Saturday my wife and I braved the blizzard for a day trip down to Montevideo.

It was a crazy idea -- with strong winds and possible snow on the way -- and we were warned ahead of time. But we've officially hit a point this winter where we're sick and tired of the snow, cold and weather keeping us cooped in and from the things we enjoy doing. The blizzard warning wasn't supposed to go into effect until midnight Saturday, anyway, so as long as we were home by then, we figured, we should be fine.

We spent the afternoon making our way down to Montevideo, stopping in New London and Willmar along the way. It was a great day! The weather held up, we visited Goat Ridge Brewing, Foxhole Brewing and Talking Waters Brewing and made new friends at each stop.

By the time we finally left Montevideo about 8:45pm it was later than I'd intended. The wind had picked up and was blowing snow across the roads, though the roads did seem safe to travel. Which is probably why I got overconfident.

About 15 miles south of Willmar, I hit a snow drift and lost control.

My car began fishtailing. Katie grabbed my hand and repeated "It's ok! It's ok!" as I held onto the steering wheel and tried to regain control. I couldn't. We continued fishtailing before sliding off the road into the right-side ditch and settling just feet from a mile-marker sign.

It was 9:30pm, and we'd just gotten stuck in the middle-of-nowhere south-western Minnesota with a blizzard on the way.

To cut a long story short, we spent 20 minutes on the phone with an unhelpful woman from AAA before she hung up on us; we then attempted two more phone calls to local towing services who didn't pick up. It was City Line Towing out of Willmar who eventually came to our rescue.

I never did get the name of the young guy who helped us, but my appreciation for the men and women who work for towing services definitely grew that night! As much as it sucked for us as the ones stuck and getting towed, I could only imagine how much it sucked for the guy tying a cable to my car, winching and re-winching us out as the wind blew snow into his face and cars dangerously raced by just feet away from him and his truck. When it was all said and done, I may not have been thrilled with the cost to my checking account, but there was no denying the guy who helped us deserved every penny of it!