Are We IN North Dakota??

This morning when I awoke I was pleasantly surprised to see that the snow had not gone away overnight. It was still outside and waiting for Logan & I to play in it! We went out a couple of times during the day and had a great time (well, until Logan fell and actually felt how cold the snow was). By the afternoon the snow was coming down again in BIG flakes! I told Mike about it and told him he should try to leave work pretty early. He ended up leaving around 3:30. By 5:00 he still was not home so I called his cell to make sure he was OK. He was in town but had no way of getting to our house.

Sidenote: There are two ways to get to our home. One way is to go up a winding road which can get very slick in the winter. The other way is to go a longer but not as steep route. As you can guess everyone was taking choice number 2.

Mike took route #2 also since he was driving the Focus and didn't want to try to make it up the hill. He got about halfway up the road when traffic stopped and once it stopped the car could not get going on the icy road. So he turned around and headed back to town. He called me from the movie theater to let me know that he didn't know when he would be getting home.

I decided to drive the Explorer in and get him since it has 4 wheel drive. I could not believe how much the snow had accumulated since we had gone outside! The truck was completely covered - I had to use a broom to get the snow off (BTW, Logan thought this was hilarious). Once I got the snow off we began the trek into town. While driving I kept thinking "what the heck was Mike talking about, there isn't any traffic around". But then, I got to where he must have turned around. Cars were abandoned along side the road, people were walking along the road to get home, and in general no one knew how to think anymore.

Let me explain - in the Pacific NW when it snows I think it turns off the logical button in most people's heads. They simply ignore common sense and do what they think is right. Which most of the time is the worst decision they could have made!

So while driving into town a huge truck pulled out in front of me. We're driving along and all of a sudden he decides to STOP in the middle of the road to talk to a car that's stuck going the other direction. Because the ground is packed in ice covered by a layer of ice it is very difficult to stop quickly. Thankfully I was only going about 10 mph and managed to stop just before I hit his bumper. Ok, one accident averted. He pulled over to help or something so I continued on. I get closer to town and the traffic going out of town is completely stopped by this point. Another driver (going out of town) decides to get out of his car and stand in my lane of traffic. While I'm driving straight at him! He finally realized where he was and moved. I came to a stop, rolled down my window, and yelled at him. I said, "It's icy out and I was barely able to stop in time. Get back in your car or you're going to cause another accident!" He blankly stared at me and I don't think he did get back in his car.

I finally arrived at the theater, picked up Mike, and we went to Red Robin for dinner. We figured we might as well kill some time and let at least some of the idiots get off the road. By the time we finished eating it wasn't too bad getting back home. We only ran into one car that was stuck on the road. Mike ended up leaving his car at the theater and we'll go in and get it tomorrow. He has NO plans of driving to work. At this point it would be safe to say we've gotten at least 10" of snow here. And for a reference last year, I believe it snowed once but never stuck! Thank goodness we have that North Dakota background huh?

The first picture was taken around 11 am, the second one around 8 pm.