I've been trying to work up the oomph to make the trip and when I finally talked myself into doing it THIS weekend, the weather turned to crap. I sincerely felt though that I really NEEDED to be in Erie. So, weather be darned, we were heading out.
Ron was gracious enough to play my reindeer games with me and go as my copilot on this excursion. We headed out in the morning to light snow here in Lorain and I hoped for the best. Perhaps I should have my head examined because we should never have been traveling through that weather. Two words should have rung loud in my head: SNOW BELT. Really? Ever hear of it? When they are calling for a winter weather advisory in the snow belt, listen to them and DON'T drive through it.
We were ok heading east until we got to Painesville. There the weather started turning to crap with heavier snow but the roads were basically ok. Then we got to Madison and the plows hadn't caught up with the snow. I-90 was down to one lane and I think that one lane was just made from the traffic, not by a snow plow. The farther east we went the worse it got. I white knuckled it the rest of the way into Erie but we made it and met up with Jim for a great lunch.
After lunch, we went to Aunt Mary's, the real reason for my trip home. Aunt Mary is my second mother. We lived upstairs from Aunt Mary all the time I was growing up and so she was always a huge part of my life. I haven't seen her in too long and I missed her.
It was a surprise visit and wow, was she surprised! But a good surprise! There were hugs, there were tears and then there was just love. We sat and caught up with Aunt Mary and just got to have a great visit with her.
Unfortunately, she snow had NOT let up the entire time we were there, so I cut the visit short and we headed for home. If I thought the trip out there was bad, the trip home was worse! We hit a very small band of no snow right at the state line. I actually was thinking that we were getting lucky and would have an easy trip home. Man was I wrong.
Like I said, it was just a small band of clear weather. We hit snow again just into Ohio that just kept getting worse and worse and worse. I had been behind a semi and thought I was doing well picking a large target to follow down the road. We hit a white out that had me crapping my pants! I could barely see the hood of my car. I had NO idea where the side of the road was and for sure, that huge semi just disappeared in the snow. And to think I missed this crap when I lived in Texas!
Oh well, face to face time with Aunt Mary was so worth the trip!
Once again, the magic Painesville was the dividing line between good weather and bad weather. Once we hit that mile marker 200, the weather just cleared up. Suddenly, barely any snow falling and DRY pavement. Unbelievable.
Since I finally felt like we might live through this trip, we talked about stopping for dinner somewhere on the east side, since we never get over there any more with my back. I even let Ron pick where he wanted to go! One of his favorite restaurants, Phil the Fire, reopened just off of I-271. It's "Comfort Food for the Soul." And it sure was!
Their signature dishes are the chicken and waffles selections. Ron chose the dark meat fried chicken and I chose the grilled chicken breast, both over waffles. That's Ron's friend chicken in the foreground.
We also chose a couple of side dishes, just because we wanted to taste more of what was on the menu. We split an order of some buttered grits and some red beans and rice. Ok, we both ate too much but MAN, was it good!
So that was our day. The trip did me in. I am sore, it's hard to sit up, but again, it was worth it. I miss my Aunt Mary! And even though I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to, I at least got to visit with Aunt Mary and my brother Jim.
Who needs to sit up today? I did enough of that yesterday. I think today will be spent holding the couch down, maybe with a heating pad to help. A good day for watching football! I think that's just what the doctor ordered.
1 comment:
What a wonderful day! It's always good to be home again. And Aunt Mary is such a cute old lady.
Get well soon, Ree! Thinking of you.
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