I lived one of my worst nightmares on Monday night: being stuck on the interstate in bad weather with nowhere to go and a lot of trucks on the road. I was up at my Dad’s house Sunday and Monday to have a permanent crown put on my tooth. We knew they were calling for bad weather to start moving in Monday morning, but I had no idea how bad it was going to get…..

I left my Dad’s house around Noon for what’s usually about a 4 hour and 15 minute trip home. It ended up taking a little over 8 hours. It started snowing about 40 minutes into my trip and the road conditions continued to get worse the further south I got. It was slow going at times, but I didn’t hit my first major traffic slow down until about 3 hours into my trip.

From there on, I would alternate between crawling and being stopped still. The main hold up was mostly disabled vehicles. By that I mean vehicles that were stuck in the snow, not broken down vehicles. Unfortunately, once people got stuck they were just in the way and often they were stuck on the only drivable part of the road as well. There were plenty of wrecks, though. Very few were just people sliding off of the road. I’d say about 90% of them were multi-vehicle wrecks involving cars and tractor trailers. This was a common sight along the way:

Sometimes we would have to sit for a long time for the road to clear (I think I sat still for nearly 90 minutes at one point), and other times we would serpentine through. It’s really eerie to weave through wrecks involving three tractor trailers and six cars that are all now stuck on either side of the road. Most of the cars really didn’t fare well, either.

 

As I got closer to home, the road conditions continued to deteriorate (see above picture). I hit a major delay right after I missed my last chance to get off of the interstate for the next 10 miles (exit 128). This particular section of 81 (the section from exit 128 to exit 118, for those who are familiar) has huge, curved hills. We kept getting stopped on the hills and then cars and trucks wouldn’t be able to start again. A lot of the trucks would actually end up sliding backwards and sideways. It was so scary and unnerving, and by 6 hours into my trip I had absolutely had enough. I actually cried a few times during this stretch.

I made arrangements to meet Barry at the Virginia Tech exit (20 miles north of my usual exit), so that he could take me home in his truck. I got there about 7 hours after leaving my Dad’s house, and I was so relieved to see Barry. At that point my nerves were completely fried. Just after I made it there, they closed the interstate.

We left my car at a gas station, with permission, and Barry drove me the rest of the way home. He offered to drive my car for me and I could drive the truck, which has 4 wheel drive, but I was just so done.

I am so grateful for Barry’s encouragement and advice, and for my Dad teaching me how to drive in this type of weather. I spoke with both of them on the phone numerous times during my trip (with a hands free device), and they probably don’t realize how many times they “talked me off the ledge,” so to speak. I’m also thankful that my car (a Mazda 3, which has no 4 wheel drive) can be switched from automatic to manual. Being able to shift up to second gear is the only thing that allowed me to continue driving after being stopped on those big hills on the interstate.

All in all, we got about 9 inches of snow. It’s going to take me a long time to recover from that experience. I’ll still drive on I-81, no problem, but never again in the snow like that. I should have stayed at my dad’s house, but like I said who knew it was going to get that bad. Hindsight is 20/20. Oh and we went and retrieved Hey Car, as I call her, this morning around 5 AM. She’s home safe now.

What are the worst road conditions you’ve experienced on the highway? I’ve been on I-81 in the snow before, but nothing like that.

So this past weekend was probably one of the laziest weekends I’ve ever had, exercise-wise. Meaning I didn’t actually run or workout at all because I’m still sick. I am starting to feel better, but I still have a bad cough and cold congestion that pretty much keeps me from doing anything. Guess I should probably move “go to the doctor” up the to do list.

On Saturday I took it easy because I was really worn out from my week of travel and from being sick. I just hung around the house with Barry for most of the day. In the evening we took a trip over to the cell phone store to see if they would renew my contract early. I’m less than 30 days away from the end of my 2 year contract. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t renew early. Jerks. I’m considering crossing over to the “darkside” and making the transition from android to iPhone. Decisions, decisions….

On Saturday evening Barry braved the 20+ mph winds to grill us some steaks for Valentine’s Day. They were really yummy! I returned the favor Sunday morning (although, I stayed inside) by cooking us some blueberry pancakes. Nothing like blueberry pancakes on a Sunday morning, amiright?

By noon I was on the road up to my dad’s house for my final trip to the dentist (aka my uncle/dad’s brother). I’ll be headed over to his office later this morning to have my permanent crown put on – so glad to have all of this tooth stuff over with! Later today I’ll be headed back home, and back to work tomorrow.

Who else had the day off of work today? Happy President’s Day!
Did you celebrate Valentine’s Day this weekend? Barry and I don’t make a big deal out of the day, but we like to get each other cards and have a nice dinner.
Android vs. iPhone: thoughts, opinions?

As I mentioned earlier, I spent the whole week in Raleigh, North Carolina, this week for work. I’m actually heading home later today. I was excited when I scoped out the area around my hotel online before traveling here, because I saw that I was close to both a park and the extensive trail system. Unfortunately, I did not get to do as much running as I had hoped.

I got to town on Sunday after sunset, which kept me from exploring. I was also feeling a bit under the weather. Monday I woke up with a full blown cold. I couldn’t believe that I was sick yet again. It’s even less fun than usual, since I’m away from home. Monday was cold and rainy and I was miserable, so no run. Tuesday I thought I was feeling a bit better, so I went out for a short 25 to 30 minute run in the evening.

Just shy of a mile, I arrived at a nice little park called Pullen Park. It was really cute, with a playground, café, ice cream shop, mini railroad, and a pond. I bet it’s really hopping in the summertime.

The park is also home to the ‘Andy and Opie’ statue, a tribute to the Andy Griffith Show.

Once there, I decided to run a lap around the little pond area. It wasn’t too far – maybe a bit over a quarter mile but not more than half a mile. The bridges were neat to run over, though.

After my lap around the pond, I headed to an upper portion of the park. Turns out stairs aren’t just in the woods 🙂

I ran by some geese (who were not too friendly) before turning around to head back. What is it with geese? Why are they so pompous?

On my way back to my hotel the sun was setting. I had a pretty nice view of the downtown Raleigh area. All of the buildings were pink in the setting sun.

Unfortunately, that was all of my running in Raleigh. On Wednesday my sinus pressure and stuffy nose were mostly better, but the cold had moved into my chest. My coughing had gotten really bad and I was wheezing a lot. So no run for me. Same thing on Thursday and this morning. I think I’ll be making a trip to the doctor soon to see what’s going on with my breathing.

It was a bummer that I only got to run once while here. Hopefully I’ll find my way back someday to explore their trails more. Another bummer: this week was week three for me to earn my new shirt. Guess I’ll have to start over once I get better!

How do you stick to your exercise routine when traveling?
How do you handle being sick while away from home? It’s been lots of cold medicine for me to make it through the week.

I always enjoy reading random things about people that wouldn’t necessarily come up when you’re blogging about running or your day to day life. So for fun, here’s five random facts about me!

1. I have a permanent retainer behind my lower bottom front teeth. They cemented it in after I got my braces off in 9th grade to keep my teeth from shifting. I’ve had it ever since.

2. I’m going to learn to juggle clubs! I already know how to juggle balls and I can also juggle larger objects and oddly shaped things, but I’ve always wanted to learn to juggle clubs. Barry got me my very own set for Christmas and I can’t wait to learn.

3. When I was a kid I had a more unusual way of playing on the playgrounds – things like walking across the tops of swing sets. When I did actually swing on a swing, just jumping off wasn’t fun enough. Instead, I would do back flips off of the swing.

4. My great uncle taught me how to put someone in checkmate in a game of chess in the first four moves. Oddly, it never worked when I tried to use it on him

5. I am a huge Virginia Tech football fan (okay, that’s not news to anyone). Our stadium is looking pretty sleepy right now during the winter…

… but come Labor Day night it will be packed as the Hokies take on Ohio State in our season opener. I  can’t wait!

Your turn! Tell me some random facts about you.

My weekend started early, on Friday, because I had the day off of work (I had already hit 40+ hours earlier in the week). I was up early to ride to work with Barry so that he could drop me off at the shop to pick up my car. Once I got home, I hung out for a bit before heading out for a late morning trail run. I got in nearly 4.5 miles on the local mountain trails.

Friday afternoon I got a much needed hair cut and then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening running errands. I hadn’t planned on spending so much time on errands, but I was in search of a new Virginia Tech jacket and couldn’t find what I was looking for (my old one from 2006 is worn out). Five stores later I finally found “the one.”

Even better – it was on winter clearance! Why winter coats are on clearance and bathing suits are already on the sales floor in February, when there’s two more months of winter, I’ll never know. Worked in my favor, though!

On Saturday morning I met up with Kim for a 6 mile run on the trails in town. It was a pretty chilly morning, with temp’s in the low 20’s, but it was really clear and crisp. I felt pretty tired the last two miles but I didn’t want to mess up Kim’s run so I pushed through. Which means I was capable of pushing through 🙂 I need to remember that the next time I get really tired when I’m running on my own.

I spent most of Saturday afternoon doing laundry and other stuff around the house, and getting packed for my trip to Raleigh this week. Once Barry got home from work, we hung out and had BBQ crock pot chicken and sweet potatoes for dinner. Yum!

Yesterday morning I slept in (i.e. woke up without the sound of an alarm, glorious!). I didn’t feel like running, so I did a Jillian DVD workout instead. Then I finished up some packing and hung out with the dogs for a bit before heading down the road to Raleigh. Once I got to my hotel I didn’t feel like going back out for dinner, so I bought an overpriced $8 side salad with grilled chicken from the hotel restaurant.

I was surprised that this qualifies as a side salad, but at least I got more bang for my buck than I was expecting. I added the hard boiled eggs, which I bought with me. Unbeknownst to me, there’s no in-room fridge (would have been nice of the hotel to put that info on their website…). However, they will provide one for $10/day, as the friendly front desk attendant informed me. Guess I’ll be using lots of ice from the ice machine until all of my eggs are gone! 🙂

When you’re shopping for something (like a new coat), are you really particular?
Do you like busy weekends, or laid back ones?