Escaping The White Death

I didn't plan to spend part of this weekend at my mom and stepdad's place south of Richmond. But weather emergencies have a way of changing plans.

I woke up relatively early on Saturday and checked outside. Sure enough, the weather guys were right and there was snow sticking to the cars in the lot. I took a photo, pasted it on Facebook and made a phone call before I dozed off for another hour, with visions of a day of college football and decluttering in my head.

About 9 a.m., I was up for good and turned on the television, watching NBC4's coverage of Snotober. Or Ocsnowber, not sure which one of these will stick. I was falling back asleep again when the power went out. The way these outages go, if the power is gone for more than about a minute, it becomes open-ended. Could be back in an hour, or three, or seven.

With the snow still coming down, I figured Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative might just tell us we had to wait for the weather to improve before a crew could be dispatched. And the forecast called for the snow to continue until 6 p.m., so it would be a long, cold afternoon if i didn't take action.

So action, I took. I figured if I could make it over the Blue Ridge before things got too ugly in the Shenandoah Valley, I could head for Prince George, where there would be heat, power and company. So I had to hatch a plan to get out of the house as quickly as possible.

First things first. Stop trying to turn on lights. They do not work when the power is off. So I grabbed the "electric lantern" I have had since the Y2K scare, and put it in the bathroom. The water heater still had plenty of hot water, so I was able to take a quick shower. That thing about the lights? Well, the bathroom fan works the same way, it turns out.

There was plenty of light downstairs, and I only opened the fridge one time, so I could get milk for a bowl of Cap'n Crunch. Coffee would have to wait for Sheetz in Opal. Then I piled everything I figured I'd need for two days into the car and headed south.

As I expected, the first 30 miles of the trip was the absolute worst despite sticking to Interstates 81 and 66. It was a little hairy on U.S. 17 north of Warrenton, but the rest of the trip was uneventful, save for a near-death experience with a pair of snowbirds from Ontario who felt this was a lovely time to travel south for the winter. Those motorhomes don't do well in good weather, so when one of them decided to try to dislodge me from the right lane, I had to hang on tight.

I managed to get to Prince George in time for the second half of the Virginia Tech-Dook game, and the visit went well, I had not seen my folks in a few weeks, and there was plenty of college football to watch and good food to eat. The power was restored in Winchester about 4 p.m., I am told.

But an unexpected trip home can be good for the soul.