The wind was howling outside I could hear what sounded like sleet hitting against the windows and the side of the building. I peered out the window and more snow had fallen since the last time that I had checked. There was no way to contact the route salesmen to tell them to return. I could only hope that the were being safe. My mechanic had been driving back and forth through the driveway trying to keep a path some what clear. This way at least the drivers would have some idea of where the driveway was. Suddenly one of the trucks returned, he made it back. Snow pilled up all over the truck, wipers couldn’t have been working very good as they were caked with ice. The salesman told me that the highway department was closing the interstates west toward Des Moines. I could not think of anything else but the salesmen and the snow. It kept coming more ice and snow and the wind. Then almost like my prayers were answered on by one the other three returned. The snow had gotten so deep the the driveway could not be seen. The last truck had just missed the turn at the rear of the driveway and slipped over a little embankment. Stuck! Great! now it was dark outside and we needed a tow truck. I just knew this was going to take a while. I made several phone calls and one said that he would be able to be here in a couple of hours.
When the tow truck arrived it was 8:00 p.m. It felt like midnight. The snow had slowed to just a mix of light snow and sleet mixed. I still had a forty five minute drive to the apartment. Everyone else had finally left for the day. I poured the last cup of coffee and headed out. I had warmed the van up and melted most of the snow off of it. Getting out of the drive was a chore itself with a light weight mini van. Luckily the exit to I-80 was close by and I was the last one to make the exit before it was closed. The highway department had gates that resembled railway gates and they would close them so a driver could not re-enter the expressway. You could get off the highway but could not get back on. I-80 went east and west and when it snows the highway drifts and becomes packed with ice and snow. I could only drive about ten miles an hour. I had driven in snow all of my life. I had even driven during the blizzard of 1978 in Fort Wayne at night and almost didn’t make it home. This was worst, what should have taken me less than an hour normally now took me over two and a half hours. I made it and couldn’t wait to tell Darlene all about it.
When I called her she said the she had been worried about me because she hadn’t heard from me all day and usually she would have heard from me by supper time. She told me about about how much it had snowed there and it sounded just as bad. She told me how here and the kid’s had been shoveling out and how hard it was because the snow had just kept coming. The driveway at our home in the country was over one hundred and fifty feet long. Once the got it most of the way cleared the highway department would come with the plows and the end of the driveway would be plowed shut. The had to give up because what was plowed were really big ice and snow chunks. Too heavy to move by hand. Darlene told me that she was going to pay to have the driveway cleared and that was just fine with me.
