Poems

White Space

65 Comments

This weekend’s post is late, short and full of white space, thanks to our early December snowstorm and the 7 hours I spent on the road with family Friday afternoon, evening, night and early Saturday morning, driving to and from Northfield for the St. Olaf Christmas Festival.

We crawled there and slid home.

Our big plans to dine at the pre-performance smorgasbord turned into bananas and pretzels from a highway rest stop. But at least we stayed out of the ditch and were in our seats before the first note sounded.

Amazingly, I started out this trip with no windshield scraper in the car. It seems I always have to go through one storm without it before I remember to toss the thing in back. Why is that? I know I’m not the only one to do this, but it seems incredibly dumb, none the less.

The rhythm of the wipers pounding on accumulating ice put me in mind of the holiday classic, “Up On The Housetop”.

Ice on the windshield, freezing hard.
Out I jump with a Visa card.
Scraping away with a thin flat thing.
So we can hear all the Oles sing.
Ho ho ho, who wouldn’t go?
Ho ho ho, who wouldn’t go?

Ice on the windshield, slip slip slip!
Oh what a jolly winter’s trip!

First comes the traffic that’s mostly stopped.
More icy build-up that must be chopped!
Thousands of lights that are mostly red.
Sending a message – slow ahead!
Ho ho ho, who wouldn’t go?
Ho ho ho, who wouldn’t go?

Ice on the windshield, crack crack crack!
Sliding along down a slushy track!

Next comes the traffic with room to flow.
This is no better than stop-and-go.
Pressing my bumper, an SUV.
Feeling much nearer, my God, to thee.
Ho ho ho, who wouldn’t go?
Ho ho ho, who wouldn’t go?

Ice on the windshield, clump clump clump!
Oh what a lovely, snowy dump!

Last comes the part where we make it home.
Plowing through snow with a sing song poem.
White knuckle driving will stress your heart.
All worth the trouble for choral art.
Ho ho ho, who wouldn’t go?
Ho ho ho, who wouldn’t go?

Ice on the windshield, smook smook smook!
What is the worst snowy trip you took?

65 thoughts on “White Space”

  1. Way way too many in my consulting days. 15 years of it and only had three workshops canceled fro weather: the great Halloween Blizzard here and twice two inches of slushy snow in southern MO. Once drove Tomah to Eau Claire in about 4 hours at which point it was suddenly clear. Lincoln to Des Moines in about 9 hours. Both times it was me and the truckers and both times getting off seemed more dangerous than to keep going. I was a younger man with a much younger urinary tract. But both times there was no wind. 4-5 times stopped for winds which id the road, once sleeping in my rental car in MT. Locked in airports was more common cause.
    Okay, everyone who did not finish the house last night for a showing to day, RISE, SHINE, SPIT AND POLISH.

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      2. oh Clyde – i hope some others got that really good joke – and didn’t think it was a typo. thanks for the laugh. Blackhock. yuk, yuk, yuk
        and you would be welcome up north of us any time 🙂

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      2. I confess to not getting this whole re-arranging the furniture thing for women. Once in place, it never moves again until we move out of house in my world. And I am not a decorator either. Maybe a few basic wall hangings and pictures, but I never know where to put anything. I just find a nice spot for a picture, boink a nail in the wall and up it goes — done forever. Measuring, plumb lines and “groupings” are alien to me as well. I’d much rather read or do karate, thank you very much.

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      3. I’m with you, Joanne. I don’t rearrange much either – only of necessity. Guess I used up all my furniture rearranging energies when I was designing sets and having to create spaces from whole cloth.

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      4. I don’t think it’s a woman thing, the re-arranging. I think there are a select few of the afflicted. In my case, it seems to be genetic, though.

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  2. welcome back, Dale – that’s an ish da, i think, ain’t that right ‘Booners???
    and yet you toss off that delightful song for us. thank you!
    worst ever was driving from Duluth to pick up my Mom for the holidays. it was 225 miles one way – usually took about 3.5 hours, so i figured 8 hours round trip and left about 6 a.m. on a lovely clear morning in Duluth. we’d be thru the cities before rush hour and back home before dark. by the time i got somewhere in the far north suburbs of TC there were cars in the ditches everywhere. i lost count at 40 before i got off of 694. got to my Mom’s and said “Why didn’t you call and tell me about this storm????” she didn’t think it was so bad to cancel. we started right out and got back to Duluth at 9 pm. i shoulda checked the weather before i left. lesson learned. Mom wasn’t watching out for me 🙂
    a good and gracious morning to You All! sounds like you folks got quite a dumping. we are just cold, roads are icy but good i comparison to yours.

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  3. Rise and Shine, then Shovel Babooners:

    Fine poetry Dale. I’ve been to the Festival several times with my cousin who is a St. Olaf alum. The drive was probably worth the beautiful experience. The pretzels and bananas sound disappointing if your taste buds were set for smorgasbord!

    Although I’ve taken many foolish trips through the snow, two are most memorable. I don’t take such risks anymore. I will just tell of one today, and save the 2nd story for another blog day. After all, I might run out of stories if this blog remains such a focus of my mornings!

    When I was age 15 I had a hot date for the Sno Ball dance at my High School on the same day my cousin Duane got married in Pipestone on a Saturday afternoon. It was 90 miles between Pipestone, MN and LeMars, Iowa, way out in western Iowa and Minnesota where the windy Great Plains begin. The trip to Grandma’s house on Friday night was the usual — 90 minutes of clear ride. The Saturday afternoon drive home in a blizzard was another story. Just so you know, I told my mother that I was willing to stay at Grandma’s and skip the dance. But mom was determined that I would go to this. She was a “recovering” farm girl who never had a date until she went off to college. She wanted this for me.

    My mom was driving. Somewhere south of Luvurne (yeh, Renee) she became disoriented in a white out, losing the road. Into the ditch we went. A nearby farmer pulled us out of 2 feet of snow with his tractor and chain. We crawled the rest of the way home, terrified but holding on to the road, getting there just in time for me to don my new dress (that I sewed myself), eat a little supper, and meet my date. The trip took about 4 hours.

    And it was not all that much fun. I remember the ride home better than the dance itself. I dated the guy another month, then broke up with him because hanging out with my girlfriends was more satisfying!

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    1. And here in Eden Prairie today we have about 10″. It is quite lovely. I’ll decorate our (fake) Christmas tree today after I put on my favorite John Denver and the Muppets Christmas album!

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      1. A woman after my own heart — love the Muppet Christmas! Every Christmas when we gather at my brother and his wife’s lovely house, she will play the Muppet Christmas Carol with the awesome Michael Caine, and we sing along and laugh at the corny jokes, etc. Muppets are so magical that way.

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      1. Hmmm. Don’t think so. If there is one it is in my mom’s unsorted boxes in the basement. As I recall it looked like something Marcia Brady would have worn, it being 1967 or 68.

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  4. I was out in the Halloween snowstorm, but not on purpose. I was attempting to finish a set for a show that opened that weekend. Long about 10:00 or so, the janitors at the college I was working at came through and asked my friend and I to move our cars because they were plowing the parking lot (they had already plowed part, and could we move our cars there, please?). We no sooner got back in and picked up our tools than one of the janitors came back in with a more detailed weather report and told us, “you better leave now or you may not get home.” I didn’t want to leave because there was still a lot to do on the set, but knew he was right (this was a janitor who had looked out for me more than once – it was like having hour dad tell you in his kindly way “go home. now.”). We put our tools away and trudged out to our, once again, very snowy cars. At the time I was driving a rear-wheel drive compact – not a great snow car, but it performed valiantly. It took me about 2 1/2 hours to get from White Bear Lake to Minneapolis, but I didn’t get stuck…at least not until I got into the alley by my house. As it turned out, I had a week’s reprieve to get the set done – with all that snow, the show didn’t open as scheduled, in part because the college didn’t re-open until the following Monday. Phew.

    Worse driving though, was the ice storm of a couple of weeks ago. Y’know, the one where hundreds of people were in the ditch or in accidents around the Twin Cities. White knuckle driving wasn’t the half of it. That was an ish *&*%@^!!!*&! da. Another about 2 1/2 hour drive….from Golden Valley to South Minneapolis. Ay yay yay. When I got home, safely, without hitting anything or anyone (and after 20 minutes spent trying to get up the last little tiny bit of a hill to get onto Vernon after escaping Hwy 100), I spent an hour sitting up letting the adrenaline work off. I am done with winter driving for this year, thank you very much.

    Hope everyone is warm and safe. Glad you made it back unscathed, if a little rattled, Dale. (And for the record, the only reason I manage to have an ice scraper in my car when I need it is because I’m too lazy to take it out of the car come spring.)

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    1. I stepped out of the back door that icy day to the back patio to put the dog out. The concrete looked damp as it does every morning. I stepped out, then was on my back before I knew what happened. The dog landed on her side, then looked at me with the “What happened?” look. Of course I fell on the already messed up side of my body, so 10 days later, I’m still icing it. The rib that hit the stair edge still hurts, too. Invisible ice is the worst.

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      1. Ouch. Our dog also slipped onto his side the morning after the ice storm, and then after he righted himself, all four paws went out from underneath…poor pup looked so confused. Second time out he was *much* more cautious. Sorry to hear that you are still feeling it.

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      2. I’ve read articles where scientists contend gravity is a “weak” force. I’ve never ever thought of it as weak, especially when I have lost my balance, or am standing near the edge of a precipice.

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  5. I drove home from the airport at 11pm last night – 50 miles in a Prius in deep snow. The last 7 miles was on a county road that had not been touched by a plow and there was one track in the middle of the road where another foolish soul had gone before – thank heavens I didn’t meet any oncoming traffic! Definitely one of the handful of white-knuckle drives I experience each winter.
    But it is beautiful to look at this morning! Shovel safely, all.

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    2. clean living connie, driving 6 miles down a country road that has not been plowed an hour or two after a 10 inch snowfall is not recommended for the faint of heart.
      welcome back lurker. happy holidays if you don’t pop up again before the season hits full stride.

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    3. Thanks, y’all. Life has not been conducive to posting much of late, though I catch up on the blogs and comments a couple times a week. Might be in a better position now to contribute occasionally.
      Tim – not for the faint of heart, but maybe for the faint of common sense! I was very lucky. And thankfully, hubby had made a pass with the tractor/ snowblower on the 3/8 mile driveway, otherwise I would have had to hike in the last bit.

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      1. lucky is when it happens and you had nothing to do with. thankful is when your driveway is done. 3/8 makes my driveway seem like a piece of cake. pop in when you can.

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  6. Good snowy morning to all,

    I’m glad I didn’t do any traveling yesterday like you did, Dale. Winter travel in bad conditions is one of my least favorite things. I had a job for a couple of years where they seldom canceled work for bad weather and you were required to be on the job.

    One night I was traveling on icy roads on the way home from my job at night and ended up in the ditch along the interstate highway. I lost control of my pickup entering I 35 from I 90 even though I was not going full speed and spun hard into the ditch backward after sliding from side to side on the road. I was stuck in the ditch but wasn’t hurt. I did have a cell phone and a tow truck finally came after a long wait. The tow truck had to go back into town to refill a tank with air to inflate my tire. I was able to drive the rest of the way home very carefully. In my confused condition I came close to pulling out in front of a car when I started for home from the edge of the road where the tow truck left me to go to another job.

    This incident and some other ones have left me somewhat fearful of traveling in the winter on bad roads. I try to limit my travel on icy and snowy roads as much as possible. I am willing to take some chances with bad roads if I really want to go some place.

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      1. Jacque, that one trip into the ditch was certainly enough for me. Unfortunately there was one other visit to the ditch in which I did do a little damage to my truck because it finished with the truck tipping over on to it’s side. I was okay and got immediate help getting my truck out, but it wasn’t much fun.

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  7. Greetings! It’s a winter wonderland out there — but I’m staying put for a while. That 5-mile drive last night was too much for me. One of our worst experiences was driving between Green Bay and Prescott, WI for Christmas. Jim was driving through a white-out blizzard and our oldest son was just a baby in his car seat in back, sleeping. Jim is an excellent driver and knew the roads to his parents’ house in Prescott quite well, but it was still terrifying — especially with baby in back. I just refuse to deal with that kind of stress anymore!

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  8. When I was in college I headed home at about 11:00pm on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving as I was determined that I wasn’t going to get caught in the major snow storm that was going to hit western Minnesota the next morning. It was only snowing lightly as I left Moorhead, but it got worse and worse as I went further south on Highway 75. This was before the interstate was completed all the way through South Dakota-that strip near Sisseton took forever to finish. Pretty soon I couldn’t see where either the road or the ditch were and just trusted to luck to keep going and not get stuck. I made it as far as Pipestone where I could stay with my aunt. She was pretty surprised to see me on her door step at 4:00am.

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  9. Whenever it starts snowing I remember that even after 30 years I am not a Minnesotan so I blanch at the thought of storm driving. When I still lived back east I drove south to Richmond, VA in my parents Ford Maverick (think no traction). It was a clear sunnt weekend and my mother warned me not to drive in storms. On the way home I lost control of the car on the tiniest bit of ice (by MN standards) and went across 3 lanes of traffic. I still remember the face of the driver in the car I headed to. Even as the whell spun through my hands I somehow ended up unscathed on the shoulder. The hardest thing to do was to start off again. Be careful out there!

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  10. Morning everyone…

    I’ve always lived just a few miles out of town… and our mile long driveway is mostly uphill from the house… so if we can get to the end of our road, the rest should be easy. Of course going home then, it’s all downhill; so if we can get out; we can almost always get home.
    That said; I remember driving home one night and hit a stretch of about 1/2 mile that was white out. Two lane country blacktop hiway and late enough there wasn’t any other traffic, but I couldn’t see a thing…. slowed down, slowed down… would get just a glimpse of the shoulder every now and then so I could stay on the road until finally reached a farm with a big shelter belt and I could see again. Whew! Was only about a mile from our driveway at that point… and then it wasn’t an issue.

    Once, driving to visit the in-laws for Christmas, 2.5 hours on I90, with a brother-in-law about 10 miles ahead of us. It was windy and maybe some light snow… wasn’t terrible but not the best… BiL called every 5 minutes to ‘update’ us: there’s a slippery spot here! There’s snow on the road here! Watch out for that spot! … it became ridiculous and turned into a family joke to my wife and I. ‘Watch out, there’s a shadow on the road up there!’…

    I have been stuck in the driveway a number of times…
    There was one time… it was icy. Kelly slid off the road up at the top end and walked home to get me. We headed back out with the tractor. Well; tractors without chains don’t have much traction on ice either… part of our driveway is along a ‘cliff’ of about 50′ down to the cowyard… lots of trees though and we’ve never lost anyone on that corner.
    But this night… slid off the road with the tractor… worked it around until I broke through a fence and broke a mirror off on a tree… then worked it around until I broke the glass out of the door on that same tree. We’re now well off the road with our rear end closer to the cliff than we’d like to be. In the tractor seat I’m playing it cool. Kelly, is standing next to me in the cab and starting to suggest maybe this isn’t working.

    At that point I finally go get the tractor that does have chains… (In hindsight, yes I should have taken that tractor first… but it wasn’t plugged in and I didn’t think it would start)…
    So pulled her car out, then pulled the first tractor out.

    Had about 9″ of snow here this morning… takes me about 2 hours to blow out the driveway and around the buildings here; paths for the chickens, sheds, cars, trash barrels…

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    2. “Kelly, is standing next to me in the cab and starting to suggest maybe this isn’t working. “ Kelly sounds to me like she might be the most patient woman on earth…

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      2. great story ben, i hate it when you are going back and forth and sliding the wrong direction in the process. first the mirror then the window, there is a definate tie in to the brain that doesn’t ask for directions when we are lost

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  11. I’ve already described the worst day. I drove from Colorado to my home with the Halloween blizzard just behind me. Knowing how bad it was, I’d drive as far and fast as I could, but I’d have to sleep, and then it would catch up to me.

    Things went to hell when I turned north at Des Moines and tried to dash to Minnesota before the storm hit. It got worse and worse. From the border to just below the Twin Cities, I couldn’t see anything through my ice-encased windshield or in my rear view mirror. Traffic had reduced the driving to the right-hand lane where there were two ruts so deep nobody could leave them. That meant that the highway was a long “train” of cars driving blindly, each trying to go a speed that would protect them from being whacked from behind or hitting anyone in front.

    There was another trip south to hunt pheasants. A blizzard hit that was so heavy that cars kept going into spins and twirling off the highway. So many cars went into the ditch that I knew we had a high chance of colliding with a stuck car if we spun off into a ditch, too. There just wasn’t much room for new cars to pile into the ditches.

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  12. I just thought about my worst snowy drive. A group of fencers borrowed a van and headed to Winnipeg for a tournament in the middle of winter. We hit a blizzard and ended up stopping in Pembina because the highway was shut down and spent the rest of the night piled in a tiny hotel room (and very thankful for the trucker who gave up his room to bunk with a pal so we could stay). I recall that the van driver drove with the door open a little bit so he could spot the centerline. Otherwise we doubtless would have been in the ditch very quickly. It was a long night and needless to say, none of us fenced very well at the tourney.

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    1. Connie – do you still do fencing? That seems like a fun sport — but then I just like weapons. There are several weapons available in karate; you just have to find someone who can teach you.

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  13. your timing was off dale. i blew out the driveway and realied i was out of deicer so off the fleet farm i went. it was 700 and rush hour should be over right? wrong! the traffic on the highway tha towuld be the norma route was a parking lot. too many stoplights on the route nad in weather like this people spin their tires and if one car gets through the light before it turns tough luck. so i continued down city streets and hit 35w just before the river. i saw the plows behind me and thought about pulling off and getting back in behind them on a freshly plowed road but it really wsn’t too bad especially in the carpool lane (restrictions ended at 6) so it was crear of the slow people and i was able to move about 0 and that is all the faster i wanted to go. i got to fleet farm got my 10 bags of deicer (weight helped in the back of the vn and headed home with virtually no traffic going back against the grain on the return trip. got home and my wife asked how was the driving and i said ok then i had to qualify that ther were cars in the ditch everywhere and the windshield wipers kept getting ice chunks on them that made it one of those reach out as the wiper is coming over to your side grab it lift it smack it down on the glass to bang dsome chunks off it do it again and stay on the raod by the way as you are following the ruts to keep it between the telephone poles. thanks for asking i told her. oh she was worried about our son the 18 year old. last storm he took his girlfirend home at 12 and it was nightmarish driving with all the ice. he found out then that he could hav e had her sleep over so that was his choice last night… he stayed there. i told her mom to put them in seperate beds and she agreed that would be a good idea. ahhh my worst driving… i am afraid i have many to choose form. the worst was a thanksgiving time trip ( i mentioned the hamburger helper with the despondant traveling companion, it was that trip) we slepyt at my cousins in fargo. it was a very cool art deco house but it was about 600 sq feet and with the master bedroom and a great dane we took up too much space. we got the couch and were leaving in the morning but in the morning but when morning hit there was almost an inch of ice on my trusty vw van. these old vw’s were famous for bad heat. the engine heat was all there was, no heater so we let the car run but it took chisels to get through and we only got a 1 foot by one foot hole on the windshield (the despondant travel partner got one too) and the side windows( his was fine away from the ice) mine was an inch thick with a little hole carved out like the windshield. he went out to get a coffee ofr something and came back 20 minutes later saying he had just been hit by a train. ( as we discussed fargo has lots of trains) he had pulled up to the railraod crossing same as always, steped on the brake and proceeded to slide through the intersection into the train. it bent the front of the car noticably and he was a bit shaken. although i felt bad it was not the time to discuss staying around to commiserate or negotiate a second night shoehorned in on the couch so off we went westward ho into the famous north dakota breeze of about 4o mph which on the ice in the vw van made the drive my most memorable white knuckle experience. i had to pull over once during that drive because i was so tense my shoulder blades were cramping (only time ever) the wind was blowing and the van was bilboarding down the road such so that the proper response was t oaim the stering wheel at 10 oclock to continuosly be pulling into the wind while it was blowing us toward the 2 oclock side of the road. it took about an hour and a hlaf to get to valley city ( how far is that renee 40 miles?) then there was no ice on the road any more and eveything was fine. the ice storm had been selective where it located and we were out of its jurisdiction. wind is fine with no ice. its not fun but after doing it on the ice it was a welcome challage. there is also the time in the san bernadito mountains when they got 4 feet of snow in 24 hours. boy were they not ready for that one. the honeymoon drive form minneapolis to milwaukee where my new wife was driving and we started wondering why all these cars were in the ditch with the defroster still leaving big holes on the bottom of the icy windshields then i realized we were on glare ice crusing about 70 and i told her and the hit the brakes. this send us skidding to the left then the right….. then the left then the right….. each time a little bigger until we hit the ditch in the median going about 870 in a spin. the snow in the median acted like a buffer and slowed us perfectly. didn’t spill the coffee and we drove out of the median and crawled to the next coffee shop 3 or 4 miles down the road. let my wife change her underwaer and waited for the salt trucks and then got on to the umpah band in the supper club in milwaukees fine german community and on to the bahamas for a honeymoon that fortold the outcome of a marrige that produced two beautiful children and lots of angst. i think spinning into the ditch at 70 without spilling the coffee and driving out kind of sums it up well. white outs in the fog following the white lines, many many stay in the ruts in the slush trips, once near madison i saw a semi slide at 1 mph into the ditch on ice so slippery he could not help but slide off the crest of the road at an almost total standstill. aintt nature grand. it is poem making stuff and no one is better than out fearless leader. thanks dale . great stuff.

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  14. When I was little my dad was driving us from Storm Lake IA to visit my grandma (the one in Roland) in The Blue Dart (1953 Chevy), and all I remember is we slid off the road into a ditch. I think we had to get towed out, and made it ok to Grandma’s for Thanksgiving or Christmas, whatever. But since that day, you do not want to be in the car with my mother is there is even one, I tell you one snowflake in the air. On necessary trips when there is one snowflake, we’ve considered just keeping her in the back with a bag over her head, or something.

    I know there’s another storm story, I’ll think of it eventually.

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  15. This story isn’t snow related but it’s my favorite driving story.

    I’m 16; permit but not a license yet. My parents and I went bowling and I’m driving as we leave the bowling alley. I drove across the first two lanes of traffic, thinking this is a four lane road, but it wasn’t; it was only two lanes. The headlights disappear and I’m down in a ditch and back up in a church parking lot before I can even think about it. Dad in the passenger seat is yelling- something- I don’t know what… Mom is in the back seat and once it’s evident we’re all OK she gets the giggles…
    They still tease me that any of the other kids would have taken their foot off the gas and they’d been hanging there in the ditch. Not me; just drove right on down one side and up the other….
    Probably driving a big ole Buick Le’Saber or some such car…

    Great stories everyone!

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    2. I remember we had an old ’68 Buick LeSabre in the very early 90’s. It looked like hell, and it was a tank with no muffler. Other drivers seemed to just give us wide berth — because if push came to shove, that big old V8 rust bucket would win and dents or scratches were not an issue for us. Kind of a fun car.

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  16. Good stories everyone. I was out and about all day (including the 6 a.m. snowblowing) — enjoyed reading all the comments this morning!

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  17. OT: If anyone is looking for a choral experience that doesn’t involve driving to Northfield or a professional sounding choir (we aren’t perfect but we have fun), our Prospect Park Community Chorus is on deck at 3 p.m. today, Prospect Park United Methodist Church, right under the Witch’s Hat Tower off University and Malcolm.

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  18. Greetings! I just wanted to share this hot cocoa mix recipe I found and just put together. Great to have on hand or to give as a gift. This makes a good sized batch of mix for a rich, chocolatey hot drink!

    HOT COCOA MIX

    5 cups dry milk powder (run it through the blender first to make a fine powder)
    3 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar
    1 1/2 cups unsweetened dark cocoa powder
    1 cup powdered non-dairy creamer (try a flavored one for fun)

    1. In a large mixing bowl, carefully stir all ingredients until thoroughly combined. Store in airtight container.
    2. For 1 serving, place 1/3 cup cocoa mixture in a mug, and add 3/4 cup boiling water. Stir to dissolve and add whipped cream or marshmallows if desired.

    VARIATIONS:

    Peppermint – Reduce sugar to 2 1/2 cups and powder 12 candy canes in blender and add to mix (this one is excellent!).

    Or add 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon for a Mexican flair.

    Enjoy and stay warm!

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  19. happy monday eveyone, we had a comcast outage last night and the whole midwest went down from what i hear. i’ll bet dale got caught in the outage. i’ll be amazed if the bad guys don’t figure out all they have to do is shut down the internet and cell phones. we are like a need breed of humans who can’t act without checking the computer and or cell phones. i hope dale is back with us soon. what do you do when you are cutoff from civilazation, your choice or otherwise?

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  21. I’ve had far too many bad snow driving trips to count. Going to school in the UP and going home to Owatonna for Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, you drive in the winter A LOT. It seemed like every Sunday after Thanksgiving, there’d a be a huge snowstorm, and I wouldn’t have a choice but drive through it. My last year at school, I had driven back to Houghton on Sunday (not horrible snow, but of course, there were cars in the ditch) and thought myself lucky that I didn’t have to drive through the horrible snowstorm that was coming that week. Well, I got a call Monday morning from MN DOT for a job interview…on Tuesday…in Minneapolis. Why they couldn’t call me the week before, I don’t know. So, I got in my car on Monday after class, and headed out, planning to drive down to the cities that night. Wouldn’t you know, I got caught in the massive snowstorm. The trip from Houghton to Superior, WI usually only takes 4 hours. It took me 6, with 2 hours of it white-knuckle driving, 15 miles per hour on US 2. I made it to Superior, my hands were shaking, I was numb, and checked into the first open hotel I found. The next morning, the roads were fine. I made it to the interview on time, and left straight afterwards for the drive back to Tech. Needless to say, I didn’t get the job. I’m pretty used to winter driving, but that trip will forever be etched in my mind.

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