Before I start this post, I guess I should clarify, this is not about the night Emma was born. :) Last night's trauma is cutting in line (and we can blame the move & weather for me not posting it earlier this week either.)
Due to a new surprise [which will be in my next few blog posts] we had two free tickets to last night's San Antonio rodeo on opening night. I'm a little bit of a country girl, and love rodeo so of course I was thrilled at the opportunity to go to the rodeo in my new hometown. Since it was Kevin Fowler performing, Darrin had
no desire to go so I took my new neighbor friend, Sammy (PS, she just got engaged last Saturday - congrats Hunter & Sammy!! :) ) With the lovely "Blizzard 2011" on it's way in last night, Darrin wasn't too excited about us going but just warned us to be careful and not stay too late. We headed out long before the performance was over and figured we'd be fine since there wasn't rodeo traffic yet and the weather was just starting to get moist.
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| We didn't match on purpose! |
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| Setting up for Kevin Fowler's performance |
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| I never seem make friends with short people :) |
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| check out those sweet stage-side seats! |
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| Kevin Fowler |
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| He's good live, but his songs are BAD! haha |
WRONG!!!!
We left the rodeo at about 10 and by the time we got to the car and thawed the windshield out, we pulled out of the arena around 10:30. In the first 1/4 mile a wreck happened RIGHT in front of us. The cars in front of us were SPINNING!! This was the first of many times God protected us last night - gave me a warning as to how icy the roads were and how to respond in the ice. Over the next 3 miles we saw 10 more wrecks. I am absolutely not exaggerating this, TEN! At one point an 18 wheeler was about a 1/4 mile back trying to brake and just laid on his horn so we could move over and avoid him rear-ending us!!
I drove between 10 and 15 mph until we got over to the 281 exit and came up on a ramp where everyone's cars were sliding SIDEWAYS down the ramp. Again, God pushed us through the mess and after about 20 mins we slowly wiggled our way through the ramp. So glad we learned at that point how to maneuver the ramps while sliding sideways!! There were only about 10 cars involved in this tangled mess which I
thought was a lot at the time.
At this point, we thought we were in the clear and done with all the ramps. WRONG AGAIN! (Side note, I'm not stupid I know you're supposed to avoid bridges in the ice/snow but there wasn't an exit it was either go over the bridge or sit in my car all night.) So on we go "cruising" at 10 mph down the highway. We get through downtown, and past the Alamo Quarry Market. It's nearing midnight at this point and we couldn't have gone more than about 5-10 miles. Then we get to the 281/410 intersection.
This was where it got horrible. We sat for an hour and half and couldn't move! There was a bus stuck sideways blocking 3 1/2 of the 4 lanes right at the "Y" in the road. In between us and the bus were 4 trucks that were sliding down the sloping ramp towards the left lane. We were trying to stay on the high side (we had learned that the high side is safer and the safest route is the most direct, straight route.) We knew if we turned the wheel we'd be sliding right into those trucks. So we sat still. Over this hour and a half I begin to seriously panic (no tears though!) mainly because we were stuck and running out of gas. And cars were trying, unsuccessfully, to wiggle around and getting stuck. There were at least 25 cars gridlocked and more as far back as we could see behind us.
This is when God sent us angels, yup, angels. In the form of about 10 young guys that started piling out of their cars in blue jeans and lightweight jackets and maneuvering their way across the ice. They worked vehicles out of the mess one at a time jumping in the backs of the trucks to add weight and help them stop sliding. At one point a BMW car started sliding towards my car and one of the guys put himself between our cars and pushed the beamer away!!! It was UNREAL! They finally cleared a path and started directing traffic through the gap, around the bus, and into the clear. All we could do was roll our window down as we drove by and yell "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!"
The rest of the trip home was a piece of cake, relatively speaking. We finally got home around 2am!!!! It took us nearly three hours to go about 20 miles. I've driven in "icy conditions" before, it was NOTHING like this!!! Moral of the story, just
don't drive in the snow/ice if you don't have to. And if you do, be SOOOOOOO careful!!
Thank you Lord for protecting us and getting us home without any accidents!!!! And thank you for the beautiful snow we woke up to this morning that has delayed work until noon!! :) :)
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| views off our patio |
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| (turn your head - Blogspot won't let me rotate) this is where we usually park |
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| If you look really closely, you'll see a Texas Snow Angel on the concrete just at the edge of the sidewalk! haha |
