Icy Weekend Driving

The IA Vineyards hosted their annual Area Gathering this past weekend -- kinda like a weekend family reunion where they bring in a guest speaker and all the area Vineyards bring their people and we get together to worship, to give and receive prayer, and to reconnect with friends that we haven't seen in awhile.

Our goal was to take 15-20 people from SMVC down there but due to the weather on WED & THURS in IA & MN we were left with a whole bunch of road closings and even worse than what we thought driving conditions. So, since Nicki and I were leading a workshop on Marriage & Ministry on SAT morning we thought we should at least attempt to get down there -- It's only a 3 hour cruise! (And you know what happens on those, little buddy!)

We drove to Albert Lea on FRI night and had a good drive until the last 20 miles where we started to see 2-3 inches of ice on the road and several cars in the ditch (some upside-down!) We pulled into town safely and spent the night at our friends home there -- the Hundleys, who pastor the Albert Lea Vineyard. We've known them since we all lived near one another in married student housing so it was good to reconnect with them, plus our kids all got to see each other and run around playing.

The plan was to get up at 5am and head to the church to leave around 6. The group got together and we took off. I-35 had just been opened going south and the internet said our other roads were open - but travel was not advised. We got out on the road and things were clean and clear! Until we got to Mason City and turned onto 218/18 South. It went from good to real bad, real quick. Again 2-3 inches of ice and driving at 20-25 mph. But we made it! We arrived in Cedar Falls around 9:30 and made it just in time to get our stuff ready to do our 10:45 workshop. It was just such a relief to get there! What crazy driving!

We saw semis sliding on the ice...one couldn't get up the hill. He was stuck midway up and his tires were just spinning, spinning, spinning! We saw two or three cars overturned in the median and numerous others just off the road but still far enough off that they were stuck in all the snow. The wildest part was seeing the car in front of me go sideways for about 50 feet before coming back into line -- that was my family in that car! (We had to drive a couple cars.)

Overall -- my kids thought that this was a great adventure!

I'll write more later about the Gathering and the things that happened there.
Have a good one!