icy london, icy france...

icy london, icy france...
Originally uploaded by mamagotcha.

icy wyoming, happy dance!

so linc finally came to around 9.30am, ate his cold waffle, and watched
pbs kid shows while i detangled his knotted mane. i had found a car
audio place willing to look at the radio before i lit out eastward, so
we packed the car and went to check out. this must've been around 10.30?
when i was outside, i noticed that the pretty white mountains to the
west and north had been covered with clouds... dark, ominous,
fast-moving clouds.

when we went to check out, the wind started... and i knew we weren't
going anywhere. in a matter of minutes, everything was blanketed in
white, the wind was howling (the hotel was trying to bolt shut doors
that had been pulled open), and we hunkered down until noon.

i used this time to borrow the lobby computer to take a gander at
bloomington (bill leaves for his interview on wednesday... i was trying
to get home to give him a rousing send-off, but... well, not likely,
now. did you know bloomington has a cereal bar? and a science center
with exhibits on chocolate and knitting? they must be trying to woo
me...

so by noon, it was still snowing and blowing, but much less violently. i
decided to chance scooting to the audio place, and made it OK (but being
a little white car in a snowstorm is unintentionally great camoflauge...
and what's with all the idjits running around in snow with no lights?!).
as i suspected, the cassette player was kaput, and i went ahead and put
in the cheapest deck they had with an auxilliary jack (it also has a cd
player, so linc can hear the "grandma music" again).

we hung out in the waiting room, where linc made his first acquaintance
with sesame street (god, that elmo voice is so obnoxious! i just wanna
slap him) while phoenix wright saved a movie star from swingin'.

now i had to make a decision... push through to wyoming, find another
route, or stay put? i called 511, but they were overwhelmed... i never
got through to a human, and they only described the road to the west.

finally i thought to call AAA, and after a looong wait, got some gal
called irene in livermore. this should have been a big warning sign...
anyway, she dithered and waffled, and it was clear she really didn't
know any more than i already did. but she did give me one piece of
information: she said that I80 was open east of me, no closures. so at
about 2, i figured i had a couple hours of daylight left and decided to
go for it.

NOT the right choice. i'm really lucky i didn't get stuck in some drift
until may. we got stuck behind a set of plows that moved about 20mph for
maybe an hour most of the way up the pass to the east of salt lake city.
gradually other cars took other highways, until it was just me and a
couple trucks.

it was snowy and icy the whole way, but driveable... i could go about
40mph and feel safe-ish. there was a town called evanston some ways up
ahead, but the plows had thrown snow over the distance... i had a full
tank and wasnt too worried about me or the car, but rather the
darkness...

as the sun fell, the road got worse, until at sunset we were back to
solid-packed snow on the ground... the only way to see the road was
slightly dirtier snow where other cars had driven. no moon, and as it
got darker, it got colder, and a film of ice started forming on the
windshield. my wiper fluid (probably designed for beaches instead of
blizzards) had frozen, and the wipers themselves were pretty well coated
in ice, and the defroster wasn't touching it. i was going to have to
stop soon no matter what...

finally, a lit sign appeared over the highway: "I80 closed at Evanston.
All traffic must exit." huh, that's nice. sure hope they have a motel
there, because i'd seen only one in the last few hours, maybe 50 miles
back, and it was obviously mobbed.
sure enough, a billboard for a "days inn" swam into sight. thankfully,
it only took a few minutes of floundering around up and down totally
unmarked roads to find it, and they weren't gouging folks too badly,
either.

as you can see, we have a pool and spa (i was a wee bit tense). i have
no idea how long we're here for, but the desk clerk says 80's been
closed since last night (i might need to have me a little chat with
irene). i don't have data connection with my phone... we'll see if this
goes through.

time to wring out the boy and go to bed... i'm wiped. tired but alive,
and exceedingly grateful not to be playing donner party or deliverance
out here.