Be careful what you wish for!

I think this is what's called getting one's comeuppance!

As anyone who knows me or has read here much will be very well aware, I adore snow and every winter is spent wishing for a hefty fall of the white stuff. Usually, save for last years glorious offering, it has come to very little but as most of us know this year, again, the snow has fallen in copious quantities...and thereby hangs the issue!

This year, whilst I would still rather have it than not for it's beauty and childlike excitement it has caused me something of a problem...no, that should be 'problems' plural!

It began on Friday when I was in my white van. From nowhere, so fast it was breathtaking and pretty freaky, the weather changed from cold and bright to a blizzard that reduced visibility to almost nil and deposited it's white slippery-ness inches deep on the road in just a few minutes. it was stunning but somewhat problematical. My thirteen mile, twenty minute journey back to base took three hours!

On Friday evening I drove to see 'N'...that half hour drive turned into about and hour and a half of pretty slow going and I began to think perhaps it wasn't my best plan. However, I made it there and I made it back and thought nothing more of it save for being pretty impressed my hometown made the news on two days for the lowest recorded temperature in England two nights running.

Saturday dawned and whilst there was still lying snow the arterial roads were clear, I dropped my mother off in town and headed back to see 'N' for a days Christmas shopping. It was not to be!

The route takes me along a main 'A' road but one which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I had barely got out of town before snow began to fall and within minutes I found myself in another blizzard, one the like of which I have never experienced before. I was heading up a long and steep hill and I had no option but to try and keep on going while all around me where grinding to a slippery halt. I made it to the top but then found myself in complete whiteout conditions, visibility almost zero again, vehicles scattered and stopping all around at angles no vehicle should be at and the snow on the road deepening alarmingly fast.


Again I had no choice but to carry on, I knew if I tried to turn around and go back I would get stuck so I employed everything I have ever learned about driving in snow and ploughed on (no pun intended). The snow was falling so fast my windscreen wipers were grinding to a halt, I could see damn all and I had to negotiate three more hills and ever increasing numbers of stuck and abandoned cars but my alternative was to stop and walk back over eight miles.

I have driven in snow quite often for a Brit, Snake Pass for instance used to be my route to work, I used to go and 'play' on Woodhead Pass out of choice years ago in my car and I frequently drove London to Manchester across the peak district in snow years ago...but this was a whole different ball game. Ten minutes and it looked like a different world, no visibility, no way of telling where the road was and about ten inches of snow. Completely silent whiteness everywhere.

I can honestly say I have rarely been as frightened. As I progressed there was less and less traffic until I was almost alone out there, I struggled to keep my car in anything like a straight line and on the hills trying to make my way around the already stranded vehicles without myself grinding to a halt was a feat of timing and massive concentration.

But I made it! Albeit fifteen miles took over two and a half hours.

.......only to find that the shops had all closed and there was no Christmas shopping to be had.

I had to do the return journey in the evening but I had 'N' with me and whilst it was very slow it was a whole lot less scary.

Add to all of that my boss cancelled work today so I'm a days pay down too and who knows what will happen for the rest of the week? Theoretically I'm working tomorrow but it's just started snowing again.

See....I should sometimes be careful what I wish for!

Hey...but for all that I would still rather have it and the aggravation than not! :)

*Image: Phone camera as the snow began to take over....didn't get another chance for photography!