Stuck in a snowdrift

I had business in North Platte last Saturday and drove up mid-morning. There were predictions of snow but the weather forecasters have been so dismal at getting snow predictions right this year, at least in this area, I didn't pay much attention to them.

It began snowing lightly in North Platte around 11 but the temperature was 35 degrees and the snow was only sticking on grassy areas so after I concluded my business, I stopped and had lunch and then went to the mall to buy a few things. While shopping, I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a while so we went to a restaurant for coffee and to catch up on what had been going on in each other's lives. It had continued to snow and had picked up to the point that it was now accumulating everywhere except on the roadways, because the temperature was hovering just above freezing. We overhead conversations at the restaurant that the snow was heavy and deep to the north of North Platte and I told my friend I had better head south while there was still plenty of daylight left in case the snow started moving south.

I left North Platte around 6:30. The highway was wet from the snow that had been falling continually, but not icy or even slushy. That changed dramatically just a few miles south when the thermometer in my car dropped suddenly from 33 degrees to 31 degrees and the slush started collecting on the highway. Six miles south of North Platte, I met a pickup truck hauling a boat, driving way too fast for the conditions and when we passed, a huge shield of snow and slush was splattered across my entire windshield from the truck's tires and I couldn't see anything at all. Absolutely nothing. I reached down to turn on the windshield wipers and when I did, my car veered over to the right shoulder. I knew that by feel rather than sight because I still couldn't see anything. I overcorrected with the steering wheel, sending my car back across both lanes of traffic to the left shoulder before the windshield wipers had a chance to knock the snow off so I could see again. Fortunately, there was no oncoming traffic or the results would have most likely been disastrous. It was a pretty scary few seconds, like the time I was on the way to Lincoln to reunite with my family for Thanksgiving and crested a hill on the Interstate to see a truck tire lying on the highway directly in front of me with no time to avoid it. I hit it squarely, as I wrote about in this column, and have no idea why my car didn't flip and roll but it didn't. I'm not sure why it didn't flip and roll this time either, even without the presence of other vehicles, but once again it didn't.

I guess He's not through with me yet.

Managing to knock all the snow and slush off my windshield with the wiper blades, I got back in my own lane and continued my journey, a journey that got worse and worse the further south I drove. The wind was blowing steadily at 30 to 35 mph with gusts over 50 and the snow continued to fall. The northeast wind was blowing it off the fields directly onto the highway and the north bound lane was completely covered with several inches of snow. Fortunately, the southbound lane was in better shape and I made a mental note to myself that I hoped it stayed that way, because I didn't think my little car could negotiate the deep snow in the other lane if I had to turn around and head back to North Platte. I never got the chance to find out.

Sixteen miles south of North Platte, a semi was stalled in the right hand lane on a hill and I had to slow down to get around him. By now, the snow was accumulating in the south boundlane too, and having to slow down was the death knell for my journey home. As I attempted to climb the hill, I went slower and slower until I came to a stop in a snowdrift, 20 feet or so from the crest of the hill and right in the middle of Highway 83. I tried several times to get the car to move in some direction but it wouldn't move at all. When I got out of the car to check the situation I was in, the wind was blowing so hard it was almost impossible to stand up and the snow hitting my face felt like shotgun pellets. Looking at my situation proved to me there was no way I was going to be able to get unstuck by myself.

I got back in the car and called 911 on my cell phone. I talked to a very cordial woman in North Platte who told me they would send a wrecker to me. I thanked her and hung up and the wrecker company called me less than a minute later to verify my location. So for the next hour I sat in my car in the middle of Highway 83 and waited, 20 feet below the crest of a hill, protected by nothing. If a vehicle came over the hill too fast or on my side of the highway, there was nothing it could have done to miss hitting me. I guess I've been in scarier situations than that in my life but none that lasted that long. I swear that hour seemed like an entire day before I finally saw the flashing lights of the wrecker approaching me. His initial intention was just to get me unstuck so I could try and get home but even after he did that, my little T-Bird still couldn't get enough traction on the snow and ice to move in any direction so the only option I had was to have him hook me up and haul me back to North Platte.

As it ended up, that was the best option anyway because the snow and the wind continued to increase and he drove the entire 16 miles back to North Platte in the southbound lane, except when he would see traffic coming, because of the snow depth in the north bound lane. At times, we faced white-out conditions where he would almost have to come to a complete stop. He pulled me into the lot of a motel in North Platte, I paid the $157 tow charge, got a room, spent the night and stayed till early the next afternoon before I headed for home again and even then there were a few spots along the highway that was no picnic either.

When I finally got back to McCook, there was hardly any snow here at all. It's amazing what a difference a few miles can make in Western Nebraska when it comes to weather conditions and I guarantee you the next time there's snow in the forecast, I'm staying home.