Probably out of sheer stubbornness, I am sometimes determined to ride out the storm. I guess it’s a little bit the trucker in me.

Matching up our schedules to get Wyatt has led me to have to change my work schedule, but in the mean time it also has caused some chaos in picking him up. This last time fell on a night when Rob was still out of town for work and I had to drive to and from Columbus in a winter storm. Because of parking my truck near the entrance of our driveway, I felt the only car I could manage to get through comfortably would be the Versa. Plus, I just find it more comfortable to drive my car of 7 years. That said, I would have been better off taking the hummer.

The ride to Columbus was no problem until I hit Columbus. It still amazes me how incapable people are in rough weather. How many times can I tell you all to just slow down and take it easy? Also, don’t slow down to a level of stupidity – but we’ll get back to that later. If you can’t trust your ability to drive in the snow, then please acknowledge and do everything you can to not be out in it. Of course, I was probably driving into Columbus about the time everyone was getting off work. So my judgmental butt should just shut it. Really I just wish everyone would realize there are other people on the road besides themselves. Take more time to stop. Let people over. Be courteous. And be concerned when you see people on the side of the road.

I forgot to mention a key factor in my ride to Columbus. I had been at work all day. Given my long hours that week, it was nice to have a day when I got home around 4 pm. The dogs having been cooped up all week needed an adventure, so I made the executive decision to take them with me. I think Scotch and Tripp were quite excited. Logan would have rather stayed home. He really hated when the water or slush hit the bottom of the car, making its normal scraping noise.

Getting to Columbus didn’t take much longer than the normal hour. Once there, I guess Mom and Wyatt got a bit concerned about me. Wyatt was attempting to call about the time I was pulling around the corner into Mom’s housing complex. I had made it! Now came collecting the kid and making the pain staking trip back – and it was pain staking. What is usually an hour or a little more ended up being a near two hour trip home. The snow came down hard and the plows had not got a head start. In fact, they were quite behind. I didn’t start seeing many of them until we were on the last couple bits of road home.

Driving through snow and slush was bad enough. I ended up behind a line of cars wanting to go 15 miles an hour at first. The final car I ended up behind stubbornly went 35, driving me absolutely insane. Without anyone in front of me, I was managing a good 40-45 miles per hour and felt quite comfortable with plenty of time to stop. As we neared the final town before home, I saw a Semi take a weird turn…weird because I never sees trucks make that turn and for good reason. There is a covered bridge there. As semi’s, we usually need a clearance of 13′ 6″. Covered bridges are short….super stupid short. I watched him come to a dead stop and I’m sure he felt some panic. The car ahead of me drove on, but I pulled over and put on my four ways. With all the kids in the car, I wasn’t too keen on jumping out to go talk to him. Instead, I watched for a few minutes. I gave him some time to see if he could figure it out. I know some of the younger drivers absolutely despise help, no matter the situation. And he made it! He didn’t need me after all. So, I took off, only to quickly catch up to that driver going 35.

We made it home just in time for a plow to have passed our house. I had a nice mound of snow to drive over. But we made it. I was exhausted! So, I fed the dogs and everyone settled in for the night. Our next adventure to be getting through the icy snow in the morning.

P.S. – We made it through the morning snow, too.