Snowcation in Boise, Idaho | Day 4
Monday, February 15, 2021
Five-thirty in the morning found my hair a ridiculous mess and a mild headache behind my eyes. Chris and I packed our things, then grabbed some egg sandwiches and other snacks from the complimentary breakfast at the Marriott. Hustling to catch our flight, we dropped off our rental car and made our way to the check-in, where we got held up over Chris’s checked firearm. I don’t think I’d ever heard my name called over the intercom at an airport until then. I ran more in those two minutes than I had all year, and ironically, we were asked to get off the plane again almost as soon as we’d settled into our seats. Apparently, our connection in Dallas would be an issue, as they were being hit with the snowstorm of the century. We were given an additional hour before we had to come back to our gate, so we went souvenir shopping and found the same adorable Idaho cutting board that our AirBnB hosts had. We also snagged some gifts for my family, who had taken care of our pets over the weekend. On the way to the shops, we stumbled upon a Lord of the Rings pinball machine, and played for a bit before returning to the gate.
Our first flight went smoothly, but from the moment we got off the plane, everything went south. The airport was a nightmare. We had returned from our winter getaway to discover that the cold had followed us back, wreaking havoc on a state that was ill prepared for ice and snow. Our connecting flight had been cancelled and couldn’t be rebooked until Wednesday (which was later bumped to Saturday!). We took some time to get food at a TGI Fridays to ensure less hanger when we went to see someone about getting another flight.
Unfortunately, everyone was in the same boat, and there were no flights to be had. We had to adapt. After unsuccessful arguments with airport attendees, we decided to rent a car to drive back to Houston, as it was only a 3.5 hour drive. The roads were getting worse, however. My mom was blowing up my phone with cautionary information about 140-car pile ups and worst-case-scenarios. I asked Chris if we could stay the night in Dallas and wait until a small window the next day when the sun would melt the ice a little—but hotels were all full or jacking up their prices.
I called around my network of friends in the area, and two of them—Marcellino and Augusta—offered to put us up. It was well into the evening when we finally got our rental car and drove it slowly to their house, slipping and sliding more along the way than we had on the mountain in Idaho. They generously offered us what little food they had, having not been able to get groceries. We caught up and ate chili on the floor of their living room around their coffee table, and I was grateful for the happy results of the unfortunate circumstance.
The next morning, we spent the day driving back to Houston, carefully making our way over icy patches, picking up supplies from wherever we could that was open. Power went out in a gas station we got coffee from, and another had bags over all the fuel pumps. Walmart was beyond crowded and all the canned food was bought out. We had gone to Idaho for a snowcation, and came back to a snowpocalypse! I suppose I should have been a bit more specific when I prayed for snow.
