Unlucky in Kentucky

I brought Jim to the airport on Monday morning for his flight from Michigan to Texas . Shortly after that, Adam, Jacob, and I hopped into Adam's Jeep to begin our 20-hour drive to join Jim in Houston for the week. Despite a few snow showers and an unexplained traffic jam that slowed us down a bit, our cruise through Ohio was not too bad. We crossed the border into Kentucky just before 3:00 p.m. and everything went quickly downhill.

We had endured snow squalls while tooling through Michigan and Ohio, but other drivers were competent and the roads were treated with salt where necessary. A few miles into Kentucky we came to a complete stop and did not really move again for over an hour. We later found out that the jam we were in was caused by at least one - and possibly several - multi-car pile-ups that had closed the freeway. As we sat waiting for the traffic to clear, it started snowing. When at long last we were able to creep forward a bit, the roads had become very slick. Jacob was our driver at the time, and even though he has had limited experience operating a vehicle in winter weather, he did a wonderful job maneuvering on the slippery freeway. At 5:30, we stopped for gas and dinner, and I took over the task of driving. Sporadic snow squalls continued and the roads alternated between safe & dry and treacherous & icy. Whenever we came across a stretch of ice-covered roadway, all the cars slowed to about 20 m.p.h., which was actually a good thing because even at that speed the Kentuckians managed to skid, slip, and slide into the ditches on both sides of the expressway. Right before our very eyes. Over and over again. In all honesty, the freeway was very perilous at times, but with more experienced drivers and a little bit of salt, everything would have been fine. Throughout it all, however, Kentucky road crews were nowhere to be found. At least not on I-71 or I-65. What should have been a 3-and-a-half-hour drive through the state took us over 7 frustrating hours. We didn't get to our Monday night Arkansas destination until 2:45 a.m.CST instead of our planned 11:30 p.m. arrival. Ugh.

Our ride on Tuesday was much smoother and we reached our Texas house in time for dinner. The Houston weather today was warm and lovely, and it is very odd to hear lawn mowers buzzing and air conditioners running in January. It also seems strange to see our neighbors' houses decorated & aglow with Christmas lights right next to blooming petunias and impatiens. Just typical life in the south, I suppose.