Ice Jam 2014
Like Odyssus, I finally made it home..
It took me +13 hours to make it home. It was like the legendary journey of Odysseus - I could get close, but was denied making it home. It took me nearly 6 hrs to get a mere 2.2 miles from the house, but I could go no farther as Lee Road (the long hill after the exit) was a car/truck grave year and impassable to all but all terrain vehicles. I moved a whole 200 meters in one hour, and then said f**kit and drove back to the exit below - Thornton Road. Interstate 20 E was nearly empty - it was a ghostly scene of ice and abandoned vehicles as I limped at 25 mph down the road.
I spent the last 5 hours in Waffle House (the closed at 11 PM!) and the Home Depot (yeah for nice comfy chairs coffee and snack food). Walmart was *closed*. Krogers (a southern supermarket) was open, but the it was a maze of stranded cars and trucks.
After midnight or so, reports came in that sand/salt trucks and blows had finally cleared part of I20W making it passable for those willing to try. I knew Lee Road exit was toast - and it was a mess. Dozens of tractor trailers and cars were scattered around the overpass and the offramp was still inaccessible. I got home by going to the next exit (Fairburn Rd) and back tracking to Lee Road and home.
It took me +13 hours to make it home. It was like the legendary journey of Odysseus - I could get close, but was denied making it home. It took me nearly 6 hrs to get a mere 2.2 miles from the house, but I could go no farther as Lee Road (the long hill after the exit) was a car/truck grave year and impassable to all but all terrain vehicles. I moved a whole 200 meters in one hour, and then said f**kit and drove back to the exit below - Thornton Road. Interstate 20 E was nearly empty - it was a ghostly scene of ice and abandoned vehicles as I limped at 25 mph down the road.
I spent the last 5 hours in Waffle House (the closed at 11 PM!) and the Home Depot (yeah for nice comfy chairs coffee and snack food). Walmart was *closed*. Krogers (a southern supermarket) was open, but the it was a maze of stranded cars and trucks.
After midnight or so, reports came in that sand/salt trucks and blows had finally cleared part of I20W making it passable for those willing to try. I knew Lee Road exit was toast - and it was a mess. Dozens of tractor trailers and cars were scattered around the overpass and the offramp was still inaccessible. I got home by going to the next exit (Fairburn Rd) and back tracking to Lee Road and home.