Happy Valentine's Day! What a week. The beginning of the week was pretty uneventful--just your standard Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday started out like an average day but quickly unraveled throughout the day. It started to snow and it wasn't that bad but the wind was ridiculous. The office sent an email out about 4 telling everyone to try and get home. I just needed to get across the street (literally-just on the other side of the freeway) to my sister's house so I spent a little more time getting things done at work. I scooted around 4:45 and made it about 1/3 mile in 2 hours. It was utter chaos and the highway patrol and lehi PD did very little to improve the situation. By the time I made a little progress, I was informed I had two choices: south on the freeway or turn around. All I needed to get to was the next light up to get into my sister's neighborhood but they were not letting anyone through. There was a highway closed down and the first 100 yards of this highway was the ONLY way in to their neighborhood and they wouldn't even open up that part. It was ridiculous. I turned around and went back to the office. Les and Matt, through their various routes and detours couldn't get anywhere either so they joined me at the office. I made a sandwich and watched American Idol in the conference room. There were about 4-5 other peeps in the office who didn't make it out either. Around nine, we got pretty ancy and decided to get in the car and try and do something. I jumped in with Les and Matt was behind us. I don't think i can even explain the scene properly. Literally thousands of people displaced just waiting for one road to open. Lines and lines of cars just circling like sharks. A baby was even born at the Maverick station next to the office. After trying a number of ways to move, Les made a command decision to go around the long line of cars and up to the police barricade that was just yards in front of the light into their hood. Throughout the argument with highway patrol agent 535 (who was just plain mean and ugly) lesley was asked twice if she would like to be arrested and if she would like her car towed after refusing to move her car. My favorite line of the evening:
535: I'll have your car towed. You can not wait here--you have to move.
LJD: Oh, that'd be great. I'll wait for the tow truck right here. I'm sure he'll be here real soon.
We went back to the Maverick station and regrouped with Matt where we decided to walk home. Not the best idea but someone had to get to the house.Their dog, Harris had been home and alone for more than 15 hours and they were worried about him. The snow wasn't that bad but the wind was pretty brutal. So at 10:30 Matt and I geared up and started walking. About halfway up, a nice lehi PD officer picked us up and drove us the rest of the way. He was driving through the neighborhood to give the ok to open the road. Les waited patiently back at the barricade and as soon as it was opened, went through. She is proud to say she was car #2. She got home at midnight. (She probably couldn't tell you the last time she saw midnight) It was a disastrous evening and one like I've never experienced. I can not recall a time where I've not been able to get home. We were all very flustered and exhausted. We all got home safe and sound and all was well with the puppy. But I never want to spend 7 hours trying to go across the street again. Cheers to the great Blizzard of '08.
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