Home!

We had a great trip and I hated leaving Louisiana but it’s nice to be home and I’m expecting us to be in bed very early tonight. I slept good at my uncles . . I always sleep like a rock. But, it will be nice to sleep in my own bed tonight.

We left my uncle’s a few minutes after 7 this morning. I had checked the weather for Brownwood and I knew we were supposed to have ice and bad roads last night but the ice was supposed to be gone by mid-morning so I didn’t worry about the weather.

It was probably in the 60’s when we left Louisiana and when we stopped in Jasper, TX for breakfast, it was down to 40.  I was wishing I had not forgotten my coat at my uncle’s house. Funny, I left a coat in Missouri too. I’m going to have a coat everywhere except at home at this rate.

As we were driving, I was watching the thermometer in the car . . drop from 40 to 38 to 36 and when it got to 34 and was drizzling, I asked Vince if it was possible we’d get into any ice. He said he thought as long as it wasn’t dark yet, the roads would not freeze. It wasn’t sunny but it didn’t seem horribly cloudy either.

We had been on the road 6 or 6-1/2 hours. I looked at the thermometer and it was 30 and drizzling but the roads weren’t bad. Not 10 minutes later, Vince said “That car we just met was covered in ice!” Before he even finished saying it, the windshield almost completely iced over. I turned the front defroster on high and before I was done messing with that, we hit ice. We had been going about 75 but Vince had started slowing down after meeting the car with ice all over it. When we hit that ice, we immediately began sliding. I don’t know how it happened but we didn’t lose control and managed to get over on the shoulder where the ridges are and it was easier to slow down there. Thank goodness there was hardly any traffic and what was on the road was managing to move towards the shoulders and not cross the center line.

We were in an area where there was absolutely no place to stop. No restaurants. No hotels. I was looking at the few houses we passed and trying to decide which house I’d walk up to, knock on the door and see if we could spend the night with them! We drove quite a few miles with patchy ice . . nothing like the first section of ice we hit. That one was pretty much solid ice. Then we got to some clear roads, the temp was in the low 30’s but the raining and drizzle had stopped. We drove on for a couple of hours and when we did stop, I had to laugh at my car.

Ice

Most of the ice was gone but there was a little left on it. In August, it will be real hard to imagine having had ice all over my car . . in central Texas.

Tonight it’s supposed to be 22. I think, if the forecast is right . . but it rarely is  . . this should be our last super cold night for this winter. I’ve probably said that before but . . hope springs eternal.