Christmas Visiting

On the Road
December 12, 2008

We left early Friday morning on our long journey to visit the kids in Wisconsin. They are still waiting for the travel documents that will allow them to travel into Canada so they won't be home for Christmas this year. The problem with traveling that distance this time of year is always weather. The weather determines the best travel days meaning being prepared to change plans at the last minute. We watched the weather channel daily to see if there were any larger weather problems that would interfere with our travel plans. We loaded the car with unwrapped presents as wrapped presents are frowned upon by US Customs, our luggage, a small cooler holding homemade peameal bacon and a case of home canned foods for the kids. It was very important to us to bring the taste of Canada to the kids. Our kid was born and raised in Canada and the spouse was born and raised in the USA. I know there is a bit of homesickness so a bit of home cooking along with peameal bacon (method here) and can of Tim Hortons® coffee will ease some of that.

After clearing customs we made our way towards I-94. Despite the weather reports for dry road conditions we were traveling in snow flurries and the glare from headlights on the road indicated there was ice. My husband is an excellent driver with a tremendous amount of driving experience. He's a calm, careful and courteous driver so when all of a sudden he said "Oh God" I was startled! Looking up I saw just the end of what he saw. An 18 wheeler must have hit ice in the oncoming traffic lanes was coming right at us but the driver yanked the wheel just in time which jack-knifed the trailer sending the poor driver careening the other way across 3 lanes of traffic into the ditch. My husband called 911 to give the location (I-94 exit 125) while I worried that traffic coming up as it happened likely hit the side of the truck and prayed that everyone involved would be fine. It was the first of three major accidents we would see on this leg of the journey. Shortly after that accident the road and visibility conditions degenerated to that pictured. We drove in the lake effect snow conditions for about 100 miles. After that the weather cleared and we continued on without further weather delays.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2008