So I missed What's Cooking Wednesday yesterday. I do sincerely apologize. We were away for our Frugal Family Vacation. The one and only one we'll have this year and, company notwithstanding, it's not a very exciting holiday. Nope, no cottaging on a lake, jetting off to the islands, road tripping across Canada or popping into to visit with that mouse named Mickey for us. Our luxury holiday included the worst heat wave I have ever endured in my entire life and my brother's basement. I'll give you a numberific account of our trip complete with pictures when my batteries are all charged up. Today you'll have to settle for the tale of our horrific ride home.
Our plan was to leave the Pete near the kids bedtime. We had hopes that they would drift peacefully to sleep as we got on the 115 and not stir even as we moved them from the van to their beds when we finally arrived home 2 hours later. Yes that was our plan. It was only a mere 20 minutes into our trip home that "the plan" went sailing out the window. You see we had stopped at an Esso station about 15 minutes into our trip. It was still pretty steamy outside and with no air conditioning in the van Michael thought it would be a good idea to load us up with some slushies. As we pulled into the parking lot we could see that large black ominious looking clouds had covered Peterborough. "Looks like we left just in time," I thought to myself. It was a few moments later I realized that this wall of black was blowing straight towards us. It was like someone had drawn a line down the sky. It was overcast, but light on one side and the ugliest blackest sky I had ever seen on the other side. The wind had picked up significantly by the time Mike got back in the van. His focus was staying in front of this storm for as long as he could. The wind was so strong it sent debris pinging against the van and I watched as Mike fought with the steering wheel against it. Mike had me watching the sky all around, checking for anything funnel shaped.
By the time we hit the 401 there was no outrunning it. The sky was black all around us and it had started to rain. Nothing too heavy or crazy at first. Mike and I made the decision to stay on the 401 rather than cut up to the 407 like we normally do. We had already figured this trip would be long enough without going 30 minutes out of our way. The rain intensified as we went on. At some points we could barely see in front of us. The wipers were no match for the amount of water that was being dumped on us. At times our top speed was 50 km/h. Maya, thankfully, slept through the entire endeavour. Abby, I think, sensing the tension in the van cried almost the entire way home. She was holding her arms out begging me to hold her and hug her, wanting to be home, out of her car seat, out of the rain and the lightening. We finally managed to do that 3 hours after we left Peterborough.
Today Mike and I talked about last night. I asked him if he had been scared because he had come across as very calm. He talked soothingly to Abby and had level-headed conversations with me. Yeah I was scared, he said. If I had known that it was going to be that bad I would have stayed in Peterborough another night. I wouldn't have tried to go home. He had thought about pulling over, but visibility was nearly non-exsistent and ideally he had wanted to stop under an overpass and we couldn't see them until we were pretty much underneath one. Plus he had concerns about stopping on the side of the highway with the visibilty was so poor. There's not much of a shoulder there on the side of the 401. He just thought it would be better to keep moving. So that's what we did. By the time we finally pulled into our driveway, Mike and I were both exhausted and ready for bed. The girls not so much. Since Mike was the hero of the ride home I sent him up to bed (after a quick cool off dip in the pool) while the girls and I partook of the Foodnetwork until 2:30 in the morning snuggled up together on the couch, just glad to finally be home.
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