Working in Calhoun, I was not that close to home. Approximately 45 minutes and miles away from home, any kind of weather can be a little nerve-wracking. Randy works about 15 miles from home and without traffic, is only about 25 minutes from home. I started an outpatient eval about 10:45 and noticed the snow had started to fall by 11 am and it was "oh-so-pretty". Like I haven't seen snow falling in many months. And then it started to stick. And then I finished my eval about 11:45 and people were already wondering about driving conditions. I left in a panic about 12:15, praying to God to watch over me and just get me home safely! Randy said he was wrapping up and headed out shortly. It took me a while to get to the interstate (which normally takes under 2 minutes if I sit at 2 red lights) and I saw a few cars fishtailing on the road. I was freaked out. How in the world were the driving conditions this bad and it had only snowed for about an hour and a half?! God took my fear and my steering wheel shortly after I got on I-75 South. I chose the middle lane since it looked the clearest and decided about 35 mph would do the job. Within 2 miles, two salt trucks pulled out from the shoulder, one in front of me, one a few cars behind me. What a godsend! They traveled with me for about 10 miles, only to pull over to the shoulder again and immediately get replaced with a GSP from the opposite shoulder within a mile. I'm telling you, God had my back.
When I got close to my exit, I had to decide which exit to take since there are two I could easily take. I thought I'd pick the one with the least steep hills and sharp turns. It was a nightmare! One person was stuck at the top of the hill with their wheels spinning. As I turned off the access road, I began to creep towards 41 South and there were cars strewn about on the sides of the roads in ditches in attempts to get up this stretch. Somehow, I safely managed to get onto 41 and very slowly made my way towards Cedarcrest Rd--the road where the daycare my boys attend is located. I creeped and crawled trying to get there, hearing that the entire road was shut down or portions of it. I wondered how I would get my kids, they were only about 1-1.5 miles down the road. I was able to get to the daycare almost 3 hours after I had left work. Earlier when I realized the road conditions were awful everywhere and my dad couldn't drive out of his neighborhood to get my kids, I called him and asked him to grab some shoes for me to wear, a duffle bag and some blankets and to meet me at the daycare (walking). My dad and I walked Jonah & Nolan to their home about 3/4 mile away. Jonah thought it was so fun being out in the snow at first, but then he got cold and I carried him... up a hill... with snow blowing in my face... with a duffle bag on my back. :) Until my tennis friend saved me and carried the duffle bag the rest of the way! Thanks, Tracy! Nevertheless, we got to my parents house safely.
Meanwhile, Randy left a little before 1pm and made it just a few miles down the road before coming to a dead halt in about 3 hours. Somewhere around 4 pm (I guess), Randy made a (ridiculous) decision to walk home from there. Like 10 miles. While it was actively snowing and knowing it would be dark in a couple hours. With no hat or gloves. Like I said, ridiculous. I called him about once every 45 minutes to an hour to make sure he was alright and get progress on where he was on his journey. Between his phone calls, I was desperately trying to find him shelter (or a ride) along the way. I had a few options for him but he just wasn't biting at those. He made it about 4 miles down the road to Dunkin' Donuts, which was open. My friend told me her brother in law basically lived in a neighborhood across the street and they would welcome him with a hot bowl of chili, but my stubborn husband declined and kept on walking. He made it about another 1/2 mile up the road and a woman (also know as "greatest stranger in my book ever") offered to give Randy a ride in her Land Rover. Amazing. She dropped another traveler off on the way and took him several miles north to Cedarcrest Rd! He was only about a mile and a half away at that point. Randy safely made it to my parents' house around 7:40pm. I love him for it. But I might have a few gray hairs coming in because of it.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), my mom stayed at her office the whole night because we convinced her that the roads were much too dangerous to travel and she would likely get stuck somewhere so she was better off just staying. Stay, she did, and then safely made it to Cedarcrest Rd the next morning and walked the remainder of the way.
Our stories were nothing compared to what others had to endure during that crazy Tuesday. I will say that the community was just amazing at reaching out to people who were in need.
And then, I remembered we had snow on the ground and a 3-yr-old who wanted desperately to run and jump in it! Here are the pictures:
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