Cajon Pass . . .

So after enjoying a wonderful Christmas vacation in Salt Lake we headed back to San Diego at about 10:00 am (Salt Lake time) on Sunday morning.  The sun was shining, but it was still freezing as we made our way south.  We kept our eyes on the in-dash temp gauge and enjoyed seeing the numbers creep up as each hour passed.  We had decided to make the whole trip in one day again and the munchkin and puppy were being pretty agreeable.  We hit a bit of slow traffic around Vegas, which we knew was going to happen, but it wasn't the worst Vegas traffic we had seen.
About 11:00 pm (California time) my mom called to see where we were at.  I informed her that we were about 2 1/2 hours away and that things were going pretty smoothly.  About a half an hour later we were sitting in stand still traffic watching as people were pulling off to the side of the road to play in a small dusting of snow that had begun to fall.
Now, seeing as how we were now in Southern California, a small smattering of snow is kind of a novelty.  And yes, perhaps people there are a bit freaked out about driving with a bit of powdery whiteness on the road.  But that was no reason to bring traffic to an absolute stand still.  We moved about 3 miles during the next 45 minutes.  Luckily the boy was sleeping peacefully in his car seat, for now.  We started using our blessed internet-connected phones to try to map out an alternate route.  We got off of the freeway and headed up the frontage road, which was still very slow, but moving faster than the freeway.  Still too slow for us, we hit up some side roads to try to skip ahead.  This worked rather well, but we were in a smallish town, so it really wasn't getting us much further ahead. 
By now we had discovered that because of the "snow" (2 inches, tops) they had closed Cajon Pass down to one lane.  And keep in mind that this is the Sunday after New Years, so traffic is kind of heavy, since this is the main access to San Diego and LA from Vegas.
Finally we decided to go a bit further west and hit up a small highway and avoid the main thoroughfares all together.  It took us a while to get out there, and yes, the small back road was a bit slippery, but nothing a couple of Utahns couldn't easily handle.  After all, a few days earlier we had braved the roads after a snowstorm left 6 inches overnight.  No big deal!!  When we finally got to the top of the highway, right before it started into the "canyon" we ran into a police blockade who were turning everyone back who didn't have chains on their tires.  CHAINS!!  Are you kidding me?!  There was literally 2 inches on the road!!  2 INCHES!  It was ridiculous!  So we had no choice but to head back to the freeway and the frontage road.
By now traffic was at a dead standstill.  We sit on the frontage road for over an hour in the same spot.  I don't believe we moved more than a few feet.  During this time Riley wakes up and starts to fuss.  He is done being in his car seat.  I completely understand what he is feeling, because everyone is done being in the car by now.  I get Riley out of his seat and we pass some of the time watching Toy Story on the DVD player (thank heaven for that!).  At about 4:00 am we decide that we should try to maneuver out of this mass of traffic, head north a little ways, and find a place to sleep until morning.  We tried 5 different hotels/motels, all full of people who long ago gave up on the wait.  Finally, way back in Barstow (about 30 minutes north of where we were when my mom called at 11:00) we find a place to stay.  We don't know if they allow dogs or not, but we don't even ask and we sneak Jack in with us.  We are thankfully able to finally lay our heads down at 5:30 am.
Our trusty alarm clock, Riley, even after a rough night, wakes us up bright and early at 7:00.  He is ready to explore our temporary new digs.  We turned on the TV to try to get an update on the traffic situation, which was still bad, but at least had started moving.  We get breakfast at Burger King and head back to the room to eat and relax for another hour.
We pack up again at about 9:30 and head out.  We might as well get going.  We run into pockets of stand-still, but nothing that lasts too long.  When we finally reach the top of Cajon Pass we are stopped for a moment to let two huge snow plows go ahead to clear the "snow" off of each shoulder.  They go about 35-40 miles an hour all the way down the pass.  It felt like it took forever, but after that it was clear sailing the rest of the way home.  It took us about 3 1/2 hours to make it home that morning, but we finally made it!!