Winter driving in Iowa.

All week I was watching the weather because a winter storm was on it's way from somewhere out west on a path to hit Iowa on Saturday December 1st.
All week, I was praying that the storm hit after I got home from work Saturday morning. Guess what? It didn't wait.
After talking about it Wednesday and Thursday, Friday night was here and KCCI (my fave news channel out of Des Moines) was saying it would hit southern Iowa "mid morning" . OK, mid morning to a group of people who work 6 p.m. to 6 a.m is about 3a.m. During my shifts lunch break, at 11:50 p.m. , we decided that mid morning was about 9 ish an thought we would have an easy trip home. I should add that my entire shift is made up of 9 people who commute at least 25 miles,excluding the 3 who we can hardly understand, and who cares if they have a hard time getting home or not right? JUST KIDDING. In all honesty those 3 live in town and always take the taxi. They ride white knuckled every time they get into the car with that guy, so they are used to sliding all over the road.
Any who, around 4 a.m. Mikey,as I call him, came by and said, "It's here!"
Tired as I am at four in the morning, I was like "What's here?" quite grouchy I might add.
Mikey "THE FREAKIN SLEET ya cranky **^&*^*^*&%*!"
"Oh, yeah, OH NO not already?"
So I grab one of the other dudes to walk out the closest dock door and check it out.
To this day, I don't ask other girls to go potty with me so don't ask why I needed a reinforcement to open the damn dock door.
Sure enough,there she was in all her icy glory, all over the trailers,stairs and parking lot. Another bad sign was that our Shag driver was going at a normal driving speed with chains on! Never a good sign, I can promise you that.
So, we, Mikey,Roach and I, go sneaking into the dock office to look at KCCI's "SUPER DOPPLER RADAR" on line. She was here and the worst was on it's way,we guessed by the time 6 rolled around,we would all be scrapping an inch of ice off our windshields. Unfortunately we were right.
Not only was it icy as hell, it was coming down so hard,it left like thousands of needles hitting my face as soon as I walked , scooted down the front steps of the building!
As I looked out and saw my whole shift,except for the 3 local boys, who I might add were gone in a nice warm taxi already)were scrapping and looked to me like chopping the damn ice from thier cars. Poor Landon, another dude on my shift, was needing a jump for the new-used Chevy Blazer he just got two weeks ago! Nothing against Chevy's, after all it is used,and it's a Chevy. But back to the ice...
I always park clear at the end of the parking lot because people like to door ding,and I don't mind the walk to the building. It's like my last few moments of freedom before I thank God for my job, take a deep breath and swipe my card, and open the door to my frozen head ache I have called a job for NINE years as of today actually!
To the point. Roach( his actual last name BTW) yells, "Hey Jamie, I'll drive you down to your car,parking lot is F'N slick, you'll be bustin your ass!"
He didn't have to ask me twice. So here I am with Roach thinking, how in the hell can I drive in this? I get nerved up just thinking about bad roads
Roach makes sure I get in to my car OK and then says he's going to help the guys with Landon's Blazer.
"OK then,thanks for the ride, be careful on the way home!"
"You too, but, do you think you should call your husband to come get you?" Roach knows how I am, I usually call in or leave early if bad weather is gonna hit.
"Nah, I think I'll be OK, Shawn and Mechelle will be right behind me!"
I could tell Roach was like..."Yeah, don't ya think ya better call your husband?" But he didn't ask again! If you knew Mechelle eighty miles an hour Hill and Shawn thirty-five in a seventy Ellis, you'd understand why Roach was concerned!
I started my car,turned up the defrost,put my gloves on and grabbed my ice scrapper. Slipping and sliding and not in a good way. I swear, it was the best workout I have had in a while. You know, trying to stay upright and chop ice all at the same time. Got er done thought and called Hubby.
"Hey, are ya up?"
"Yeah," Travis goes, " Do you want me to come get you? Pretty shitty out."
"Nah, I think I can make it. Plan on me being on the road at 6:20, OK?
"OK, are you sure you don't want me to come get you?"
" I'll take my time, how many people can be on the interstate at 6:30 in the morning?"
To be very honest, I was worried about the drive the entire night,and as I was chopping ice, I kept thinking, "If Travis asks to come get you, don't let him, your kids might end up orphans."
No shit, that's how I think. Puts me in a pretty bad mood all of the time, but, guess it was the way I was raised, always,always expect the worst, then when it's all OK, take it easy.
I see Mikey go, Roach was ahead of him,so I put the car into reverse. Slowly, but no slipping, not so bad...not until I get to the stop sign at the end of the parking lot. I look north to see if the hill was clear,I had decided that if there was anyone on it, I would wait to go, that way I would only hurt myself if I slid around on it. But no! There was a car off in the ditch,couldn't tell if it was Mikey, or the local taxi,but it had caused a semi full of Hormel boxed meat to start to slide backwards down the hill sideways blocking the road. So, there I sat,and sat watching the idiots down the hill from me pulling out trying to get around the semi and get stuck, and the idiots on the other side of the semi do the same thing.
About that time Shawn pulls up beside me, we are talking about making it up that big hill when the mess cleared up, then I see a little pick-up trying to make it around the semi, so I hit my wipers to clear the windshield and whoosh! Off goes my windshield wiper! Divers side!
"WTF?"
Shawn," What the hell was that?" he was parked beside me.
"My freakin windshield wiper! What the hell?"
So, I open the door to get out and pick the stupid thing up,and about fall on my ass but caught myself on my door,Shawn starts to get out and was like, whoops, "Do ya think you can get that yourself?"
Where the hells the chivalry? Helping a lady in distress? Some big strong man... I forgive him
:-(
"Nah, I got it, stupid F*&^%^& piece of &*!%. Guess that means I ain't going anywhere, the clip is broken!"
I truly think God was telling me to not chance it Fool Woman driver! So I say, "Gonna go park and call Travis I guess, that'll make him happy to get out and play in this shit."
Southern Iowa, boys never grow out of wanting to use four-wheel drive.
I use my broken windshield wiper,by hand to swipe my windshield once more, back up,turn arownd and drive back to my parking space.
"Hey Travis, still wanna come get me?"
"Why?" He asks.
"Well, my F'n wipe flew off."
"What? How in the hell....."
Moving on, I call my mom's house, about 3 times before my little sister finally wakes up and says she'll unlock the door to let Gatty in. I refused to let Travis bring the baby in this crap. SO, she was taken care of, but I hear over the radio there had been a bad Semi/car accident 5 miles south of Osceola, were I was, and had closed both north and south bound lanes of traffic. SO much for no one being on the interstate at 6:30 a.m . .
Travis came Hwy 69, you locals know what I am talking about.
So here he comes, my hubby, in his 3/4 ton Dodge.
Mechelle,parked beside me waiting for her X,who also works at the same place as we do,was on his way to work up the interstate with thier threee kids,but was stopped do to the accident, was the one who saw him first.
"Here's Travis now, he made good time."
Huh, who knows how much crap he pulled to get there,he lives for days like that.
"Be carefull, call me when you get home"
Mechelle was nodding her head and talking to her X gettin the update on the interstate situation.
Long,LONG story short, we made it.Safe and sound, some people didn't however. Mechelle found a video on line that was taken well after the cars were allowed to move again on the I-35, as off this morning at 11:05 a.m. the truck on the left hand side was still on the ditch. I know, because that's when Travis took me to get my car!
Sorry, don't know how to link it, but this will get you there.
http//www.whotv.com/global/video/popup/pop_player.asp?clipid1=1978128&at1=News&vt1=v&h1=13Raw:+Semi+Blocks+I-35+Near+Osceola&d1=96667&redirUrl=www.whotv.com&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&playerVersion=1&hostPageUrl=http%3A//www.whotv.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp%3Fclipid1%3D1978128%26at1%3DNews%26vt1%3Dv%26h1%3D13Raw%3A+Semi+Blocks+I-35+Near+Osceola%26d1%3D96667%26redirUrl%3Dwww.whotv.com%26activePane%3Dinfo%26LaunchPageAdTag%3Dhomepage&rnd=39504565
Drive safely!