Six more weeks of winter

Punxsutawney Phil emerged earlier this morning on Groundhog Day and saw his shadow, which means six more weeks of winter weather. Whether you believe in this tradition or not, Tennessee experienced a lot of winter weather this past weekend, and we were in the middle of it. (Most of the photos I took were from inside the car for obvious reasons.)

We traveled to Memphis Thursday for reasons I'll explain in a future post, and we knew the weather might not cooperate. We thought we'd be there until Saturday morning, but the reason for our trip ended early on Friday, so we decided to leave around noon and make it as far back to Knoxville as possible.



I can now say I have seen snow and ice from one end of Tennessee to the other, and it's not an experience I need to repeat. David is a great driver, and Heidi is a great car, but most of the other drivers weren't sure how to handle driving on the icy slushy mess we encountered.

It took us almost six hours to drive 172 miles to Dickson, Tenn. We stopped around mile marker 100 to eat lunch, and most places were closed, but Chilis was still open. They were waiting on a call from the corporate office about when they could close. We tried to make it to the Nashville area, which was around exit 200, but as it grew dark, conditions worsened, so we stopped and spent the night.

The restaurants in the area closed early, so we ate sandwiches from a gas station...not the greatest, but that was all part of the adventure. During our trip, we saw numerous cars in ditches, a firetruck that was turned completely over and several semi trucks that had overturned. There were a few close calls when Heidi lost traction, but we made it!

On Saturday, we started the 200-mile trip home, and the roads still weren't that clear near the Nashville area. David spent almost 30 minutes trying to get the ice off the car, but cloth gloves aren't best for that. We used the car's heater to dry them.

As we made our way to East Tennessee, the interstate was a million times better. It still took us about four and half hours to get home, and we were nervous about driving up the icy hill we live on, but it was clear.

There is still snow on the ground, but the "blizzard of 2010" could have been much worse for us. They had initially said Knoxville could see up to 15 inches of snow, but it was more like five inches or less. It's just good to be home and have ourselves and our car in one piece.