The Blizzard - December 12, 2010

It should be noted that during the most terrifying moments, when it was a complete white-out and/or there was only ice-covered road in front of us, I was NOT taking pictures. Obsessive as I am about the documentation of our experiences (this is the most accurate way of describing my "hobby"!), I could not bring myself to wipe the sweat off my hands long enough to find the "Take Photo" button on my phone. I also do not approve of taking pictures of people stuck in ditches, having just spun out on the ice into the snow-laden banks while the wind comes whipping by sideways at 60+ mph... yeah, that's just not cool. Or the 20-car pileup which caused miles of snarled traffic behind it, causing additional fender-benders and spinning out of cars.



Photo 1: Taken at 2:25 pm... having left Springfield at 12:30pm, this would put us on Route 10, heading East towards Lincoln, IL. Having been turned back at the Veterans Parkway entrance to Rt.55 North, we took the back roads up and over (29 N to 10E to 55N). We found out later that the closure was due to a pileup that included an exploded and burning semi truck. Right.

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Photo #2: Taken at 4:41 pm; this would put us on Rt. 55, somewhere after Bloomington, because we stopped not too much later, at 5:10. This picture makes it look like the semi we were following was FAR ahead of us, but it could only have been 8 to 10 feet at the most - we didn't want to lose his taillights, for fear that a complete white out would come and we wouldn't be able to go OR stop...

Well, the ending to this story is a good one. The kids slept almost the entire trip, so they were not aware of the stress that had taken hold of Matt and Jackie :) We stopped for the night at the Pontiac/Flanagan exit, #197, having driven 5 hours and gone about 70 miles (that's an average of 14 mph!!!!!). The Comfort Inn was luckily also right across from a WalMart! We needed supplies, as Gracie had a fever and Tyler was thirsty (surprised? anyone? That kid drinks more than he eats!) In short, the hotel was a "fun vacation" for the kids, who spent the evening watching Fred Claus and jumping from bed to bed and back again. Some BK dinner and cookies for dessert, and who doesn't like a good blizzard!?!? However... never. again.

Thanks for reading!!
Jackie