"Another nine minutes and then you have to get your lazy butt out of bed," I told myself, as I hit the snooze button on my alarm clock one last time.
Nine minutes later the clock radio sprang to life once more. The familiar country music that normally greets me each morning had been replaced by the harsh reality of a winter storm warning being broadcast from the National Weather Service.
The monotone computerized voice of the broadcast made it sound even worse.
"Snow starting by 10:00a.m. with six to eight inches of accumulation expected by 5:00p.m. Rush hour tonight will be extremely difficult with interstates and main highways expected to be snow covered and dangerous. Total accumulations are expected to reach twelve to eighteen inches by noon tomorrow."
I always get a little nervous when the weatherman uses phrases like, "The biggest snow storm we've seen in 25 years," and "Blizzard like conditions expected." Here in Cincinnati we get a fair amount of snow, but snowfall of more than twelve inches and "blizzard like conditions" are descriptions that are only used a few times each century in this part of the country.
As I stepped into the steaming shower, my thoughts shifted to my schedule of meetings for the day. Maybe my afternoon schedule would be a light one and I could reschedule some meetings and bail out early before the brunt of the storm hit. No such luck. As the steaming water poured over my face, I suddenly remembered the three o'clock meeting the CEO had insisted we have today.
Anticipating that the evening rush hour was going to be a mess, I packed the trunk of my car with what I affectionately call, "My winter survival gear." The list of essentials included a pair of hiking boots, a parka, a hat, a scarf, and most importantly, a snow shovel. I wanted to have all the necessary equipment and personal protection I needed just in case my car decided it preferred the side ditch better than the road.
The drive to work was an uneventful one. The wind was starting to pick up and a few snow flurries danced through the air, but nothing significant enough to impact the morning rush hour.
Unfortunately, this was one of the few times the weatherman was actually right. By ten o'clock the snow was starting to arrive, exactly as predicted. By noon it was snowing so hard I could barely see the traffic on the highway just a hundred yards away from my office window. Schools were closing, businesses were shutting down early and by three o'clock the office was as vacant as a Sunday afternoon.
I live about 20 miles north of the city and I knew that in another two hours the drive home would be a rough one. Most of the drive is interstate, but the last three miles would be country roads. With "blizzard like conditions," drifting would be a real problem. I had already decided that if things got too bad, I would just get a hotel room and spend the night in the city. My wife was in Atlanta for the week visiting her sister, so I really had no compelling reason to get home if things turned ugly.
The meeting with the CEO wrapped up about four thirty and we all decided it would be wise to call it a day and head home before things got any worse.
The parking lot was a mess as I weaved my way from the office door to my car, trying to step in previously created footsteps and avoid the stinging cold of frozen snow trickling into my shoes. With six inches of snow piled both on top of my car and on the parking lot beneath my feet, I decided this might be a good time to change out of my work shoes and into the hiking boots I had packed earlier in the morning. No need to ruin a good pair of dress shoes and risk frostbite in the process of cleaning off the car.
In the ten minutes it took me to get the snow brushed off my car, my face and ears were already stinging from the frigid cold. I had not heard a weather report since the morning, but I'm sure the wind chill must have been well below zero.
With the snow now removed, the windshield cleared, and the engine warmed up, I was ready to see just how well the all wheel drive in my Cadillac STS really worked. When I bought the car a few months earlier, I debated if the all wheel drive option was worth the extra money. Today I was certain it was.
The six inches of snow on the parking lot crunched beneath the tires as I headed toward the street, but seamed to offer no real challenge for the all wheel drive.
"Pretty impressive," I thought to myself, as the Cadillac easily navigated the snow.
I had just turned out of the parking lot onto the street when I heard the traffic report coming on the radio: "Northbound I-75 is closed due to a jack-knifed semi, just north of the I-275 interchange."
Damn; that was my primary route home. It wasn't the only choice, but in these conditions, it was certainly the preferred route. Option "B" would take me through some pretty rural areas. On a sunny summer day, this is a nice scenic route. In blizzard conditions, it would be a two hour, white knuckle drive. Option "C", the hotel room, was looking better all the time.
I headed in the direction of the back road path with the attitude, "What do I have to lose?" Worst case, if the roads were too bad I could simply turn around and head for a hotel. It was the middle of the week and there were no big events in town. There would be plenty of hotel rooms available if I needed one.
I was cruising along at a pretty good pace thinking, "Okay, this doesn't seem so bad. Maybe I can make it home after all."
That thought had barely passed from one side of my brain to the other before I saw the string of brake lights in front of me. Traffic quickly slowed to a complete stop. I sat there for about five minutes before the car in front of me started moving again. We moved about two car lengths and then stopped again for another five minutes. Another twenty feet and then we stopped again.
Thirty minutes later we were still in this stop and go pattern. I had made my mind up that it was time to turn around and head for option "C". Unfortunately, I was sitting right in front of a curve in the road and I couldn't see if there was oncoming traffic. I would have to wait until I inched my way around the curve to safely turn around.
Once I got around the curve, I could see the problem. There was a large hill in front of us and cars were having trouble making it up the slick roadway. It was a pretty steep rise and the incline was about an eighth of a mile long. One car would attempt to make the climb, and the car behind it would wait until the car in front successfully capped the hill before proceeding.
The four wheel drive SUV's made it up the hill with no problem. The front wheel drive cars did some slipping and sliding as they attempted the climb, but they eventually reached their goal. The rear wheel drive cars weren't so lucky. They would try to get a running start, but about half way up the hill their momentum would stop and they could go no further and had to back their way down the hill for another try.
After the first or second attempt, most gave up and turned around in the road and headed for another route. Although the hill was too steep and too slick to climb, there was enough traction for them to safely back down the hill.
There was a black BMW about ten cars in front of me at the head of the line. Like the cars before it, the driver got as much of a running start as possible and headed up the hill. The car made it about half way up the hill before its momentum stopped and it began backing down the hill for another try. The second attempt was no more successful, nor was the third.
By the forth attempt, the cars behind the BMW were starting to honk their horns, trying to get the driver to recognize that the only option was to turn around and go the other way. It was pretty obvious at this point that the black BMW had met its match.
You could tell the driver was a little frustrated as the car came backing down the hill, considerably faster this time. As the BMW reached the bottom of the hill it was going too fast and had to swerve into the other lane to avoid hitting the next car in line. The BMW swerved a little too hard and got the left rear tire off the road.
One by one the ten cars in front of me made their attempts to climb the hill while the BMW sat on the side of the road spinning its tires trying to break free. This was pretty dangerous now since both lanes of the road were occupied. One lane was occupied by the line of cars trying to climb the hill. The other lane was blocked by the BMW stuck in the ditch.
If one of the cars climbing the hill needed room to come back down the hill, there would be no place for it to go except crashing into one of the other cars. Being a good Samaritan, I pulled out of line to see if I could help the driver of the BMW get the car out of the predicament it was in. The car was barely off the road, so it wouldn't be too hard. A little shoveling around the one tire that was spinning in the snow and it should come right out.
