Url: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews…
I headed out from Atlanta to Redmond yesterday. I’ve made this trip enough times that I thought I knew what to expect. I didn’t expect a snowstorm.
I arrived at SEA-TAC at 10:30pm expecting to grab a car and do the quick drive to Redmond. The snow kept the airport luggage handlers from getting the luggage from the plane for 45 minutes. Then the nasty job of getting to the rental agency. Their shuttle was hampered by the ice on the roads. But at midnight I had a car, my luggage and some hope to get to my hotel before too long…
Then I found the real problem. I got on the highway but it was very slow going (I could have walked faster), but it was moving. I assumed that it was because of an accident. When we finally got to the head of the line I found out the problem was a banked pavement covered in ice. Cars were being abandoned and SUV’s were sliding sideways trying to get through.
I took my Boston training in hand and headed to the shoulder and kept my tires on the snow (snow has more traction than ice). Moving at 5 MPG I was able to get through the banked pavement and headed north. Almost three hours later I was at my hotel room.
I don’t mind telling you that it did scare me. I had visions of sleeping in the rental car, spinning out or even running out of gas on the highway, but I got lucky and got through. My suggestion is that Seattle cancel any future snow. It shuts down the city (and the the MS campus) and is just plain annoying.
