I knew I was in trouble when I caught my connecting flight in Salt Lake last night and didn’t find out until I got on the plane that we might be diverted to Billings. Although cleaning out Patrick’s storage stuff wasn’t nearly as bad as I (or Sally, or Hippie) had feared, it was still exhausting and all I wanted was to get home, pick up my dogs, and spend the evening on the couch watching part 2 of Angels in America. Luckily, the storm lifted enough that we landed in Bozeman, where I found messages on my cellphone from both Wendy and Julie offering me a bed for the night so I wouldn’t have to go over the pass. But I wanted to go home. So after assuring both of them that if the pass was bad I’d turn back, I set off in the new Subaru with my new snow tires.

The pass was snowy, but okay because the plows had been through. Where things got interesting was when I got off at Jackson Creek road to go pick up the dogs at the kennel. The frontage road was six to twelve inches deep, with snow falling fast, and blowing across the road. Hmm. Glad I bought snow tires last week. I hate driving in that kind of snow, the kind that falls toward you so that you can’t really tell if the car is moving. But, with no one else on the road, I just stayed in the middle of what appeared to be the road and plugged along.

Then came the turn off to the kennel. Quinn Creek Road. If the frontage road hadn’t been plowed, Quinn creek really hadn’t been plowed. And the kennel is up a steep hill. A challenge. Would I make it or would I have to hike up the hill? I put the car in low gear and miracle of miracles, up the hill I went. As I was leaving Terry asked if I had a cellphone, and said to call if I got stuck, that they had a big truck and would come get me … but I didn’t get stuck. The three of us cruised down the hill, crept the two miles back down the frontage road to the highway, and then drove a steady forty miles an hour down the highway back to town. Where we climbed into the couch, and fell asleep during Angels. A happy pile of girl and dogs. It’s good to be home.