15 ...

There was a blizzard outside.  Pops had joined me in Nebraska for the last leg of the journey home.  Both of us excited to reach a home full of family and activities, we left against the advisement of the National Weather Service, we had taken on Buba's theory of invicibility I suppose.

I drove the first two hours, when the snow was falling in a beautiful manner still, roads still visible.  As the backdrop to the beautiful snow grew darker Pops asked if he could drive, I was not opposed in the slightest.  We pulled off the next exit, gassed her up, and made our way back onto the 80.  I was getting tired so I threw in Barack's latest book on CD for Pops to stay awake to {he'd get wired in disagreement with him keeping that mind awake and alert}.  When I fell asleep there was still a beautiful picture being painted outside the windows.  When I awoke this is all I could see ...

... I had awoken to the sound of the tires hitting the safety bumps on the side of the road, the ones deemed annoying 99% of the time but in this case were keeping us on the highway.  There were a few trucks that passed, going fifty miles an hour or so, we were cruising at about 35 at this point.  Those were the trucks we saw, barely, spun out in the median or flipped over a few miles down the road.  We were going, full steam ahead toward Home.  Pops kept me calm and focused on other things by discussing the book he had been listening to, I was fully engaged in that conversation.

As the hours passed the storm continued to get worse, we were traveling at about fifeteen miles an hour, not another car in site.  We were braving it on our own.  However, about twenty miles west of Champaign, Pops decided it was time to stop.  He managed to get us off the 80 and into a rest stop where we pulled the blankets he insisted via phone I back prior to leaving Utah over us and waited out the storm. 

It was far from the fastest drive back east I've ever done, I think Sam and I made it in under twenty one year {don't judge}.  However, with Pops at the wheel it was the only drive, even with the storm, that I was able to sleep through for more than seven minute increments.  There is a safety, even in the midst of a hideous storm, that is found when I'm with him, a security, a feeling of assurance even when the world offers none.  He's Pops, Daddy, Father and friend.  And when we awoke, although I'm not certain he slept as there was no heavy snoring to be heard, the snow had stopped and we made it to original House on the Corner within three hours.

So to the Pops: Thanks for getting me home safely that Christmas.  Thanks for knowing the nervous look on my face as I peered out the window only to see a whiteout and 'discussing' then Senator Obama's policies.  Thanks for demanding that I pack blankets so we did not freeze at that rest stop as there was no safe way to get to a hotel for the waiting period.  Thanks for knowing what to do, as you always do.

Merry Christmas Pops!  See you soon.