wintertime!

When will I ever remember not to come to thw Los Angeles area in the winter time! I have come down in rain, fog, and then yesterday, a combination of rain and snow and heavy winds!!! Yes, Steve and I atarted out from Lodi about 9:30 and we saw a few signs saying that the grapevine might be closed due to snow! Lodi was clear but very, very cold! We decided that we would drive for awhile down I5 and see whether the signs changed any and if so we would switch over to Highway 101. The weather stayed clear and the signs changed somewhat and we decided that unless the weather changed dramatically, we would be O.K. I forgot to tell you that Steve was kind of edgy because Alicia, his oldest daughter was pretty close to makimg him a Grandfather! Her due date was yesterday! Our plans were to get to Bob's about 3:30 or 4:00 rest for about an hour then we were going to go to Church and then grab a quick bite to eat and Steve was going to head home! Well, that is not the way it worked! After what we thought was going to be safe enough to continue down I5, Marilyn called and said that Alicia was in the Hospital! He then said that he was going to get me to Bob's and then turn right around and get back so he could hopefully, get to the Hospital in Stockton before the baby showed up! I don't know how far we went before it started pouring rain and we started praying because it was so cold that we just knew that there would be snow on the Grapevine, but so far no warning signs about chains or anything! When I5 met up with Highway 99, it started snowing! And I mean it started snowing but good! Trucks, some of them pulled off the road but the Highway Patrol didn't stop anyone! There was a few fender benders along the way, where the Patrol was taking care of things. We drove at what I thought was a safe speed and praying constantly, we sailed along. Steve said at one point, "Isn't this beautiful though!" I told him I had been thinking the same thing! And all of a sudden the snow turned to rain and though it was coming down hard, we made it O.K. When we got closer to the Palmdale turnoff, it was snowing again but was not sticking to the road! We got here to Bob's at 3:30 like we had planned but we got word that the Grapevine was closed to all traffic! Steve still had made up his mind to drive up 101 home! He rested about a half hour and headed out for home. We called him and checked a few times to see how he was making it! He had got back to I5 but the traffic was terrible with trucks so he didn't get back to the Hospital at 11'30! However he made it to the Hoapital in plenty of time for the arrival of Liliana Noelle who was born at 5:30 A.M.! He just E-mailed us the pictures of her and the parents and grandparents after she was born. We called him a few minutes ago and he said he had been resting most of the day! Another wintery day in the beautiful SUNNY State of California! Bye now. P.S. I crept out of bed at 10:30 thia morning! Grateful to God that we had made the trip safely!