Good Friday Driving

We had been looking forward to our Easter trip to Shannon's parents for weeks, so when those charlatans at the weather desks started predicting snow, I got my scoffing gun ready. Unfortunately, those bastards were right - we got pounded.


But Shannon and I carefully read every forecast we could find, eliminated any data that didn't conform to our desires, and then decided that we'd make the trip north anyhow. The snow was supposedly heaviest in the southern part of the state, so we hoped we'd drive right out of the worst of the storm.


True to the predictions, it was very slow going to and through Minneapolis. We saw four cars in the ditch in the first mile after getting on I-35, and this was a representative view through the windshield.

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But also true to the predictions, the roads cleared up after the Cities and we managed to make pretty good time. For the first time ever, we played the video card, too: the girls watched Winnie the Pooh, Teletubbies, and Barney on the laptop. This kept them pretty happy and, in fact, some of the stuff was actually pretty funny. Julia vowed on Thursday that she would not ask any form of the "are we there yet?" question, and sure enough, she didn't!


We arrived at Shannon's parents' house just a half hour after we would have arrived in perfect conditions - whereupon we got the car well and truly stuck in the driveway. 

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Luckily, all those hours doublepoling in the Arb have given me the strength of ten men one decently fit guy, so my pushing and Shannon's steering eventually got us parked properly (i.e., without any wheel on the lawn). While the girls were inside, having their snacks, I used my father-in-law's shovel to demonstrate dominion over the precipitation - or at least the snow on these 200 square feet of concrete. This snow was what we always called "heart attack snow" in the U.P.: heavy, wet snow that was so dense you (well, I) couldn't even lift a whole shovelful. An hour's work paid off, though.

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Fed and unwound from the car ride, the girls came out, too, and we had some good snow-day fun. Nothing says "Easter" more than a snowman and snow pants! (Nonna donated the snowman's accoutrements.)

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Forecast: Significant blowing and drifting, with the possibility of heavy accumulation in rural areas.