To the Land of Late (surprise) Snowstorms, and Back Again

We survived once again, the trip north, but just barely this time. Remember a few weeks ago my story about traveling home from a funeral and getting stuck in the worst snowstorm ever? Well, this one was just a tiny bit less stressful (although I managed to remain pretty calm, which was not the case with that other storm). I guess I gained a lot of trust in my husband after winter storm # 1.

Youngest Grandchild was baptized on Tuesday evening, and we left VERY early the next morning

We did not think to check the weather in southern MN, because things were fine where we were, but as we drove further south, we hit heavy snow, and it was windy. We’d be driving along and suddenly, a strong wind would blow across the barren fields, whipping the snow into a blinding frenzy. before too long, we began to see cars off the road on both sides, and down in the median. We came across one car like that, right after it had happened. We were guessing that the storm must have also been a surprise for the road crews, because we drove a while before we came across a salt/plow truck. We did see several police cars.

The worst thing we saw was a semi-tractor trailer that had jackknifed and was lying on its side off the edge of the road (there were police cars nearby.) That looked very scary and complicated to “fix.” I said a silent prayer for the driver. The highway was not too crowded, and hubby retained his calm reserve, as usual. I got out the snack bag and distracted myself with some chocolate-covered raisins, worked like a charm! Hubby and I enjoyed the view of the snow covered trees, looking like something out of Narnia, mystical and magical. They were beautiful!

By the time we got to Wisconsin, the snow and wind had slowed down a bit, but we could still see signs of frozen precipitation hitting the windshield, and we also saw a lot more snow plows, often just sitting in the emergency turn-arounds, like they were ready and waiting for another batch of snow to call them into action.

Even further south, it was mainly rain, like in Spain, on the plain, except we were traveling the plains of midwest North America. Finally, twelve hours after we had begun our journey, we pulled into our driveway, and I thanked my husband, and my faithful little car, a Hyundai named Louie the Shark, for another job well done. Time to get back in the groove of my normal life again, but, I already miss my sweet and beautiful northern grandchildren!