IF YOU MUST… HAVE A WINTER SURVIVAL KIT WITH YOU. IF YOU GET STRANDED… STAY WITH YOUR VEHICLE.

Can you BELIEVE that in my entire life I have *NEVER* had a flat tire? I don’t think I’ve ever even been riding in a vehicle that blew a tire. WHY today of all days I would have the misfortune of experiencing a flat tire is beyond me! The roads were so slushy that I was already feeling a little bit of slipping and the wind was howling so hard that I could feel it blowing us around just a little bit, but neither of those were causing too much of a driving problem for me since we have a pretty heavy 4 wheel drive YUKON and I was driving cautiously.But then it started to feel like an icy road condition even though the roads weren’t icy. I wasn’t sliding around or losing control or anything, but I knew something was definitely not right since the roads weren’t icy, but it felt like I was experiencing a little icy condition. So, I put on my hazards to let the truck aways behind me know something was up and then I started to carefully slow down to get over to the side of the road. I didn’t want to get over too fast and end up in the ditch with all the slush on the road. Anyway, before today I had no idea the value of StabiliTrak. I knew we had it, but I didn’t know what it did. I do now!

The Must-Have Stability Of StabiliTrak
When a sideways skid begins, Yukon’s standard StabiliTrak TM electronic stability control system steps in automatically to help put you back in control. Electronic stability control systems like StabiliTrak have been proven to reduce the risk of a fatal rollover crash in light trucks and vans by a remarkable 88%. ††

Even better than StabiliTrak is the power of prayer. A few minutes before our tire blew out, the friends behind us commented that it would be awful to get a flat tire in weather like this. I know they were praying that God would have his hand on our vehicles and I knew the families of the girls with me would be praying since they had checked on us several times and knew the road/weather conditions. I am SO THANKFUL that one of the dads traveled with his family this weekend. He told us he would follow us and another mom/2 kids that were travelling together with us. He was able to get the tire changed and we were back on the road within about a 1/2 hour. I think we’re going to owe him a nice steak dinner or something! It was FREEZING out there with slush splashing up on us from passing vehicles. I’m so glad our vehicle has a full sized spare because it would not have been fun to drive far on these roads with a little donut tire. Here’s the view of the interstate from Em’s cell phone! It took us 2x as long to make it home as it took us to get there yesterday! I guess spring has sprung, huh? We usually get a couple of really heavy wet spring snows! Last weekend we drove all the way home from another vb tournament at the other end of the state in a downpour (LOL) that later turned to snow. We don’t have any more vb tournaments now until the middle of April. It’ll probably still be snowing then, too.