Blue Highway

Last weekend, McKenna and I packed the car and said our goodbyes to the family. McKenna was sad to leave Boomer and Piper and she was lonesome for a few days, but she has finally settled back into the role of "only dog."

We left Kansas:

And we traveled back to New York by way of St. Louis, Indianapolis, Dayton, Cleveland, Erie, and Jamestown:

Temperatures never rose above 15 degrees during the entire two day trip, but Mother of Ken provided a lovely dinner of comfort food for me to heat up at the hotel, so at least I had a warm and satisfying meal after a long day of driving.

When we arrived, we had at least a foot of snow in the yard, some deeper snow drifts in the back yard, and a lovely pile of plowed snow across the front of the driveway. After unloading the car in a record 10 minutes and 27 seconds in the freezing cold, I wanted to park it quickly in the driveway and get back inside. So, being in a hurry and not feeling up to shoveling the 12 -15 inches of snow in front of the driveway, I decided to just get a running start and try to drive over it. This resulted in me getting the car almost all of the way in before getting stuck and spending 20 minutes getting myself unstuck. I ended up having to shovel at 8:00 at night anyway. Lesson learned.

The next day, I was out in the morning and when I got back in the early afternoon, my wonderful neighbor Jeff had plowed my driveway. Naturally, I got to work on a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies for him and as soon as they had cooled slightly, McKenna and I walked over to thank him and hand over the plate of warm cookies.

Jeff helped a lot by plowing, but I still had to shovel the front sidewalk (which was covered in snow again after about 15 minutes):

It is so cold here (like it is everywhere else) that the creek is almost completely frozen over and is covered in snow:

After a few days of unpacking, organizing, and cleaning, I think we are settled in. Oh, and it is still snowing. Three days later.