Hurricane Hilary, Road Trip and 60th Birthday Party Celebration - Part Three

     This is part three of the adventures of Alicia and Lisa heading to Arizona for a birthday celebration for their cousin Copa, you can read part one HERE and part two HERE.

    When we got back to Copa's house after the party we started watching the news to see if we could get information on the Hurricane. There was not a lot of information but what we knew for sure is that it was expected to hit the Mojave desert area around 3pm on Sunday, the day we were heading home. 

Hurricane Hilary on NOAA satellite Thursday afternoon. Hilary is expected to make landfall over or near the Baja California Peninsula on Sunday, then move over California as a tropical storm or depression on Sunday night and Monday. 

    There was a lot of speculation, so Lisa and I studied all the weather apps and watched the news and we decided that the best thing for us to do is to head out as early as possible the next morning, watch the news first to see which route was the safest for us to take.

    We had not been happy with the route we took to get to Phoenix as it was congested and there was a lot of traffic. We've always been used to taking the I-10 out of Phoenix to the 72 heading into Parker, Arizona. From Parker we always like to take the 95 to Lake Havasu City. Then we take the 95 to the 40 to Needles and continue on the 40 to Barstow. 

    Heading into Parker was iffy because they have flash floods constantly, but our cousin Michael who lives in Parker told us to take an alternate route and we made it to Parker. We actually did really well until we got into Barstow. Then all Hell broke loose. 

    We always get off at the first exit heading into Barstow to gas up and use the bathroom and buy some snacks, then we get right back on the freeway. But not this time! This time the trucks were backed up for several miles before we could get off and once off it was wall to wall of trucks in the tiny City of Barstow. We figured there had probably been an accident ahead of us on the freeway and they were re-routing traffic.

    We tried using GPS to lead us back to the highway but as it turns out the area we were in was experiencing a power outage. We drove for almost 45 minutes and we probably only traveled at most 5 miles. Finally I told Lisa that we should just find the Marshalls Store that we sometimes stop at and just wander around the store for an hour for the traffic to die down. So we did that and Lisa spoke with a man who told her that a transformer had come down on the highway and they had shut down all lanes of the highway and it had caused the power outage.

    Now that we knew, we called our brother Fred who is a truck driver and he told us how to get to the Old Hwy 58 to the New Hwy 58. We were sure it would clear up soon and we had only been in the store for 30 minutes. But then we heard it start raining outside and we received warnings on our phones over and over again, every one in the store was receiving the same warnings.

Actual Alert from my Phone

    We started panicking! We headed to pay for the items we had found in the store and our brother called to see if we had found the old Hwy 58 and when he found out we were shopping he blew a fuse! We tried to explain to him that we weren't shopping, we were trying to wait until the traffic died down, he was not having it, he told us to get out of there because the flooding was going to start soon and we were going to be stuck! I'm sure he was terrified for us.

    But yet again, the Spirits of our ancestors were with us or God or Karma, whatever higher power you believe in because Lisa was asking the clerk at the store how we could get to Old Hwy 58 and this sweet lady that was waiting in line in front of me to pay said, "Who wants to go to the Old 58? I'm heading that way, follow me!" So we did.

    We got outside and she was parked right next to us, which we took as a sign that it was meant to be. She told us to follow her and she would take us to Main Street and that she was going to turn right there but we were to turn left and keep heading from Main to First Street and then turn right. Well, I guess she had second thoughts as to my and Lisa's ability to navigate, or maybe she saw the wall to wall of trucks and knew that we would get lost and she pointed to us to turn with her, but we thought she was waving good-bye so we waved good-bye and blew her kisses and asked God to take care of her and make sure she got home safely and then we turned the wrong way!! 

    Well it was actually the right way, the way she had told us, but she knew we were going to get trapped by all the trucks and she had been trying to point to let us know to follow her. By the time we realized that, it was too late. Well this angel of a lady, turned around and found us and got out of her car yelling at us to follow her, so we navigated our way to where she was and she told us she was going to take us all the way to the bridge and at that point she would let us go on our way. WHO DOES THAT??? Who goes out of their way to help complete strangers? In this day and age? In a storm, on a Sunday afternoon?

    We followed our Angel to the bridge she had mentioned and she waved good-bye and this time we new it was good-bye and we missed her the moment she left, especially when we saw the scary bridge we had to cross over, in the rain with wall to wall traffic! Yikes!

    But we did it, we go over the bridge...but that was not the end of our adventure. Stay tuned for part four!