Category: anxiety

A Road Trip Gone Wrong (Part 2): Tips For Surviving the Unexpected

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December 30th my husband, 4-year-old son and I began a road trip to return home from Arizona. We expected the drive to take around 15 hours (long, but doable) however, due to some unfortunate circumstances, it ended up taking over 30 hours (and we still weren’t even home!)

You can read more about the specifics of our journey in Part 1 – the short version is that because of snow and ice, we got stuck on I-10 (meaning a dead stop) for a total of 14 hours, almost doubling our total travel time. It was 31 hours from the time we started the trip until we were able to rest in a hotel, and by the time we made it to our actual house, it had been 54 hours and 8 minutes from when we left (thanks to my Dad for keeping track of the time!)

If you ever happen to find yourself stranded on the highway for many hours due to circumstances out of your control (heaven forbid!), I hope the following tips may serve you well.

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A Road Trip Gone Wrong (Part 1): the Series of Events that Had Us Stuck in Our Car for Over 30 Hours

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It seems appropriate to post this today, as it is currently snowing outside in Abilene, TX. I posted the picture below and said “I can confirm it is much more pleasant to enjoy the snow from inside your own home than on the road or in a hotel.”

MY BACKYARD – 1/10/2021

This post will be published in two parts: (1) the story – a series of unfortunate events that led to our 30-hour road trip, and (2) my tips and takeaways from the experience.

THE STORY

For the holidays, my family and I drove from Texas to Arizona to visit my parents and had a great time. We drove because we really did not feel good about being on an airplane with lots of other people (you know, COVID). The drive is long, about 15 hours or so, but it’s doable in one day. One very long day.

As our trip came to an end, we pulled out of my parent’s driveway in Phoenix around 8am Central time, never expecting that over 30 hours later, we still wouldn’t be back home.

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Would You Eat Salmon Every Day for Clear Skin?

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***Check out my follow-up post (written 3 months later) here!***

I’ve had really bad acne in the past – it was so bad that when I was a teenager, I had to go on Accutane because nothing else would clear it up. I don’t think I have (or at least I didn’t keep) many pictures of myself during that time because I was so ashamed of the way I looked. Thank goodness smart phones were not a thing back then!

As an (almost) 34-year-old, one might assume that my days of dealing with acne are behind me. Not true! Unfortunately, I still deal with breakouts a lot. Normally it is a minor annoyance, a few here and there that most people probably wouldn’t notice all that much.

The past few weeks however, my skin just exploded! I was getting at least 3-4 pimples a day, and many of them were large inflamed ones. Everything I tried seemed futile. I cut out gluten, sugar and dairy from my diet (which often seems to help), I was using a skin-clearing mask nightly, I tried to make sure I was drinking plenty of water… but the breakouts kept coming in full force.

If you’ve ever had bad acne, you understand that feeling of fear, of feeling like your skin is not in your control anymore. You feel helpless, and it’s one of the worst feelings in the world. And if you’re like me, you also feel really ugly – I think due to my past struggles with acne, my skin condition really affects how I view myself – whether I feel good or bad, pretty or ugly…

I was desperate and didn’t know what else to do, so I turned to my trusty Clear Skin Prescription book by Nicholas Perricone. Maybe you’ve heard of the “Perricone diet?” Nicholas Perricone has written numberous books about anti-inflammatory diets that are supposed to be anti-aging and help you get clear, beautiful skin.

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