A night I hope not to repeat

This is going to be long.  And pretty boring.  If you don’t want to hear about my drive during Snowpocalypse: Nashville, you might want to skip this one.

They had been predicting snow for last night for about a week, I think.  It’s happened so much this year that I was really hoping it would pass us by.  But no.  Around 3:00 it started.  By 3:15 it was sticking to our parking lot at work.  I left at 3:30.  That’s when the ordeal began.  It ended at 10:30.  Seven HOURS later.

First, it took over 1.5 hours to get to the Honda dealership within sight (in normal conditions) of the office.  Once I got there, I made the decision to forego the rest of  Rosa Parks (I wasn’t yet halfway down the length of road I needed to go) and try other side streets that connect to the interstate.  First, I tried Dominican Drive.  Actually, it connects back to Rosa Parks, just closer to the interstate.  Once I saw the line there, I knew that people weren’t letting others turn left and I’d never get on the road I needed to be on so I could turn right back on to Rosa Parks.  So I decided to turn right on that road and see where else it connected to the interstate.  I ended up on 9th Avenue, Arthur Avenue and 11th Avenue before Jefferson Street.  This eventually led to 12th Avenue and a road that intersected the interstate.  Unfortunately, this little detour was the fastest I drove for the rest of the night.  The on-ramp to the interstate had a line probably a mile long and just getting on the interstate probably took another hour and a half.  I finally got on 40, but it was crawling (what’s slower than crawling?) until I got to 65.  65 was moving a little faster, but my first exit of choice, Harding Place, had an accident, a fire truck, an ambulance and a very long line of waiting cars.  So I decided to proceed to Old Hickory Blvd. (my second exit of choice) to give it a try.  It couldn’t be worse than Harding Place, right?

Well, the radio said that 74A, my exit was closed and it looked extremely backed up which seemed to confirm that something was wrong at this exit, so I took 74B with the intentions of turning around and heading the right way down Old Hickory.   Well, nothing is ever easy.  Taking the wrong exit probably added 1.5 more hours to my drive.  The traffic lights at Old Hickory and Franklin Road are a disaster! 

Hours later, after a crying fit and a screaming fit, I was finally making some progress.  Thankfully, no slipping and no lights indicating Automatic Skid Control came on like earlier in the day.  I also felt my brakes pump several times earlier in the day…aren’t those the anti-lock brakes?  As I finally got to my side of Old Hickory, I started to notice many abandoned cars.  It was bad, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know if I would have actually abandoned my car.  In addition to worrying about what would happen to it, where would I have gone?  My next challenge was getting up the hill close to a neighborhood I really would love to live in.  There was a long line of cars basically not moving.  I could see that there weren’t any cars in front of the first ones and I couldn’t tell why they weren’t trying to go.  I was really afraid of starting up the hill and then being forced to stop and then not being able to get going again.  I realized that, in this situation, slow and steady wins the race.  Thankfully, some other drivers recognized this as well and we started up the middle lane of the road (just as bad as the regular lanes) and slowly climbed the hill.  I didn’t have any trouble climbing it, but I really just let the car go without using much gas.  I didn’t want to risk a fast acceleration.  I still don’t know why these people had parked their cars and gotten out.  I would have thought they had an accident, but there was no visible damage and the cars were spread out pretty far.  Maybe they just gave up and decided to play in the road?

Then comes the fun at Edmondson Pike.  Anyway, there are two 18 wheelers at the intersection of Old Hickory and Edmondson Pike.  One is partially in the fast lane to continue on Old HIckory and partially in the slow lane to turn left on to Edmondson.  The other is in the slow lane to continue down Old Hickory.  I was pretty far behind all this, but I eventually noticed that these same trucks were still there and no cars had been able to go except for those turning left onto Edmondson in the fast lane.  Well, these two trucks were apparently stuck on this itty bitty incline that I’d honestly never noticed before.  Thankfully, someone finally figured out that there was barely enough clearance between the trucks for cars to continue down Old Hickory.

Once I got through here, it was basically smooth sailing.  One more small hill, but I didn’t have any more trouble that I had at previous hills.  I finally get to Nolensville and there is the traffic again.  My heart sank.  There were so many abandoned cars going to my apartment and this made the tiny, two lane road even more hazardous.

I have never been so happy to see my building.  I walked in the house and went to bed.  Well, after a quick trip to the restroom.  It had been nearly seven hours at this point and I don’t know how much longer I could have made it!

I’m working from home today since Nolensville has not been plowed or salted, apparently.  I’ve been going out to the big picture window in the building’s common space and there’s absolutely no traffic when it would usually be bumper to bumper.  Thankfully I brought several things home to work on so I don’t have to risk a repeat of last night.  I’m still completely exhausted.  It’s amazing how hard driving (sitting) can be physically and mentally.

Thank you to everyone who saw my Facebook comments and rants.  I was not in a very good mood for a good bit of the journey, so I probably said more than I should have and not in the best tone.  For that, I apologize.  A special thank you to everyone who tried to make the drive easier for me…those who sent me texts, called, FB messaged me and especially those who prayed for my safety.  I love you all.

Please, Mother Nature, can we finally be done with snow for the winter?  Phil said we’d have an early Spring and I’m oh so ready!