Christmas is the holiday when everyone travels, cross town or across the state or halfway across the continent. Planes, trains, or automobiles. As families or as a car full of students heading back for the break. The journey is half the fun — at least after the trip through snow, ice, and subzero temperatures is over. What Christmas trip of yours is worth sharing?
I think of a trip from Utah to Saskatchewan to visit family for Christmas. Once we hit Saskatchewan, it was close to 40 below. This was the trip where I learned about gas line antifreeze. Yes, your gas line really can freeze if it gets cold enough, and if your engine stops running a car gets very cold very quickly at that temperature, even if you have winter coats and blankets. Fortunately, Canadians drivers are friendly and helpful, knowing what happens to a stranded driver or family if no one stops to give a lift back to the nearest town. When traveling, sometimes the kindness of strangers makes all the difference.
May all your travels this year be safe and happy. Do you have any Christmas travel experiences, for better or for worse, to share?
Wheat & Tares 
So many. So very many. Very glad to not be traveling this Christmas.
When I took a job about 2000 miles away from almost all of our extended family in Utah, we decided to try and spend Christmas there every year which we have done for going on a quarter of a century. A few times I have had to work and went out early or later. When children were small and mom didn’t work they could stay there for up to a few weeks.
We had the flying era with small children who were taught that the busiest airport in the world was basically an amusement park when flights were delayed. One time they brought their scooters. For a time my wife had this amazing intuition in selecting flights which were over-booked and we happily traded tickets for more free tickets a few hours later which cut the costs tremendously.
Then there were the lay-over stories, getting stuck in airports for many hours. The worst was the time we spent Christmas Eve /Christmas morning in the Las Vegas airport because of a snow storm and the slot machines kept us awake all night.
At some point we figured out that if the airlines consistently delayed us much more than a day we could theoretically drive just about as quickly and save renting cars (or worse borrowing them). When mom and dad were young we could handle those 1000 mile days separated by a few hours crash in the motel. We never did it straight through, but know those who have. Including a family whose minivan flipped over near Vernal (they almost made it) killing some of them and crippling others.
When our kids got old enough to drive, they eagerly looked forward to their 250 mile shift. Image 3-4 hours of driving lecture/practice time. One liked to get up early and the other liked to stay up late. We pretended to be astronauts and our minivan has more room than the space crafts that went to the moon. We brought along snacks and books and games. Can you image spending 16 hours together as a family- twice, then a few days later twice again and getting to a point where you actually learn to get along the whole time? It is all a matter of training and perspective. As young independent adults they want to do the family trip again although schedules are impossible for that anymore. And of course a spouse of one of our children is never, never going to do anything this crazy.
There was the time 3 inches of ice shut down a west Texas interstate for most of a day. The kids got out and made friends with other kids stuck in minivans and had snowball fights and built a snowman, all while parked on the interstate. I got the bright idea to drive onto the access road and several cars followed me. We were moving at about 20 mph with quite a growing parade including a couple of 18 wheelers when the road suddenly just ended. The cars could turn round and go back to the last exit. But those poor truckers, they had to back their rigs up about 10 miles and they were not using nice language when we went back past them.
There was the day crossing Wyoming going east in terrible blizzard conditions and finally things improved as the elevation dropped. We were hours behind schedule but Nebraska promised to have less snow. Except Nebraska closed the road at the border. We booked about the last motel room (at the Gator inn of all places) in a small town and saw other families holed up in minivans parked at the gas station. We selected a family with many small crying children and gave them our motel room. They extended the invitation to a couple of other families and although not ideal 3 families sharing one motel room, it sure beat sitting in a car. At midnight they opened the road for unknown reasons, nothing had changed and off we went.
This was during a summer trip but fits the subject. The interstate was closed in Western Kansas and we witnessed a galactic thunderstorm and the most enormous tornado touch down only a few miles ahead and then saw a few other smaller ones.
There was the evening at the gas station in Cheyenne with already 600 miles under our belt that day, a severe blizzard building and mom looking for a motel. I handed my then 16 year old daughter the car keys and announced, you are going to learn to drive in snow tonight. I sat up in front and kept her mindful of what she needed to be thinking as we crawled across the state over mountains and windy valleys past dozens of wrecks (and even witnessed a couple of them) in about 10-11 hours arriving at grandma’s at the crack of dawn; perhaps the best driving lesson I could ever image. My son had his turn crossing Wyoming except the temperature was in the Sasketchewan range with winds creating a ground blizzard and the risks were higher. I realized both of them had better vision, better reflexes and think quicker than I did. So coupling my years of snow-driving experience and their ability was a pretty safe combination. I bet my kids are among safest drivers of their generation on icy-snow packed roads.
This year a pack of rats managed to shut down all the power in the busiest airport in the world and our flight was canceled. Talk about not only a power shortage but a Christmas cheer shortage, with some exceptions. We headed home with one of the adult kids and in less than an hour a 2000 mile car trip was planned. The key we knew from prior experience was to get the late night driver (me) in bed as soon as possible. My son planned the trip including food while my wife worked the computer trying to get plane tickets which could significantly beat the car option. Millions of people were buying and canceling and buying plane tickets on line all at the same time. Anything was possible, no flight was truly booked, just check again in a few minutes and something might pop up. And very late she scored a triple winner for the next morning. We were grateful to fly, it is easier and gave them more days in Utah. But we also sort of longed for the adventure of the 2000 mile family car trip.