Until I drove right into another southern finger of the storm when I was about an hour away from home. An hour...that is, at 65 mph. But not at 45mph, and then 35 mph, and then sometimes 25 mph.
There is a low section of road on my way home. Close to the bottom of this short little valley is a turn-off for another town. I was behind several cars who were going really slowly through the heavy slush. Unfortunately, about five of them slowed down even more to get into the turn lane for the other highway. That nearly stopped the rest of us just as we needed some momentum to make it up the little hill.
I didn't make it. I started slipping and sliding all over the place. I decided to pull over so I wouldn't ruin the momentum of everyone behind me. I didn't know what I would do later, but in the meantime, I watched everyone slipping and sliding their way up the hill. Next thing I knew, a huge motor home was behind me. It seemed he had decided to pull over, too.
But wait...he changed his mind. He veered back onto the road in all of his massive lengthiness. I looked out my side window and there he was, VERY close, very massive, and very angled. His rear end was sliding into my rear end! I laid on the horn over and over again and he finally stopped. Not only was I afraid he would damage my van a bunch, I was afraid he would shove me off the shoulder, which was sloped away from the road. Now, I've been in a roll-over accident before and I had vision of being shoved over until I rolled. Granted, the guy was going about 5 mph and that probably wouldn't have happened...but I was nervous about it nonetheless.
It was still blizzarding. And there we sat.
Thankfully, all we were was touching. No damage whatsoever.
I called 911 to let them know we were stuck and blocking the road. 911 was in the wrong city for our incident. They patched me through to what is "Town" to us. I told the story again to them. Oh, but we were across the county line so they had to patch me through to the other county. After telling the story for the third time to the right county, I was advised that I should have been patched through to DPS where she was going to transfer me and I would have to tell my story for the 4th time. Thankfully, the line was busy and she said she'd have someone call me back.
Meanwhile, a Good Samaritan came by offering to tow me out of the way so then efforts could be made to get the motor home on his way. A Highway Patrolman came by, too, and between the two of them, they towed me up to the top of the hill. The Good Samaritan got behind my wheel in case it was a treacherous tow and I cleared out of the way, stepping well off the shoulder, in case my van went sliding crazily. It was a simple tow...the only problem was that I was now downhill and had to walk up to the van. Oops. The Good Samaritan got out of my van and when I finally got close, laughed and said in kind of a "Duh" manner, "We should have had you get in the van, too!" And then, a truck came in the opposing lane..... and completely slushed us up past our knees with the dirty snowy slush piled up on the road!
It was quite an afternoon. But for such an event, it was thankfully rather uneventful.
At home we had nearly 3 inches of snow on the ground. My poor little tulips were covered in snow.
The Alligator Juniper was covered on one side, too.
But less than a week later, they were blooming and beautiful. I took these today, one week to the day later.
I love flowers, but I am not a gardener. I just don't seem to have what it takes to give the proper devotion to a garden. That, and not having a normal water supply kind of takes the passion out of it for me. But I do love flowers. I wish I had tons and tons of them around...and someone else to make sure they thrive!
Look at these pretty pinks!
There is still a tiny, tiny bit of snow left on the north side of nearby hills. I can't believe it's still clinging on. Windy again today and 70 degrees. I don't think it can last more than a couple more days, if that.
Windy days are helping dry out the basement. Which reminds me, it's 8pm and I haven't closed the basement window yet. I'd better get down there before "Steve" our local raccoon tries to get in!
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