The locksmith eyed this birdfeeder and mentioned it might attract more bears than birds...oops.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Snow Days become Ice Days! A pictorial of my drive to the North.

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Today is day four of Atlanta and the surrounding area being literally shut down by all of the icy roads. I called Anna and she sounded a little stir crazy, so I volunteered to drive my all-wheel drive Subaru north into the snow and take her to lunch. I was figuring the road couldn't be too bad based on how they looked here in town. Maybe some snow on the side of the road here and there, but all in all, as long as you weren't in a shady Chick Fil-A drive-through, all was fine. (Yes, it IS possible to go five days without a Chick Fil-A sandwich!)


Tyrone on North 74. Clear and dry.





North 85, south of the airport, was still clear and dry except for the left lane. No more Mario Andrettis in the passing lane. The only folks who accidentally ended up there quickly slowed and moved over. Not sure why the left lane was so bad.







I was a little concerned about 285 since it had been shut down for 3 days and littered with tractor trailers. But this looks like summer day driving...almost.




And then there was the Paces Ferry exit. This is the bridge over 285. It's like suddenly all the ice, snow and north pole appeared out of nowhere.






I turned off of Cumberland Parkway and saw abandoned cars lining the road. I stopped and sat there. Could my car get up the hill? I decided to give it a try...a little try. If I slipped, I was backing down!





So far so good. This hill looked wet....or icy...hard to tell.






Made it up the big mountain and this is what Anna's condo complex looked like. Ice EVERYWHERE! The car made it fine, but walking was treacherous. I took about ten minutes tip-toeing across the road stepping in little dry patches. Thank the Lord Anna came out to greet me just in time to see me go down like a sack of potatoes!





After a nice lunch at Jim 'n Nick's (oh, those cheese muffins!), we headed back, visited for an hour and later, when I walked out to the car, I found the wet asphalt places which had provided strategic stepping stones, had now turned to slick ice. There were NO dry spots to walk on! This was a job for Kahtoola Microspike traction shoes! Dang, why hadn't I ordered some before all this crazy weather?! I made it home safely, put on my jammies and built a fire. I'm hurting a little from my fall, but mainly glad that next week it's going up to 60 degrees!