The Trip Home

Ely, IA

Hello,

Again I just realized that I no longer live in a place more than a couple days before I start referring to it as home. Is that a good thing? Are refugees in the same situation?

Sunday, we left Brian’s at a good time in the afternoon to clear roads and more traffic than we expected, but not as much traffic as a weekday. We had completed almost half of the journey when it seemed snow was in the air and the road surface was quite wet. Soon I noticed cars were slowing down a bit. Perhaps it was slippery and I could not see the ice. I was happy to stop at our expected stop and change drivers. Snow was being shoveled at the gas station and it was slippery underfoot.

We got back on the road soon turning onto the less traveled road where there was more snow. Some vehicles still passed us. One such car careened wildly from side to side as it went over an overpass. That slowed them down considerably. We did not have any real problems, but Leroy kept a firm grip on the wheel while I gave unwanted advice from the side.

At one point the sun came out and we thought we must have driven out of the storm. That proved false as we drove back into the falling snow. On an entrance ramp that doesn’t touch the ground; a car ahead of us had hit the side and was sitting with flashing lights on while someone stopped to check on them.

I am grateful for all of the road workers who were out salting and spraying the roads. Without that we would have had to stop.

Again we drove out of the messy roads only to find it again about 40 miles from home. Unfortunately at this point it was quite a lot worse than it had been. We crept through Cedar Rapids where I thought surely it would have been clearer. We turned off onto the Ely blacktop that was really white. In the ditch we saw a vehicle with all four wheels pointing to the sky. Someone had pulled into a drive and had gone back to see about them so we just inched along. Leroy kept his eyes ahead and responded to my pleas to slow down, by telling me that he was only going 30 mph. Before we got to town we saw two police cars and a busy tow truck.

I learned the next day that when our hostess drove to work in the morning she saw a dozen cars in the ditch on the interstate. We were blessed to be safe, secure, and stepping on the ground.

Paula