JT started playing for a new basketball team out of Puyallup after a friend clued us in and we were able to jump on board in late September. He has been enjoying being back in his favorite sport, and his first tournament with the team was in Boise in November. Jim was working and Haley preferred to stay home with Grandma Cole, so off we went to Boise for a mother-son trip.
It was a long drive. We stopped in Ellensburg, Washington and ate our packed lunch, made it over Deadman’s Pass, and had dinner at a local pizza place JT found on Yelp in Baker’s City, Oregon. We arrived at our hotel in Nampa, Idaho at 9 PM local time – ready to relax!
On Saturday, we slept in (yay) and had a late breakfast. Then we met some of the kids from the team for lunch. Afterward, I wanted to see downtown Boise a little and JT wanted to do something fun… cue the scooters! JT thought it was pretty fun that we were breaking three rules: helmets, sidewalks, and age requirement. I explained that the reason for the helmets was for riding in the street, that the reason for the sidewalks was so as not to pester pedestrians (there were none that grey afternoon), and the reason for age was so the company could hold an adult accountable for damages. We felt good about staying safely out of traffic, away from people, and not damaging the scooters. Off we went!
It started raining, so we headed back to our hotel to rest up for game night. JT had games at 7 PM and 9 PM in a tiny Idaho town. He played awesome and got a lot of playing time (almost half of each game), especially considering he’s new to the team and playing a sixth/seventh grade combo team.
We went back to the hotel and crashed, and got up early to head to another tiny Idaho town and play another two games. His team went 3-1 for the weekend, and JT started the last game!
Then things got interesting. All the families knew snow was coming to Oregon and Idaho, and everyone hit the road right at noon on Sunday. We figured we’d stay ahead of it. No such luck. In La Grande, Oregon, the department of transportation closed Hwy 84 – in both directions – due to accidents and ice. We sat at Starbucks for a couple hours, booked a hotel room, and realized we were staying the night. I’m so grateful we booked a room. The entire town sold out in less than 2 hours! Thankfully, we were stuck with friends from the team (and JT’s team last year, and they go to the same school). We all went to dinner and a movie before playing Among Us at the hotel and going to bed in our Schitt’s Creek style motel room.
In the morning, we got up and out bright and early (7:15 AM departure!) and made it over the pass just fine, arriving home at 2 PM – a full 24 hours after we got stuck. I’m glad we spent the night, because the families that took alternate routes (the ones who left after us didn’t get stuck in the highway closures and could make it around to another highway) got home in the wee hours of Monday morning after driving for 12-18 hours!
The Keene Family 