On the Road Again
This week’s story is about a road trip Kristi and I took this week. Kristi’s sister Pam lives in St. George and it was her birthday on Thursday. Kristi hadn’t seen her for a while, so she wanted to go down and spend some time with her. She asked if I would be willing to go down and help drive part of the way. I told her I would love to help drive and it would be nice to see Pam. However, I did tell her that since it wasn’t a vehicle owned by Black Knight Limo, I should not be held to World’s Best Limo Driver standards. For some reason, it seemed like she already knew that was what was going to happen.
The plan was to make it to St. George Wednesday night, and spend a little time together, and then spend Thursday doing some fun things in St. George. As we were driving through Salt Lake, I thought I noticed a sign saying that I15 was closed at mile marker 207 but I wasn’t sure that is what it said. After we made it through Provo and didn’t see any more signs, I decided I must have read the sign wrong. As we approached mile marker 215 we noticed both lanes of traffic were stopped. At first I assumed it was a traffic accident. But after a while, Kristi noticed some of the vehicles with flashing lights that were passing us had “Police Incident” on the side. “This is something more serious than a wreck,” she said. We tried looking it up on our phones and all it said was that Northbound I15 was closed at mile marker 188 and Southbound I15 was closed at mile marker 207. Some of the drivers were driving down into the median to turn around and head back. As they did, the lanes of traffic were able to move forward a little. It was starting to get late, so as soon as we got to a crossover road we decided to head back north.
The first city that had any hotels was Nephi. We stopped at the Best Western and they had a no vacancy sign on the door. I decided I would go in and see if they had any cancellations. I asked the lady if she knew if any of the other hotels had any vacancies. She said all the hotels were booked due to the road closure. She told me she had one room left that was a suite and it was $100 more than a regular room. I told her I would take it. Then she told me she would only charge me $20 more than a regular room. I thanked her and was very relieved to know we had a place to sleep. Kristi called Pam and explained what had happened. She told her we wouldn’t be able to make it down until the next day. Pam said she understood completely and offered to meet us halfway so we wouldn’t have a long ride back.
We found out later that night the suspect was in custody and they had opened both lanes of the interstate. We were glad no one was hurt and happy to be safe. It was going to be much better to get a good nights sleep instead of trying to drive the rest of the way.
We met Pam in Beaver and went to a great little café for breakfast. Kristi and Pam had a really nice time catching up with each other. It was so heartwarming to see the love and respect these two sisters have for each other. There is nothing more powerful than the devotion and bond of a family. They both agreed their Mom and Dad were happy to see them together and are always watching over them. We went to a little park and then to a place called the Creamery. It has the best ice cream! Now I have another place I will need to stop at when I am driving through Utah. Thanks for reading.
Next week: Happy Memorial Day
P.S. While we were stopped, one driver pulled out of the left lane, crossed over the right lane and drove down the shoulder to get ahead of the traffic and cut back in. Only in Utah!