Pretty, right? Unfortunately the winter wonderland caused quite a bit of damage as well. We had multiple tree limbs down in the back yard (the city is estimating it may take until July to pick up all the yard waste from the storm). Also down in the yard was our power line after the meter had been partially ripped off the house.
By this point, they were reporting over 160,000 without power in Pulaski County and Entergy was no longer giving estimates for when power would be restored other than to say it could be up to 7-10 days. Obviously we had other issues since our power line was in the yard. Emma and Josh wanted nothing more than to get outside and play in the snow. Around mid-morning, we finally gave them that opportunity. Josh was not a fan since it was so cold and lasted maybe five minutes. Poor guy was so cold that he had to huddle next Brad under several blankets to warm back up. Emma had a big time even though the snow was not good for packing and didn't want to go in, however, we couldn't let her stay out too long since there was really no way to warm up.
The question at this point shifted to what do we do know since the power was going to be out for several days at least. After the kids warmed back up, Brad got out and shoveled the driveway. Since cars had been going up and down our street all morning, the road was passable if we could get up our driveway. Once he finished that, we decided to get in the Rav and go try to find gas if for no other reason than to be some place warm for a little while and figure things out. The first gas station we found with power was up at Markham and Shackleford and it was busy between people filling up vehicles and getting gas for generators. We lucked out with the line we chose so we didn't have to wait too long. With gas in the tank, we decided to see if we could find some food, which wasn't easy since many places with power remained closed due to the road conditions. We tried the Waffle House right next to the gas station but they locked the door right as we were walking up. We drove a little more and saw that Sonic was open and we could get there without too much trouble. When we placed our order, they told us it would be 20-25 minutes since they were slammed but it wasn't like we were in a hurry to get back to our cold house. The delay in our fast food worked out for Josh who crashed hard in the nice, toasty vehicle.
After lunch, we decided maybe we should try to find a hotel. Unfortunately, everybody else in Little Rock had the same thought so after going in to one to check on availability and calling at least 4-5 others on the way back to the house, it was clear that we were not going to get a room in Little Rock. We then thought about heading South but after checking the road conditions, we thought about heading to Conway. Thankfully the first hotel I called had rooms available so we gathered up what we needed for the night and headed North. It was so nice to be in a warm room and after a hot meal and some swimming, we all slept soundly. Up next, we flee to Missouri for refuge from the storm.
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