Death Slide II

Monday we had winter weather advisories and 2 - 5 inches of snow was predicted. The local news stations were putting out "bread & milk" alerts so we went into town. Not because we needed to stock up on bread & milk but just because we were going to go for food anyway. It was snowing huge flakes of snow on our way home and it was starting to stick on the ground. It was really pretty. We stopped at George & Theresa's because Robert wanted to christen the new wine glasses George bought on sale at Wal-mart so we brought a bottle of wine. Their house is in our development but about 1 mile further up from us. When we left to go home it was about 7:00 and dark. I kept warning Robert that the roads may be slick but, of course, he pooh-poohed it as he does in his English way but he did go slow. When we got to our road we turned left and started to go up the hill and then started to slide down backwards! It was deja-vu all over again! It was almost exactly a year to the day (Jan. 20, '08) that we did that with Carol Morehead in the car. She is still traumatized by it. Well, once again the thought went through my head to keep my seatbelt on and stay with the car so when we went over the edge I wouldn't be thrown from the vehicle and have it land on me. Then, just like last year, the car came to a stop and I saw my chance. I grabbed my purse (you know, so I'd have my cell phone to call 911 for Robert) and jumped out. Robert said he was going to try to steer the car to the side of the road and drive up the shoulder for traction. Just like a captain going down with the ship. I was trying to walk on the ice and get as far away from the car as I could and he kept sliding down the road sideways. Suddenly, the car came to a stop and Robert got out. We decided to abandon the car and walk up but we had a car full of groceries and couldn't leave them or they'd freeze. I could barely walk on the icy road and remembered my hiking shoes were in the backseat. I made it back over to the car and put them on. Then I saw the umbrella on the floor and decided to use that as a walking stick. Luckily, we keep a small flashlight in the glovebox for such emergencies so we weren't completely in the dark. We started grabbing bags of groceries, slinging them over our shoulders (thank goodness for the sturdy Holiday Market totes) and headed up the hill. Wouldn't you know that this would be the time Ingles had a special on canned goods and I decided to stock up to donate them and that we would also buy a 6-pack of wine (but not for charity.) We made it up the road and then our driveway in the cold & dark with just the small flashlight. Of course, we didn't leave any lights on in the house. Well, now we know we won't be able to get up our road in the snow so will have to park further down and walk up through the woods.

The car at the bottom of the road the next morning. You can see the tire tracks how far we made it up before sliding back down.

The first picture is our footprints in the snow up the driveway.