College Plus Gathering (Sunday)

I used to laugh at southerners because of their reaction to what I thought of as a “little” snow and ice. Having been raised in Michigan, I knew what a serious blizzard looked like!

But I laugh no more. The reason behind southerners’ terror at a little bit of ice is that there is no way to deal with it! There are no snow plows, no salt trucks, nothing. That makes even a little bit of ice very scary!

We learned this firsthand. As you’ve probably already read, Mom and I got stranded at the College Plus retreat for an extra night. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun!

Sunday morning we all gathered in the dining hall for breakfast. Then we had to say goodbye to those heading towards the airport. Some of them still didn’t have flights, but they were going to hang out with the people at the hotel in Dallas until they finally got a flight out. About 9 of us were left that planned to drive. We waited until about noon to leave (we wanted the temperatures to be as warm as possible, so that hopefully the road conditions would improve.) While we waited, we had a wonderful time visiting as a more intimate group.

We had a guitar out and sang quite a few songs together, and just talked! We discussed everything from future CP gatherings, to deeper spiritual things, to the Andy Griffith show!

Finally the time came to brave the roads. We took it nice and slow. There was basically 2 solid inches of ice on the roads. There had been ice/sleet that had fallen, melted into slush, refrozen, and then got covered with another layer of ice. Yes, it was a mess!

Thankfully, the freeway was pretty clear for the most part. There was only one bridge we termed the “Going to Meet Jesus” bridge. J What should have been a 2-hour trip took us four hours, but we were just so thankful to make it safely home!

What our road looked like.

The only place we ever got stuck was our own driveway! J Thankfully Dad was there to help get us out.

Mom and I had a wonderful time at the conference! I can hardly describe what a blessing it was to be surrounded by so many like-minded young people. I am so very excited to build those relationships!