Facing the Unexpected

We had a harrowing drive on Thursday evening.  The public schools dismissed students two hours early, and numerous activities posted cancellations on the local radio station, so we checked the Minnesota highway website.  The site reported "difficult driving" on a few roads, but mostly "fair driving" at 3:00 pm.  Since we had driven without incident on several occasions when many activities were cancelled, and since it was April 18, Pete figured we wouldn't have a problem and we took off at 6:15 for Mankato, intending to arrive at Grizzly's at 8:30, be seated by host Joel and order food for when he got off work.  After eating with him, we intended to drive on to Rochester for the homeschooling convention.   Andrew came with us to attend the Teen Track.

The first three miles seemed moderately uncomfortable, but when we turned off Highway 7 on to County Road 44, conditions deteriorated rapidly.  Drifting, blowing snow, ice, and snow stuck on to the roads so we couldn't see the lines slowed our progress to a crawl.  However, Pete crawled a little too fast and we began slipping off the road where it curved east.  Pete saw that we would lose this battle, so he turned into the skid as we all cried out to the Lord - "Help!!"  Thanks to God, there was a road at an angle to the one we were on, and Pete gunned the van into the ditch and drove right up out of it onto that road.  Unbelievable!

During the ensuing journey, we pulled another vehicle off the shoulder, saw a telephone wire down on the road, and spent twenty minutes tailing an ambulance with flashing red lights.  I texted Joel at 9:00 (when his shift ended), "We are near New Ulm going thirty behind an ambulance.  Call me."  He admitted to being a little "freaked out" before he called and discovered that none of us were in the ambulance!

Our two-hour trip to Mankato ended up taking four hours.  After consuming delicious appetizers, we ventured on to Rochester at greater speeds, arriving at 12:30 am.  Pete says he's learned his lesson.  We'll see.