Caught in a blizzard

This past weekend a big snowstorm blew through Ohio. I was driving down in Amish Country on my usual errands. The storm wasn't supposed to arrive until late afternoon or early evening. They lied. It started about 1:30. I hurried along but I had a lot of stops to make. When I turned around to head in a homeward direction it was 6 PM. The snow was coming down heavily. I stopped at one house to make a drop off and got stuck in the driveway almost against a house. Two young Amish men came out and helped push the van as I drove it. It took about a half hour, but I was finally on my way again. At my last stop, things were going well. As long as the roads were relatively smooth, I was going along OK. I decided to head home. I tried to plan the best route with the fewest hills.

We drive a big van and I was pretty well loaded up with weight. I headed up a moderate grade and about one third of the way up, my van's back end started to fishtail toward the ditch. I got it stopped before trouble arrived, but the van was at a 45 degree angle relative to the road. Hmmm. Now I couldn't back down the road and the van wouldn't go up the hill. Fortunately, there were no other vehicles on the road, everybody else was smart enough to stay off the road. I learned later that there was a Level 3 road emergency and nobody was supposed to be out. Oooops. A four wheel drive pick-up headed down the hill and he stopped to see if I needed help. I was working on gradually getting the van up the hill. He asked where I was going, and I told him. He got quite a laugh at my optimism.

I persevered up the hill. It was rough as the van never really could go straight. It pushed that angle right up that hill. I realized that going further was foolishness. I called DH and told him that I was going to pull in . Fortunately, I had some good Amish friends in that town. I pulled down their road and into their driveway. I got the van off the road by about 2 feet and couldn't make it any further into their driveway. Michelle and I were glad to be able to stop.

We went up to their door and asked them if this was 'a bed and breakfast'. They graciously took us in and fed us. We had a wonderful bed and slept like logs. It felt so good to be off the road. We had a nice visit.

The snow stopped about noon. We still weren't able to head out until after 2:30. As we headed home we heard that the snow emergency had been lowered to a level 1. I wish so much that I had a camera with me. It was absolutely gorgeous to see the farms and woods covered in the deep snow. Overall they got 18 inches where we were. We got home by 5 PM. Just in time for JoAn and Mr. Boots Birthday party.

We thanked the Lord for His safety on the roads.

~Mom

P.S. the snow photos are from the snow last night, not over the weekend. I really liked the top picture which was taken in the dark with an infra red light.