Atlanta Snow-Pocalypse 2014

Thanks, everyone, for checking on us! Things have indeed been absolutely CRAZY here with the snow. It came in sooner and much heavier than any of the predictions had indicated. Let's not discuss the debacle that was the school system waiting until the last minute to decide to close early. The only reason we even found out is because his teacher called me at work using her personal cell phone!



I know all of my northern friends are rolling their eyes right now, but in the two hours between when the snow started falling and my husband came to pick me up, the (major!) road next to my office was so slushy that the public transit bus in front of us (and thus we) almost didn't make it up the hill! (And the hill really isn't that steep.) We watched it spin its wheels and slide backwards with only one car between it and us. Thankfully, that one city block was by far the worst part of our drive.



DH left his office around 1:40. It took him 30 minutes to drive 3 city blocks to pick me up. That made it 2:10. From there, using the Google maps traffic overlay and some knowledge of the area roads, we were able to take back roads and stick to the mainly yellow and red paths (as opposed to crimson/black ones).



In doing so, we managed to make the 14.6 mile journey to Luke's daycare in a mere 2 hours and 40 minutes. We picked him up at 4:20, which ironically is about the time we usually get him.



The roads closer to our house were not as busy or as icy, so we went out to eat for our last hurrah before being trapped at our house for at least a day (maybe more). Red Lobster was closed, but the Maddio's Pizza next to it was open, so we ate there.


(That's about 1.5 inches/3-4 cm)

We got back home around 5:30 without incident, until we tried to pull into our carport. The carport is on the back of the house, so you drive past it, turn around, and then pull in. We got stuck on point one of our three point turn; the wheels did nothing but spin when we put it in reverse. Joy.



We unleashed Luke on the snow while DH shoveled the driveway in front of the carport and around the tires. After that, we were able to back it up and successfully park in the carport.



By then, I was freezing (had given Luke my gloves), so I came in, but Luke stayed out to have a snowball fight with Daddy. They were out until well after dark, so forgive our sad baby snowman pictures. Each snowman segment is about softball size.



We are so grateful that we left when we did and it "only" took us about 3 hours to get home. Some friends took 6-8 hours, some are still on the road trying to get home (at 9:30-ish PM), and some have already had to pull off to stay at a hotel or a friend's house. One friend only made it because some residents whose homes bordered the road she was on were spreading sand by hand and helping to push cars up the hills. Thank you to all of the special angels out there today! And everyone, please stay safe!!
Currently feeling: grateful to be home safe!