Let It Rain?

Our forecast for Wednesday was a rain/mix with a chance of snow showers…on my way to work, it was raining lightly, and then it began to snow….

….and after I got to work,  it began to snow harder…….

…..and harder………

….we began to hear rumors that the College was going to be closing ~ excitement was in the air.  You can’t tell from the photo above, but to the right is quite a steep hill which leads down to our parking area and the maintenance shops.  Almost right after the rumor began, a semi truck came to make a delivery….he began to go down the hill….slid sideways and got stuck ~ blocking the entrance to this roadway.  Needless to say, everyone who was doing the dance of celebration at the thought of an early day was ready to go down that hill and disassemble the truck so we would be able to get out.  Fortunately that wasn’t necessary because they were able to maneuver it into an empty contractor’s lot to clear the way.  Of course, I didn’t think to get any photos of that whole episode!  🙂

The call came over the campus wide alert system, the College was closing at 11:00.  Desks were cleared, computers locked but left on just in case the weather Thursday morning was awful we would be able to work from home and out the door we went.  The snow wasn’t coming down with quite the fury as earlier that morning so the roads were improving.  They were also basically deserted, I’m guessing due to the time of day. I decided to drive through the colonial area of Williamsburg…..I knew I was taking the chance the roads would be a bit worse for lack of travel, but I knew it would be beautiful.  With no one behind me, I was able to stop a few time and shoot these images.  They are through the windshield…I would let the wipers clean the windshield and quickly snap…

There were some really breathtaking scenes that I couldn’t shoot because it wasn’t safe.  When I pulled out from work, the beauty literally took my breath away.  Snow can be a pain, but it is also so beautiful.

Unfortunately, not everything was beautiful while I was going home.  I debated with myself and settled on the interstate as the best route to take.  I check the traffic cams for east bound traffic and concluded that an accident west of my entrance onto the interstate would mean less traffic.   I concluded correctly….coming home was slower than normal due to the road conditions, but no traffic to speak of.  I was getting close to my exit when I saw the state police lights flashing in the west bound lanes ahead of me.  I thought there must be an accident…that is why there was no traffic coming that way.  Then it dawned on me….I hadn’t see anytraffic in the west bound lanes since I got on the interstate.  As I got closer, our traffic slowed as everyone was taking a look….and there it was ~ an accident.  I thought how unhappy all those cars behind the accident must be….until I noticed they were smashed up too……and the ones behind them…..and the ones behind them….and so on.  What I thought was perhaps a three or four car accident was in fact one or more accidents involving approximately 40 cars. I have never seen an accident that large.   It was surreal to drive by and see all those vehicles mixed with semi trucks…all scattered across the very same road I had traveled down about 4 hours earlier on my way to work.   I could tell it had an impact on all the drivers that had slowed down to take a look….cars that were flying down the road prior to that accident definitely let off the pedal some and traveled at more reasonable speeds for the road conditions.  I picked up my youngest from school and we made it home….safe as houses.  🙂