Winter Wonderland

I have to admit that being from Texas (actually born in Pennsylvania but consider myself Texan since that is where I went to High school and met my husband there and my parents and sister live there) I am not an expert winter driver...I actually hate driving period but it is one of the neccessities of life I can't get around, especially living as rural as we do. Well, driving in the winter is a nightmare for me, even with the specialized "pigg dekk" (pigg tires) that we have on the cars.

Thursday night we were having a meeting/social get together for all the co-workers at the barnehage where I work (we are four different departments with over 30 workers). The get together was at Sjusjøen which is in the mountains about an hour from my house. They had rented two cabins and the idea was to spend the night. Considering I didn't have anyone to watch the kids I was going to drive home the same night. I had a couple other ladies who also wanted to come back down the same night, so we would drive together. I followed a group up and they were kind enough to wait on me, as I didn't dare drive quickly. It was also dark, which I hate driving in the dark, I can't see anything...to make matters worse my old car had one light burnt out...so when I was driving with just one I couldn't see anything. I don't know anything about cars, I simply drive them. If something breaks down, even something simple...I am totally lost. So fixing the light bulb isn't something I will do. That goes on the Honey do list I have going for my honey when he gets home from sea. So anyways, my faithful old car got me up the mountain in one piece and we got lost looking for the cabins we were suppose to be at. There is tons of cabins up there so we ended up at what they call a Seter which is where they would take the cattle up too in the summer months and let them graze and they would live in these little cabins through the summer. It was here we were going to be eating with the group but the girls decided we needed to find the rest of the gang, so off we drove to find the cabins. Once found we parked and everyone started heading back to the seter. We walked back, through the woods in the dark and across snowy icey rocks and lyng. We were given fakkels to burn so we could see our way but only certain ones got these so if they walked faster or slower you were without any light other then the moon. Oh I forgot to mention when we got to the cabin there was a shooting star and I thought at first it was a firework...I had never seen one burn up like that and it was so close. Really neat! Anyhow, we got to the seter and went inside where they had a lovely warm fire burning and cozy tables set up for all of us with candles and there were antiques hanging on the log cabin walls. We were served a delicious potatoe soup and flatbread and salted meats or spekemat as they call it. My big boss started raving about one of the sausages she tried and I was JUST about to grab one and try it when someone said, aren't the black ones made with horse meat???? That killed that desire for me....I tried Horse meat in Italy and wanted to gag. Not that the meat was actually that bad but just the thought of it was nauseating to me. I love horses...I love cows too but I guess it's just been a more natural thing to eat cow then horse...so it was a hard idea to get use too in Italy and one I didn't really want to repeat here. After dinner we went outside and performed some little skits we had come up with after being broken into groups and it was a lot of fun and interesting because we all were given the same fairy tale and asked to turn it into something of our own and we got four different versions...was really neat! After the skits we went back inside for coffee and warm apple cake with cream. YUM....then we were entertained by a singing, poet reading semi pro comedian from the local area. A heavy set woman with a good if not a bit strange humour and a stranger singing voice but strange as it was, you still found yourself tapping your feet and almost ready to jump up and stomp your feet and clap your hands....but thankfully I had great self control this evening.....

Anyhoot, started driving back down the mountain and one of the ladies asked me if I wanted her to drive...considering I was doing about 40-50km per hour...and as late as it was that we got started, I said ok....so she hopped in the driver seat and began driving 80-100km per hour down the dark roads of the mountain. I held on for dear life and scanned the roads constantly while making conversation....both ladies had such a giggle at my nervousness....whatever....

Friday morning after only sleeping what seemed like a few hours, I got up and got kids off to school and went to bake carrot cake for the cafe I'm baking for. I managed to bake three cakes and then headed home for what I thought would be a nice rest for me before we drove to Kongsberg later that night. But no....on a roll, I decided to bake a carrot cake for us to enjoy when we got home Saturday night. So I baked my cake and put foil on it, packed our bags and when the kids came home we left for Kongsberg. We got to Gardemoen and stopped at McDonalds for a quick but definitely not cheap dinner. I asked if it was possible to get to Hokksund where we had reserved a cabin for the night if I drove 35 to Hønefoss and then down 35 to Hokksund. Yes, of course I could do this....so off we headed thinking we would save time....RIGHT....again it was dark...and then as we were driving along these semi barren roads in the dark it began snowing HARD. The kind that when you turn your bright lights on you can't see anything but snow....and when you had only low lights on (and only one working) you couldn't see anything either...so we drove blindly into the darkness and I could tell we went up up up....and the snow got heavier and heavier...and then we drove down down down...so figure we must have been up in some mountain area during this drive. I didn't drive quickly but the traffic wasn't that heavy so if someone came up behind me they would just drive around me....my poor old car was loaded down with four humans and two canines and baggage....she wasn't going to be going very fast no matter what. And in such driving conditions, better to be safe then sorry.

Finally around 8 we got to Hokksund...I was so tense from driving that I could tell I was in for a headache and sure enough I woke up Saturday morning with one hum dinger of a headache which lasted ALL day. I could barely enjoy the dog show as my head was killing me. We were a half an hour delayed at the show because the judge kept taking breaks...so we decided to sit on the carpet laid flooring...only to realize after our butts started freezing that we were actually sitting on an ice rink...duh...should have figured that one out by the plastic around the entire hall...but nope...not that observant this one....hahahaha...Don't think that helped my headache any and I was feeling nauseas also. Despite how I felt I had to go in the ring to show Isabella when Sarah managed to show them both up to CK (Champion quality) so she took Birdy back in and I took Isabella when we had to compete for best female...Isabella ended up as 3rd best female with CK and Birdy was 5th best female with CK. We left as quickly as we could from the show and decided to drive Drammen and through Oslo and up E6 to Hamar. Along the way my old car decided it was time to have a fit and began pulling hard to the right occasionally. I would hold tight on the wheel and keep the car straight but the whole car would shake and I'd hear clicking sounds as this was happening, then it was just fix itself somehow...and would be fine awhile until all of a sudden it would act up again. It really got bad the closer to home we got. Still, this didn't detur us in stopping Brumunddal and picking up pizzas we ordered and taking them home. I had sent a message to our dear friends who had changed the tires for us and asked if the husband could come and look at the tires the next day only to have them call me right back and say that the brother to this man lived in Brumunddal and they had called him and were sending him over to us (where we were waiting for the pizza) and he would look at my tires. So we waited on him, he checked the tires and filled them with air, they had 16. and apparently were suppose to have 2.2?? Anyhow, it went better getting home but I still heard clicking sounds. Was so happy to get home in one pieces and I went straight to the bathroom and took out two of the ADVIL COLD AND SINUS tablets I had found in one of Stig's suitcases...they hadn't gone out of date so I took them...and Lordy lordy...I LOVE those things...wish they had them here in Norway. I'm going to have to ask dad to send me some. I have a small idea that I have sinus...but it's too much of a hassle to go to the doctor to get this confirmed...so instead I blow my nose everyday and hope and pray I don't get headaches like the one I had yesterday and as long as I have an advil cold and sinus tablet life is good....

Added some photos of the winter wonderland around the house...it truly is gorgeous, just not fun to drive in....