Briefcase on the Kitchen Table

So last week Avery and I had to drive through some of the worst winter weather we have had in years so that I could get back to school. We started from Fort Wayne around 10:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. Emma was in the back seat with a bag at her feet and at her lap, the chair Ave and I bought for our living room shoved in next to her.

We started down I-69 at, shall we say, a slow pace. Now to brag a bit, Avery is an EXCELLENT driver. He does not get tired, is very observant of who is sharing the road, and appropriately assertive. As Emma and I chatted away Avery drove south at about 30 mph having kicked the car into manual and watching closely for semis. It took us roughly four hours to get from Fort Wayne to Indy (usually a two hour drive). The snow was coming down so hard we couldn’t see the Indy skyline and Lucas Oil, usually a dominating presence only a few hundred yards from 70-West, was barely a dark outline. Heading on 70 out of Indy was a whole other story. The plows hadn’t been through in hours and we were the only ones on the highway. When we finally pulled in to the McDonald’s in Crawfordsville, the first stop we dared make on the trip, it was four o’clock. It had taken us six hours to make a normally three hour trip. We scrutinized the roads and decided we were going to try to get Emma to DePauw and then slowly make our way to Bloomington to stay with Kat. Once again we made it but not without several hours of driving. By the time we hit Kat’s door we were pooped and glad to be settled somewhere warm.

Monday we stayed in Bloomington getting a couple bonus break days with Kat. Tuesday we took off and quickly wished the roads had been closer to what we had experienced Sunday. We had to head back to St. Louis; I had to start class. However what had just been slushy snow forty-eight hours before was nothing but compacted ice. Once again we left around 10:00 a.m. We made several stops along the way just to calm frayed nerves. Going around 25mph most of the way, Avery and I began counting the cars on the side of road to pass the time.

Many cars had clearly slid off the road since the storms had started. There were so many the police could not even attempt to have them towed. They had just collected the passengers and marked the cars with police tape so that other officers would know the car had already been checked. Our tally getting into St. Louis was 150 cars either slid off the shoulder or in to the median. We also were parked on the highway for 40 minutes waiting for a truck that had jackknifed across all west-bound lanes to be pulled in to the median. We also passed semi trailers that had clearly caught fire and others whose trailers were split, their cargo spilled on to the snow drifts. It was apocalyptic.

As we pulled onto our street I checked the clock; nine hours. It took us nine hours to make a usually four-hour drive. Ave and I took the bags in and were very happy to be home.

Between the drive the Greencastle, over to Bloomington , and then to St. Louis we had spent 18-hours on slippery roads. We had also though had a chance to debrief from a very odd break. Ave and I got a chance to catch up. This might sound weird but after three weeks constantly surrounded by people, we needed a catch up. A chance to decompress a bit. It was time to stat finding the new normal after two funerals starting our break.

18 hours is a lot of time and, while I wish we had made it in normal time, it was nice to have so much time with Ave. It was  the perfect time to pep talk ourselves getting ready to start the new semester, my last semester in law school. It was time to shake off the winter break-fog and remind each other it is go time. 18 hours is a long time on the road but it was also time I was happy to have.