I don't recommend driving in a blizzard

I had considered going out to Notre Dame for the basketball game against Louisville tomorrow.  I haven't been in the basketball arena since it was renovated, so I really want to get there while my friend Jon is still in law school there (he graduates next year).  Fortunately I decided not to go this year, because it wasn't going to happen this weekend anyway.  I'll do what I can to get there next year.

I did a post after my last trip to Notre Dame in October about my worst travel experience ever.  I was complaining about having a delayed flight, not being able to drink in the airport, missing my connecting flight, and then having to sleep in the terminal at O'Hare.  I topped that today and I just had to drive 13.6 miles.

I was paying attention to the weather forecast for the last few days and was hoping that school would close early today.  Unfortunately, Elwood and Manhasset were the only school districts that had enough sense to make that move.  It rained for most of the day in Hicksville so I figured the trip home wouldn't be too bad.  I planned to stop somewhere on the way home to get something to eat and at Blue Bell to pick up some liquid provisions for the storm.  Usually I stay and get some work done after school, but today I ran out once dismissal was over.  I left at 2:55.  It had been snowing for about an hour and the roads were getting bad, but I got off to a good start and figured I'd be home by 4:00.  Then I made it North of Jericho Turnpike on Woodbury Road.  And traffic stopped.  At one point, I decided to pay attention to how long it took to go a mile.  It took over 35 minutes.  And I still had about six miles to go.

Then things got really bad.  Woodbury Road comes to a fork shortly after I crossed into Suffolk County.  I wanted to take the fork to the left and stay on Woodbury Road.  As I was trying to go that way, I got stuck.  There were a couple other cars stuck as well.  Not knowing what to do, I called my dad.  He volunteered to come meet me and try to get me out.  I knew that was not a good idea and I talked him out of that.  He asked if there was anybody that could help.  I didn't see anybody so I said there was nobody.  I felt like Commissioner Loeb in the climactic scene of Batman Begins when he had to tell Lieutenant Gordon that there was nobody left to send in.  I was kind of hoping Batman would come to rescue me.  I was thinking I might be spending the next 16-20 hours right in that spot.

I had a shovel and I tried to dig my way out, but the problem wasn't that I was stuck in snow, it was that I was on ice trying to go uphill.  Within a few minutes, the police had showed up and they had closed where I was trying to go anyway.  A police officer pushed my car as I stepped on the gas to help get me unstuck.  I wish I knew who he was so that I could buy him a very expensive bottle of Scotch or something to thank him.  That guy was awesome.

Once I was unstuck, I had to take the fork to the right.  I had never gone that way before, so I had to use the map on my phone to figure out where to go from there.  It was still hilly and my battle was not over yet.  I almost got stuck again, but I managed to get myself out.  I was worried about getting stuck any time I had to stop.  I could have turned on Pulaski at one point, but I went straight instead because the gates by the train tracks had just gone down.  I drove past the Huntington train station and had to stop at a light.  The car in front of me got stuck and I almost got stuck behind that car as I tried to get around it.  That was the last time I got close to being stuck, but I still had a couple of miles to go.  I was really excited when I turned off Broadway onto Fenwick (like two-tenths of a mile from my house).  That was the first time I knew I would make it home (even if something bad happened with the car, I could walk home from there).

I pulled into my driveway around 5:35.  I have never been so happy to get home from work.  What is usually a half-hour drive took almost 2 hours and 45 minutes.  And that was without picking up food and stopping at Blue Bell (don't worry, I have enough age-appropriate beverages for tonight, and I'll need them).  Driving home tonight was the scariest experience of my life (I'm not exaggerating at all).

Big thanks to the Suffolk County police.  Great job by them out there tonight.  I saw a lot of buses crawling along on Woodbury Road trying to get kids home.  God bless those bus drivers today.  I hope all the kids got home safe.

If you're in the Northeast and you're reading this, you're obviously not out there right now.  I recommend that you stay where you are for at least the next 12 hours.