Classroom Classic: X The Ice Storm One Christmas vacation many years ago, we invited my parents and my wife’s parents down to Williamsburg for a special time we would never forget. We also invited many other relatives as well. Christmas was great. We all walked around town showing them all of the fancy houses in CW with bows on their doors. We went to church on Christmas Eve and then came home to open the presents. A few days later, all of the relatives drove back home in New York State except my parents. They wanted to ride the bus because my mom hates traffic, especially car traffic. So I told her I would take her to the bus station up in Richmond one morning when school was not open. The day they were suppose to leave, I woke up early just like I always do. The first thing I did was feed the dog and cat . Next I went out on the back porch to get some wood for the fireplace . I noticed it was raining very lightly, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. I never turned on the TV to see that an ice storm was headed our way. I helped my parents pack their suitcases before putting them in the new van we had just bought. As they were about to get into the van, they said goodbye to my kids and my wife and then hopped in. My dad was in the front and my mom jumped into the back. The next thing I knew we were headed down the highway towards Richmond. About 15 miles from Norge, a couple state policemen passed me on the highway . I was going sort of slow because my mom worries if I go too fast for her. As I looked up at the sky, I noticed the light clouds were turning to a darkish brown, sort of like sawdust . The next thing I knew it started to sleet really fast. It happened so fast I could not believe it. About 2 miles further up the road, I saw those 2 state police cars in the ditch , upside-down. Cars were all over the place. I touched the brakes and barely slowed down. I must have seen 20 accidents as I drove the rest of the way to Richmond. My mom got very nervous and started to pray very loudly from the back seat. The worse the roads got, the louder she prayed. It made me nervous too. I turned around and asked her to whisper to God because he has big ears . She said OK. When I got to Richmond, I tried to go down the ramp to the bus station, but it was blocked by 3 accidents. I turned around and headed back up the ramp the wrong way. Finally about 2 hours later, we got to the bus station. I turned to my dad and said we made it in time for your bus. A guy overheard me saying this and asked, "Which bus are you referring to?" I said the 8:00 bus north. He told me that these people were waiting for the 6:00 bus which never arrived from the south. My heart sank. There were people all over the place lying on the floor. None of the buses were moving. People could not travel anywhere. There were accidents everywhere. I waited for about an hour before asking my parents if they wanted to come back with me. They said OK, but they really didn’t want to go back out on that road again. We got back about 5 hours after we left. My wife had already changed the beds and washed all of the sheets. The weather in Norge was beautiful! It had never sleeted here. The sun was out the whole day. When she saw me coming back up the driveway with my parents still in the back seat, all she could do is say, “Welcome to Virginia.” Later I told her about our amazing trip .
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 23:42:53 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015