Heading West

Saturday morning, my family and I packed up the car and embarked the a two day drive from Minnesota to Montana to spend Christmas in the mountains. Back in Minnesota, we haven’t gotten much snow this year, or least not in the part I’m from. We had about a week of snow early in December before it all melted and left us with spring-like days. Saturday, there wasn’t a single patch of snow and the grass was closer to green than it was to brown. Pretty surprising considering Minnesota’s stereotypes isn’t it?

As we drove West, we were ecstatic to see the little bits of snow in North Dakota and finally the thick blankets of snow that covered Montana’s land. The snow in Montana was the kind we’d come to expect in December back home, and it comforted me knowing that we’d have snow for Christmas, even if we wouldn’t be home.

Only an hour and a half away from our final destination, a cozy little house in the mountains, our car ran out of gas. Luckily, we were able to pull off the highway and into the parking lot of a rest stop. My mom went up to a on man driving a pick-up “because he looked nice and had a dog” and asked if he would drive my dad seven miles to the gas station to pick up gas. I couldn’t help being a little worried about my dad ridding off in a pick up with a stranger, but in the end, everything worked out. While we were waiting for them to return with gas, the rest of us tromped around in the snow near the rest stop and took in the distant mountain views until we finally saw the pick up role back into the parking lot.