Snowy Day Adventure in Bellevue, Wash. A Wise Man Gets Off the Road Foolishly Traveled
It snowed, well its still snowing, here in the greater Seattle area. It doesn't do that much. That, of course, means people, schools, governments, tax dollars and ultimately road maintenance crews aren't really ready. So, our family had a series of adventures.
The first was that the chains weren't on the school bus at departure time and delayed the bus for 90 minutes. Then when the bus got going, it went a half mile before the astute driver realized even chains weren't going to get that big orange school bus up the road that is at a 50 degree incline. I wouldn't want to walk up that road on a sunny, warm day for fear of pulling a hammy.
So the bus went back to school and I got the call at the office that the boy needed to be picked up. No problem, I was about ready to leave anyway and I'm from the East Coast, where it snows often enough that I've accumulated some winter driving skills. (These came in handy on the night that the boy was born, but that is another tale.)
But my totally awesome German vehicle isn't exactly suited to snow and a mere 50 feet from the parking garage I almost gave up on a steep slippery street and pulled back in to sleep under my desk. But, my boy needed a ride so I turned off the traction control, put the pedal down and willed my giant, silver gas guzzler up that hill, and hung a right.
Things went fine on the road for a while. Then I got the call that the parent of another child had made it down the hill to pick up a bunch of kids, including mine, so my mission was now just to get home safely.
After being turned back by a clusterbleep of a traffic snarl, I detoured and made it to the base of the previously mentioned hill and pulled into a church parking lot with the hopes it would provide safe haven for my machine. I then grabbed the hat I had tossed on the front seat in the morning, strapped on my messenger bag and started walking up the hill.
I saw some beautiful winter scenery (see photos), live-action vehicular adventures and many, many abandoned autos that made me feel all the wiser for leaving my car in a place where it wouldn't be an obstacle for other drivers. I made it home safely, shook off the snow and heard the tale of my boy's adventure, and his mom and sister's tense wait at the bus stop, in the snow.
It's still snowing. I'm buying chains.
