a 30 minute drive turned into almost an hour and a half. my parents live somewhat in the country and the easiest/fastest way to get to them is to take country roads- long stretches of two lane highways that have an occasional side street and major intersection... the kind of street where the traffic lights are blinding at nite because there is no light pollution around to dim them like there are in "the city". the kind of road that is perfect for cool summer nite drives with the windows down. i digress.
i should have known just from getting off the highway that this wasn't going to be an easy thing. i had just under a half a tank, so i wasn't worried about gas- i was more worried about getting ticketed for being out. there were 3 gas stations and 4 fast food restaurants open off the highway exit. mind you, this is the kings island amusement park exit, so there are food joints and gas stations to your heart's content. now you could only pick the ones that the power outage spared. lines were 10-15 cars deep, spilling out onto the street. i almost wish i had my camera, but in some ways i'm glad i didn't. i got thru that mess pretty quickly and went to turn down the main artery that leads me into my parent's house. i had only just gotten past the first major intersection when i noticed there were no cars coming the other way. i looked off into the distance and saw flashing lights, so i quickly turned around and headed back for try #2.
mind you, i only lived in my parents house for a few summers and 6 months after i graduated. they moved to this new house in the middle of nowhere when i was a sophomore in college, so though i knew the area pretty well for not having lived there much, i had to visualize my routes before taking them.
i went back to the first intersection and turned, hoping this would work out a little better than the last route taken. i got deeper into the "country" part of the drive and was feeling pretty good... and then i saw her. a sheriff blocking the road and a giant birch tree laying in the ditch with power lines underneath it- and lines strewn across the street. damn. i turned around knowing i had not been able to reach the back road that would have dumped me yards from my parents' driveway.
i went back to that first intersection and turned back toward the highway. i knew it would be slightly more congested than last time, but i had no other choice. i made it thru pretty quickly again and got back on the highway. i got off at the exit that would take me thru downtown (a very historic, cute-sy downtown... it boasts the parlor shop in milk money and a historic and haunted inn- if you can name the town, maybe i'll send ya something fun!) and knowing that a section (the one section i would need to get to my parents' house) was closed, i opted to go the other route. oy. again. i ran into 2 gas stations and 3 fast food joints open and that's it. EVERYONE was in line. but, knowing these roads pretty well, i was able to sidestep the traffic pretty well pending one horn blowing incident with a jerk that decided to stop in the middle of the road to wait in the drive thru line for gold star chili- knowing the woman coming in the opposite direction was wanting to turn there as well- hence blocking traffic.
i manuevered by him with a "wave" and made my twists and turns thru the back roads. branches everywhere in the street- one tree had come down in someone's yard and clipped the corner of the roof. it was bad. i came up to my intersection where i needed to turn and all i saw where headlights as far as the eye could see... and they weren't moving. seriously?! luckily traffic going the same direction i was going was light (the other traffic was from the kroger and walmart that i'm sure were picked dry) and i got behind two other cars turning left. sweet. quick wait. i looked up at the traffic light and the yellow and green lights had been blown off... and the little red light swung there by itself.
i made my turn and thought i would be in the clear. wrong again. i started to drive down the road that would lead me to a few other "bumpkin-ish" roads, but i also knew that they were pretty likely to be intact. nope. i got half way down the road and noticed a giant telephone pole hanging at a 45 degree angle over the road, only being held by the lines themselves. flip back around... find the next road to turn down.
i took the road that a good friend of mine from high school lived on and was pretty confident i knew where to go from there. i passed by the fairgrounds and the yards were littered with metal sheeting from the barns and branches were everywhere. i found the street i thought i was supposed to turn on and turned. wrong. another friend from high school lived on this road. so i went up to the stop sign to see if i recognized the street name. water. yup. i might have to break a law, but i can get there taking this street. sure enough, i had to turn down a "road closed to thru traffic" road, dodge some tree branches laying in the road and squeeze thru the "road closed" signs at the other end of the street, but by god i made it. kind of.
i followed my normal route home, passing a cracked telephone pole and the firestation lit up like a christmas tree and held my breath as i approached my parents' street. no sheriff... no road closed signs. i turned, went up the hill and their pond glistened and i heard the angels sing. i made it. i could finally pick up my kid.
i walked in, packed her up and we headed back home. i went an entirely different route home and i took us our usual 30 minutes- 1 major intersection and highway. we made it.... after 2+ hours.
we now have power, but my parents' do not. they live pretty simply- no cable, dial up internet- that sort of thing, so they don't really notice it... the only thing my mom is worried about is how she is going to curl her hair for work tomorrow, but she told me she was going to take her styling products to work and do it there. problem solved. dad's been driving around to various relatives' houses with power dropping off frozen foods so that they don't spoil. he hits our house tomorrow if they don't get their power. priorities...
my mom has probably cleaned out the washer and dryer with q-tips by now, too... oh yes, i've caught her doing this before... we were snowed in and it was our 4th day of not being able to leave the house. she had cleaned and polished everything she could possibly find- and probably many things twice, so that only left the washer and dryer. worst part- she enjoys it. she loves it. she couldn't wait to get her hands on our house after i had the nugget. the woman is a machine and i will hire her one day (no, i will not share her, either). my dad is retired and is just as content to be outside, cut grass, clean out brush or clean up debris, so no electricity doesn't effect them much. in fact, they're probably pretty excited that their electric bill will be down this month.
so that's how we survived the "big black out of 2008" now that i think about it... this year has been big weather wise. nugget was born during the "flood of 2008" and then we had the "blizzard of 2008" right before that. oh 2008, what a charmer you have been.
