Snow Gridlock

Finally  Home!

The DC metro area's "snow force field" was finally broken yesterday and it snowed like mad...and right at rush hour.  It was a complete mess with people being on the roads for hours (up to 13 hours!).  It took me 2 hours to get home and it was frightening.  My usual commute takes 20 minutes.  The roads had not been treated because it rained earlier in the day and it seems everyone left work at the same time.  Federal workers were let out at 3pm and most people at my work left right as the snow started at about 3:15pm, as did I.  I got home at 5:30 and seriously thought about having a drink.  When the snow started, it was heavy and with all the cars on the roads, the plows supposedly couldn't get the streets cleared.  I eventually changed my course to the path less taken where there were only a few cars on the road and there were still no plows (on a snow emergency route!).  I saw many many cars stuck and people abandoning them.  It was nice though to see people helping each other...but then got their cars stuck because they tried to help someone else.  One car slid out of control in circles and backward before finally coming to a stop facing the wrong way.  At one point I was on a more deserted road and everything was so white that I didn't even know where I was or where the road ended and a ditch/sidewalk/curb started.  I had no idea if I had missed my turn or not.  Visibility was less than 100 yards at times.  I'm so happy I have 4WD and next time they say it's going to snow during rush hour I am going to work from home.