Blizzard '09

On the evening of Friday, December 18, 2009 a blizzard began to hit the Richmond metro area. Our plans were foiled. Jeremiah and I were supposed to head up to Montrose, PA on Saturday morning to spend those glorious, anticipation-filled days leading up to Christmas with the Link family. Jeremiah's mom's 50th birthday was also on Sunday. 

But when I was driving home from work a little after 6pm on Friday night and received a call from my mom inquiring about our travel plans, I knew this plan we had so carefully mastered was about to crumble to pieces. You see, Friday night was also meant for Jeremiah and I to have our own Christmas together--open gifts, cook our Christmas fettucini, and watch A Christmas Story. Unfortunately, I arrived home to my wonderful husband (who had cleaned every inch of our apartment and even lit a fire in preparation for our evening together) not having a clue it had begun snowing and instantaneously stressed by my own stress. We may or may not have been rather on edge and at each other's throats for the next hour and a half as we tried to figure out whether to quickly pack (packing for 12 days can't be done quickly) and leave that night or to wait it out til Sunday (hopefully) and cross our fingers the power won't go out in the process. The snow was already accumulating and apparently was moving along most of our route north. 

Around 8pm our verdict was in: wait it out til Sunday.

We've never been so confident in our decision after we woke up Saturday morning, and then tried to drive on Sunday morning. Some of these pictures/videos I posted look like we're driving in sludge, but alas it was thick, solid ice. If you look closely, in the picture with the plows, we are driving to the left of the rumble strip. We too were wondering why the left shoulder was the only 'lane' VDOT could claim as 'passable.' The shaky camera is not from my inability to have a steady hand, but we were actually being shook around violently as we tried to maneuver over the treacherous roads.