01/31/2003

SNOW STORIES

Not everyone had as much excitement as everyone else. Here are our stories:

Rex
My Dad had surgery at Vanderbilt Hospital the day before the snowstorm struck. He was supposed to be released from the hospital by 9:00 AM, but, as hospitals usually work, he was not released until 10:00. Vanderbilt Hospital is about one mile from Interstate 440. The trip to the interstate took three hours. At one point we found ourselves in front of a gas station, and, since my mother had reminded me at least 412 times that we might run out of gas if we continued to be stranded in traffic, I stopped for gas (we had over ½ tank of gas). When I exited the station after about 10 or 15 minutes, we pulled out in traffic behind the car that had been behind us when we entered.

Upon reaching I-440, we were stalled in traffic for another hour before reaching I-40. It was now 2:00 and I thought it might be wise to get my parents something to eat, regardless of the traffic gridlock. Unfortunately, every exit was blocked by wrecks or other traffic problems. We were finally able to exit at Lebanon at 3:00 (grand total of 32 miles driven in five hours).

The rest of the trip, which would normally take about 2 ½ hours, took four hours (for a total diving time of nine hours), but, considering the first leg of the trip, I was fairly happy.

I think this is a pretty good snow story, but there is icing on the cake: Throughout the trip my mother was riding in the back seat . I shouldn’t have to explain that. I should point out that she did offer to take a tranquilizer about two hours into the trip. Being a professional consultant, I concurred, but recommended that she take two. I also inquired as to whether she might have a spare for me.

Lisa (actually Lisa's brother Chip - who lives in Nashville)
Lisa,
want to share our "experience" with you......
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to pick Ann-Houston up from school early, but didn't want to overreact to the forecast of snow.  You know, the typical "man" approach....
Well, when the snow hit Nashville, it was bad.  It had been cold leading up to yesterday so the ground was plenty frozen. The snow came quickly and then everybody forgot how to drive!  It took 3 times as long to get to her school and then we began our "journey" to find a way home that didn't have a hill.  After driving around the Green Hills (bad omen) area for an hour, we started taking some back roads to avoid silly drivers and packed down roads.  Big mistake!  Yours truly managed to get almost to the crest of a hill and then gravity took over....Ann-Houston did NOT like what happened next.....we managed to slide off the road and down into someone's front yard and BINGO!...clipped a tree with the front of the Volvo. BULL'S-EYE!
(It's a little easier to laugh about it now) So, here we go.......off on foot in the driving snow and it's COLD!  You know, you never dress your kids for something like this when you send them off to school!  Now, my precious little girl is trying to hold it together and her father is muttering words that shouldn't be repeated....and then the urgent request for a bathroom comes to the surface....Grrrrrrrrrreaat.  So here we are, walking through a deserted neighborhood, going door to door, looking for a bathroom for Ann-Houston.  We pass some other folks who too, are in the ditch, and then here comes a SUV that has just been unstuck from someone's yard.  Well, they stop and ask if we need help (I can only imagine WHAT we looked like) and then a voice from inside says, "Hey Chip, I can take you home!" and IT'S ONE OF OUR NEIGHBORS!!!!!!  So, then we quickly spot a Portapotty and somehow I convince my princess to use it (how I did THAT I can't remember) and then off we go,....with Ken from down the street in his warm, dry Ford 4X4 SUV.  Well, we are regrouping seeing how NO CELL PHONES were working b'c of the increased volume when the snow started to fall.....and let Lisa know that we are safe and coming home!  While we are traveling in the back of the truck, my precious little girl looks up at me and says..."see Daddy, God does hear our prayers"............talk about a moment I will never forget...

so, here we sit on a Friday afternoon.....all safe at home and enjoying our "snow day" together!!!!   .....haven't even thought about how we are going to get the Volvo home/fixed......who cares!   My girls and I are sitting down to a warm lunch of leftover chili and cornbread....what could be any better!

Our best to you,
Chip

Frances
OK here is my snow story.. It is kind of like a Three Stooges routine...

My story is actually my husband's story. It all started Wed. before the BIG SNOW when his car caught fire in front of his office. Okay, now jump to Thursday morning--the day of the BIG SNOW. We are now a one-car family. We drop Sarah off at school, drop me off at work, Sam drops our only car off to have the oil changed (another long story) and walks the five blocks to his office.

Middle schools in Knox County close at 2:00 due to the BIG SNOW. We have no car. I call my husband and he runs (literally and he has our dog Casey with him) over to pick up the car from the mechanic. By now it is starting to snow. He picks me up at the office, I take him back to his office so he can pay his employees (very important) and rush off to pick up my daughter at school. By now (2:00) it is snowing heavily.

Remember Sam is still at the office, he has no transportation and it is continuing to snow. He is still struggling with payroll--his office manager has been out for two days. I am waiting at home anxiously wondering about my mother (70 years old) who was driving over from North Carolina through the I-40 gorge. I am contemplating picking Sam up at his office but I do not want to drive our car on the roads which are becoming slicker by the hour. Finally, Sam calls and announces that he will walk up to Magnolia Ave. and wait for a bus. (The buses were supposed to be running.) He keeps me posted by cell phone. It is around 4:00 PM.

I am still waiting on my mother and fretting about getting out to pick my husband. Sam calls and says that the buses aren't showing up so he is walking home. (It is about 5-6 miles down Magnolia to our neighborhood.) 5:30 PM and my mother rolls up into the driveway. She is exhausted from the drive which normally takes 2 hours but that day it took 4. Hugs are exchanged, I call Sam on his cell phone and tell him that I am on my way to pick him up. I intercept him at Buddy's barbecue and he is very tired and glad to have a ride the rest of the way.

That's my funny story. It wears me out just thinking about it. Of course, through all of this, our daughter is having a great time sledding all over the neighborhood with friends. Maybe I will get to play in the next BIG SNOW!

Debbie
I don't know if mine would be the most interesting story (except to me) but here it is: As I was driving to work on Thursday morning the first flakes started and I thought "I should probably just go back home now"......

Everyone in the office, except me, left the Nashville office about 9:30 am on Thursday morning after it started snowing. I left about 10 am because I wanted to finish a couple of things on the network since the network was going to be down on the following Tuesday (after Monday's holiday). I carefully made my way to the garage on 7th and pulled out in my little Miata convertible. I quickly realized convertibles are for nice weather only. I got to 4th Avenue close to Lafayette where an accident had just happened resulting in two crumbled cars sitting there. I decided to get off the road. I pulled into the parking lot of a Bolt & Screw business and called my husband at home in Donelson. He was not home yet because he was trying to get down Briley Parkway from Madison. He had been on picket duty at Peterbilt Motors until 9am. He finally reached home about 10:30 after getting bumped in his Silverado truck by two young boys in a little car who had no car insurance at all. He told them to GET OFF THE ROAD IF YOU DON'T HAVE INSURANCE.

I finally talked to him to let him know where I was. He got in the front-wheel drive Taurus and finally got to 4th Avenue after 3 hours (usually a 10-15 minute drive from Donelson). It then took 3 MORE hours for us to reach home safely at 4:30 PM. What a day !! I was ready for a drink but settled for hot chocolate in front of the fire.

As I left home on Tuesday morning to come to work, he said: If they are predicting more snow, please drive the Taurus. I definitely will!

Dennis
My snow story: Perhaps hitting the man in the road prevented something really serious -- hitting the Mercedes that was in the ditch behind him. 3 hours after leaving work I finally made it almost to the entrance to our subdivision. The road with which our subdivision street intersects is somewhat curved and goes downhill approaching from Brentwood. Because of this and the poor banking of the curve there, when the road is icy, it is especially difficult to negotiate at the entrance to our subdivision. As might be expected, there were about 8 vehicles that had slid across the road and into the ditch there. As I slowly approached this truly slippery slope, there was a man standing in the road behind the cars that had made it into the ditch. As I started down the slope, my car started to slide to the left toward the man and the ditch and the other cars. It quickly became obvious that I was going to hit him if I continued sliding and he didn't move. He was preoccupied with something and didn't move. My instincts took over and I put on the brake, but this didn't help. I continued helplessly toward him. It finally gained his attention when my car came into contact with him. He prostrated himself on the hood of my car momentarily and then approached me on the driver side. My car had mercifully stopped before hitting the other cars. He was smiling. I thought this was a good sign until I thought later that he might be smiling because he thought he had a successful lawsuit. I assumed he wasn't hurt since he was smiling and willing to help me with the turn into the subdivision. He instructed me to put the car in neutral and let 'er go while he pushed to help make the turn. This was scary because there were cars on both sides of our subdivision street and people milling around them. These people had apparently given up and parked there. So I do as he instructed and put the car in neutral while he pushes. I go barreling down the road and make the turn, hoping I do not slide into the parked cars or hit someone else, or both. It worked. My car held the ice admirably there. After all this I get 1 house away from mine and try to go up the little hill approaching my driveway and the car won't go. Too much snow and too slick. So I walk the rest of the way home and go back later to get the car.
Bob
This doesn't compare with the others, but here is mine. I had promised Janet Kelly we would visit a city hall on this trip to Nashville and that we had time before the snow hit on Thursday morning to visit the city manager in Mount Juliet. Well, the weathermen were wrong and so was I. We sat down with Rob Shearer at 9:10 AM. When we got to the city hall the streets were clear and the sky was clear. I got a phone call at 9:45 AM and as I stood up to answer it I noticed that we had three inches of snow! And we had grid lock. It took us two very slow hours to make the four mile trip back to I-40 and then just another five hours and we were in Knoxville. Janet lives in a very hilly neighborhood. Well, they may not be very big hills, but you have to remember I was seeing them in the snow. The traffic was stopped going up a hill. A neighbor came by on an ATV (sort of a small four wheel motorcycle). Janet found out he could go up and down the hills and asked for a ride. The last I saw her, she had climbed on the back of the ATV with one hand holding on and the other clutching her luggage and the other waving (I can't explain it). And off they went up the hill in the snow. It was a quick ride and she was safely home. As for me, I was pointing up a hill I wanted to go down. No problem, after helping the neighbors push a Mercedes up the hill, they turned me around. Literally, I just sat in it while they spun my car around on the ice. Then I went down hill, bumped bumpers with a Jeep and went home. Oh yes, one added part of the story is that several times Wednesday some of the helpful consultants in the Nashville office had reminded Janet that I had once spent the night on I-40 in the snow and I had assured her that couldn't happen again. And it didn't, sort of.