"The Odyssey"

Being rather anal I checked and re-checked the weather report before leaving El Centro on my trip to Utah for the Christmas Holiday. The report was consistent, flash flooding possible! I backed out of my garage into a down pour, which made me think about being cautious as I drove across the desert. I knew that once I hit the California/Nevada state line I wouldn't have to worry about flash flooding, however, the weather report didn't warn me of snow except above 3500 feet, no worry. Ha, ha. As I reached the state line I hit snow flurries, then it begins lying on the ground, then it gets deeper and then even deeper. By the time I reached Searchlight it was about five inches deep, the roads were still open and traffic moving, then it came to a sudden halt. An officer came down the two lines of cars and trucks and let us know there had been an accident up ahead, then we got the report that the road had been closed because of the snow, then another report that the road wouldn't be open until 6:00 a.m. the next morning. I began to look at my options, dog food for my dog, three bottles of water, small bag of candy, two sweat shirts, one wind breaker, one heavy coat, one large quilt. OK, no problem. Oh, oh, full bladder. I said to my self, "I don't know any of these people and I'll probably never see them again, just get out and take care of the discomfort." I opened the car door and put my left leg out into snow that hit about mid-calf, the wind was howling and the snow blowing horizontally at me. This was not an option! About three hours later two large snow plows came through, followed by several ginormous tow trucks. About an hour after that the traffic started started a slow crawl up the highway towards Railroad Pass. It took 45 minutes to merge into the traffic from the on ramp and a very slow go down into Las Vegas, yes, another 4 1/2 hours to go 22 miles. As I listened to the news I found out that Interstate 215 was closed from San Bernardino to the Las Vegas State line. Schools would be closed in Clark County and I was in the worst snow storm since '74.