What a Night!!!!! Long Post....

It was supposed to be pretty straightforward.

Warren, Chelsea, Mom and I were going to 

have dinner at Hoss's in Lititz across from the 

airport and then go over and pick up Georgia

when her plane arrived after two great

weeks in sunny Florida.

Sounds so very simple....

Not exactly how things played out.

You see, when I was taking Chelsea to work

in the late afternoon we had just a few extra minutes

and so stopped at one of our favorite home decor stores.

On the door was a sign stating they were looking for 

a stock person.  My mind went to Jonathan.

I know...a huge guy in home decor?

Well, maybe....

I stopped someone and asked if they would consider

a guy for that position...

was led to the manager who was enthusiastic about 

a very tall guy to help unload the truck once per week.

I was given an application for him

Which I brought home and found him agreeable

to fill out and drop off.

This means that we have added a person

to our happy little pick up Georgia party.

That is a good thing.

So....off we went.

The radio reminding us often that there was snow 

on its way.   They just kept saying that 

it was going to be at the heaviest between 

10pm and 11pm.

I figured that at any minute Georgia would

call to say that she would be staying in Baltimore.

That was not to be.

We were sitting at Hoss's eating our dinner.

My phone rang and it was Georgia.

As soon as she knew it was me she said,

"This is so terrible, this is just so terrible!"

I got very concerned and asked what 

was so terrible.

She said that they were going to send all of 

the passengers in a shuttle bus from Baltimore to Lancaster.

They were to leave about 8:00pm so we figured they

would get in around 10:00pm.

That didn't sound too bad.

We would get some shopping done.

Well, it didn't exactly turn out that way.

I think we had just left Michael's where we

had purchased some supplies for a project at church

when the phone rang.  

It was 8:30pm and the shuttle was just leaving Baltimore

in sleet.  It was going to be a slow go....

We headed to the mall.

This made two teenagers extremely happy.

We shopped until the doors were closing and we

had to leave.  Now it was just about 9:30pm

and we still had hours to kill.

We were NOT hungry so a restaurant seemed like

a bad idea...but I was thirsty and Chelsea and 

Warren were pretty sure they could entertain themselves

with Wi-Fi so the place of the Golden Arches fit

that bill.  By now it was snowing and the roads

were becoming snow covered.

So, with each other for entertainment

and a television with a terrible picture and just 

the words to read, Warren and Chelsea on their 

hand held devices, sometimes chatting with each other,

there we sat.  

Then Georgia called again.

They were stopped in York.

It was a temporary stop but things were 

not going well.  She was very frazzled.

It would be very late by the time they 

would get to Lancaster.

It was soon after this that I was visiting the ladies 

room when the cell phone rang.

Seeing that it was Warren's Aunt's phone

number I chose to answer it while still

in the stall.  I thought maybe something had happened.

It turned out to be Uncle Jim....

hmmm....this was embarrassing so I prepared 

to leave the stall.

Thus setting off the auto flusher.

More embarrassing!

In my most calm and business like voice

I asked him to hold one moment....

Yikes!

Well, it could have been an emergency!!

Sigh...the things I get myself into.

Turns out Georgia had called them from 

York and they were concerned

about the situation.

  We decided to go hang out at the airport.

They had told Georgia that someone would be there

and we would be able to go inside.

It is a lovely little airport and we thought at least 

there would be others in the same situation that we were...

more people to talk to.

We slipped and slid our way out to the airport where

all was dark!  It was obvious we would not be waiting

inside the building.  So we sat in the parking lot watching

the snow come down.  

Heavily!

Finally around 11:15pm a white van arrived.

The shuttle with very frustrated passengers.

Apparently the driver was not good in the snow.

There was nearly a takeover by one of the passengers 

who was demanding to drive.

He, of course, was not permitted to do so.

So...there was much, much frustration 

and relief

on the faces we saw.

Georgia got transferred over to our van and off we went.

It seemed to be not so bad at first.

We went straight through the city of Lancaster...

without too much trouble.

However, as we left Lancaster things got very bad

very quickly.   For one thing the windshield would not

stop freezing up.  Visibility was challenging at best.

At one point Warren jumped out at a light to snap 

the ice from his wiper blade.

It was a temporary success.

By the time we got to Willow Street we knew

we were in a very hazardous situation.
This was made even worse when we were suddenly 

driving in rushing waters.

In the dark, just outside of the little town of 

Willow Street someone had hit a fire hydrant.

It was gushing water at a tremendous rate

and causing flooding and freezing in the middle 

of the snow storm.

It was about 20 degrees out 

at this point.  

Water on the road

was a bad idea.
It was pitch black there and no one
was around.  No warning flares
or anything...just water and ice!

I called 911.

Thankfully they were aware of it and help was 

on the way...I cannot imagine the ice that 

must have built up there.

This left us with just over ten miles to go.

Ten miles of hoping we were still on the road.

Every now and then we found the middle of the 

road by the rumble strips carved into the yellow line.

Visibility was nearly non-existent.

At one place a car was simply stopped on the road

with its flashers going.

As it was near houses we passed it and kept going.

I do hope they were ok.

Finally, we made it home!

It is so good that we all live on the same 

street. By then, if that were not the case 

we would have been tempted to just stay at the first

of our houses we would have come to.

The snow totals here were much higher than anything

we had seen all evening.

It was around 12:30am by now.

What an evening!

Poor Georgia...

I kept saying, 

"I told you to stay another week!"

Well, since all ended well, 

it is very nice

to have her home. 

I hope she knows 

we are

glad

to see her.

Memories...more memories.

Life would be so dull without 

these Moms of ours!