Corey's brother, Andrew is in college and regularly participates in local plays. I am embarrassed to say this, but before this weekend, we hadn't made it to Valley City, ND, to see him perform.
This weekend we made a trip to see him act in "The Death of a Salesman." He played Happy, the younger brother (and did a marvelous job).
We left work early on Friday and headed out of town to Valley City. Traveling in North Dakota in the winter is kind of like driving in the San Francisco Bay Area. You just have no idea how long it will take you to get somewhere. But here, the problem is not traffic, it's the road conditions. Keeping with this analogy, we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic. We received a few inches of fresh snow Friday, which combined with strong winds to seriously limit the visibility. I would have taken a photo but it would have looked like a white piece of paper. Adding to the low visibility, there was lots of ice, and snow drifts on the Interstate. Thanks to my excellent driver (and husband), Corey, we made it to Valley City safe and sound and with enough time to have dinner before the play.
Corey joked that he was going to "wine and dine" me and took me to Pizza Corner. I was already familiar with Pizza Corner Pizza - they can be purchased frozen at all the local grocery stores and are frequently sold as fundraisers. I think the pizza is well above-average for frozen pizza. Anyhoo, so we went to Pizza Corner for dinner. It was delicious and I can't wait for another trip through Valley City to eat there again. To top it off, each guest gets a free "ice cream treat" when the have pizza at the restaurant. Awesome!
After dinner we headed over to the college to find the auditorium. With the fresh snow in town, it was quite a trek to find it but we got there and found our seats.
The play was wonderful and it was amazing seeing Andrew perform. He definitely has a gift.
After the play, we greeted Andrew (see photo above of Corey and Andrew) and then headed out to the car. Because of the all the snow on top of the ice in the parking lot, I wiped out and fell flat on my butt. I'd like to add that this is the first time this year that I've fallen in the snow (it's usually more). It didn't hurt but I was covered in snow and cold.
We looked at the time (after 10 pm), and the roads (nasty), and quickly decided that it was going to be too treacherous and dangerous to make the trip back to Bismarck, so we found a hotel. We had thought ahead a tiny bit, and packed a few toiletries "just in case." But, me being me, I thought "what are the chances?!" and (stupidly) only packed face wash and a toothbrush - no makeup, no hairbrush, no clean clothes ...
So we settled in with our minimal baggage. And got bored. So we went out for a few drinks since it was still relatively early, we were snowed-in, and we had nowhere to be - what a great feeling. More of Corey's "wine and dining" - we walked in the freezing cold, to a very "dive" bar ... and had a great time. Andrew even joined us for a beer. This morning we drove back home, and the roads were clear - it was definitely a good decision to stay the night.
What was planned as a quick one-evening trip to Valley City turned out to be a nice little mini-vacation. I like little life surprises like that.
So now we're back at home and it strangely feels like we were away for much longer than the less than 24-hour trip we took. A great feeling.
Also a great feeling - since I knitted all the way to Valley City and all the way home, my scarf is almost done!
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I'm happy to report that I finally got my blog and photos back and in working order.
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