On Friday, I returned to Minnesota to find that it was covered in snow and really cold. Weird. Anyways, returning to winter meant it was time for some winter driving. Lynnea, Hilary, and I went to visit our friend at the U of M during a freezing rain storm. Here is what happened:
10:30 PM The first sign things were going to be dangerous -- While approaching a stoplight, I applied the breaks and slid half a block. I'm not even exaggerating. It was very frightening.
11:10 PM Arrive at U of M after seeing several accidents on the road and driving well under 30 mph the entire way. Hang out for a while, decide to visit our other friend at Hamline.
12:15 AM Pull out of the parking garage to find conditions had become exponentially worse. We try to find Hamline. The traffic is terrible, the road is treacherous, and we are not sure where to go.
12:25 AM We begin to realize we will never find Hamline.
12:40 AM A bus is crashed on the side of the highway. Several college looking students are trying to push it back on to the road. We are getting really tired and the 5 - 10 mph maximum speed is frustrating. It looks like a disaster zone with accidents and emergency lights everywhere.
12:41 AM Decide to make the most of our situation by cranking up the music and having a dance party. Meet some friends in another car who held up a sign saying "why do we live in MN again?". Our friends join in on our dance party from their car. A woman from another car wants to get a lighter from us. We don't have one.
1:10 AM Exit the highway and try to turn around to head back home only to find that the ramp we took is blocked by another bus crash. We come to a stand still. The bus is a pink party bus.
1:40 AM Still stuck on the ramp behind the bus but we are getting closer to the little gap between the bus and the concrete side barrier where cars are squeezing through one at a time. Other cars are becoming complete jerks and trying to cut in front of us. Wait your turn you freaking jack wagons.
1:50 AM It is almost our turn to squeeze through the gap and a woman on the party bus has her window down. I asked her how long they were stuck and she said an hour and a half. All the other emergency vehicles were occupied helping other people. Wow.
1:55 AM I execute the maneuver around the bus like a pro. Some ppl on the ramp give a thumbs up for us being so awesome and not getting stuck on the ice like the dumb ones who slammed on their accelerators and spun out.
2:00 AM A cop is blocking the ramp to get back on the highway to go the other way and get home. We don't know how else to get there. He tells us a possible route we could take but suggests waiting for 3 to 4 hours before attempting to get back because it is too dangerous.
2:10 AM We opt for the other route and realize we are back at the U of M in the exact place we had started.
2:30 AM The other route is working quite nicely but we still can't go over 20 mph or we will spin out.
3:00 AM Arrive home. Bed. Finally.
This morning I read an article about the night. There were 438 accidents -- 376 of which were in the metro area including a 30 car pile up on I-94 where we were driving. Between 10 PM and 2 AM, 900 calls were made to emergency services. A cop was quoted saying "Overnight was one for the ages". I would have to agree.
