Tofurky Day Blizzard

The best laid plans of mice and men..... Well, we'd heard the blizzard warnings; we knew there would be wind gusts up to 50 mph; we were aware that there would be from 2-6 inches of snow per hour; we'd been informed that the State troopers had closed 131; we knew there was a winter storm watch; we were fully aware that we'd be travelling on one of the most trecherous stretches of highway in the State, the infamous "South of Schoolcraft" strip where huge flat factory farm fields come in contact with the highway for several miles. Invariably the wind is at gale force when it's whippin' that snow across the highway. But oblivious to it all, we had to see for ourselves.... We never did make it to Tofurky Day :( But all's well that ends well as my last picture shows, and we arrived home safe and sound.

Beginning of journey - snow clouds/bad sign

Start of trip - not too bad

I had decided to take my camera along today to chronicle Thanksgiving for my blog. So I started taking pictures here at home, and followed along with pictures until the we returned home. For those of you in blogland who've never experience a good ol' Michigan white out, it's a ~S~C~A~R~E~Y~ experience.

Big accident

Closed highway

White out!

At one point we could only drive by looking directly down over our hood to see a tiny strip of pavement directly in front of our car - it was white overhead, white on each side, white behind and below, a very Twilight Zone experience. You never know whether you'll be rear-ended from someone who doesn't see you, or rear-end someone else whom you didn't see. Rick, who is normally pretty calm through these things at one point said, "Will you put that---- camera ---- down and quit ----- taking pictures of every ----- thing and help me to ----- drive. I can't see a ------ thing." I'd forgotten how annoying a camera can be to someone who's under stress. There was a huge accident. The police cars you see in the pictures had closed the highway and were making people take the country roads - which were ten times worse.

White out

White out

white out

WHEW!!! Usually I have my eye on the weather at this time of year and only the foolhardy venture during blizzard warnings - and yes, we were fools. Well, we decided that since we'd arrived home alive (thank you) and missed pumpkin pie this year, we'd stop at Village Market and see if there were any left. Sure enough, they even had my favorite, egg custard. I curled up with a piece of pie and the HUGE Thanksgiving newspaper. Rick spent the afternoon with the Detroit Lions and once we'd calmed down, we had a great day, although I REALLY MISS having Thanksgiving dinner with the herd :(

pie!

Our street

All's well...

(Note the headlines in the newspaper above)

WE HOPE YOU ALL HAD A GOOD THANKSGIVING AND A SAFE AND PEACEFUL ONE, we have a LOT to be thankful for,

Annie