Snow Day!

North Carolina (and the entire southeast) has been experiencing an unusually wintry winter this year, with a Winter Storm Warning emerging from weatherman land almost every week in the past month or so. Compared to this time last year, when snow boots accessorized every outfit out of necessity, and Drew brushed multiple feet of snow off our car at o'dark thirty each morning, our southern "snow storms" seem like a big joke. However, while Utah has incredibly dry snow (the "best snow on Earth" they say), any frozen precipitation in these parts is really wet and quickly turns into a big, slick, icy mess. Plus, the roads (and especially the drivers...) are different here, and there aren't snow plows mounted on the front of every fifth vehicle you see, so the white stuff falls, compacts, and freezes solid, making for some horrendous driving conditions. Luckily, unlike Atlanta, which learned a few hard lessons this year about the road hazards and traffic that accompany winter weather, North Carolina learned those lessons a few years ago, so schools, businesses, and the like are quick to close and send everyone home early when snow is imminent. 

On Wednesday, NC State had proactively cancelled classes and closed business offices, so I should have been spared the ugly commute. Our computer had recently bitten the dust, and, needing to reopen my telecommuting options for the next few days, I decided to head out to buy a new one, and on the way visit a friend who had recently had a baby. Well, the fun of holding a warm, sleeping baby kept me at her house longer than it should have, and by the time I made it to Best Buy and picked out our new computer (which wasn't even in stock), a blizzard had materialized outside. I made it out to my car (a computer ordered, but not in hand), armed with a back-roads plan to get home without fighting traffic on I-540, which was reportedly gridlocked. Leaving the parking lot, I found that traffic on smaller, local roads was no better, and I was blocked by either a one-way road or a traffic standstill in every direction I wanted to go. Safety and possibility both dictated that, instead of trying to drive the 13 miles home, I just head to my mom and sister's, which was only 3 miles away. I made it to their apartment very slowly, but without any problems; meanwhile, Drew left work early and made it safely to our apartment. After a few hours of watching the weather and online traffic cameras, I realized that getting home was becoming a now-or-never situation. The snow and temperatures were both still falling, so the roads would only get worse, and it seemed like the traffic had lightened up significantly. With my mom on Bluetooth most of the time, and Drew calling in periodically, too, I made my cautious way across the 10 miles of interstate between my mom's apartment and ours. Though slow, the drive was smooth sailing at first, with just enough traffic to clear a path while leaving plenty of room for staying away from each other on the road. As I got to Six Forks Road, the story changed, and it took almost 2 hours to go the last 2 miles home. One slick bend in the road had cars going all over the place, so we sat in line waiting for our turn to enter the obstacle course and maneuver between and through them. (Some people didn't wait so patiently and decided that I-540 ought to be a four-lane road. It's not.) Finally, after 3 semi-stressful hours in the car, I made it home (against the better judgement of Drew and his papa and that little voice in the back of my head warning me that playing the lead in a stranded-pregnant-lady-turned-frozen-popsicle story wouldn't have been very funny), certainly wiser for the experience. 

Perhaps needless to say, I wasn't very eager to go anywhere for the next 48 hours. With plenty of food, books, and Netflix, Drew and I stayed put and enjoyed our snow days as much as any other vacation. Cabin fever did eventually set in, so on Thursday we set out (on foot, with a thermos of hot chocolate) for a walk down the nearby Neuse River Greenway Trail. Here's a look at that little adventure:

After some much-needed exercise and fresh air, we came home to a warm tray of lasagna and more Netflix episodes of 24. Southeastern snow days are perfectly enjoyable when you can spend them in your pj's with your favorite person on the couch; they can be downright scary when you spend them travelling alone in the dark between one safe place and another.