Adventures in the Snow, or How Freya Cried at the Crystal Ball (part 2 of 5)

Friday was hp-ohio's Crystal Ball, so Kathleen, Rose, and I piled into the car with suitcases, pillows, sleeping bags, blankets, air mattresses, and ball gowns. The car was beyond stuffed.

Our trip to Loudonville was supposed to take 3 hours, according to the GPS and Google Maps. We were warned that there was supposed to be eight inches of snow that night, but we didn't expect it to affect our trip out there. About two hours into driving, the roads started to get bad. We were on fairly major roads, so it was mostly slushy and a little slippery. Not ideal, but hardly anxiety-attack inducing. Once we turned off the "main" road (a county highway) onto Township Road something something, things got bad. There were about six inches of freshly fallen snow, with only a few car tracks that had gone through and more snow falling all the time. At this point, we were about an hour behind schedule.

After Kathleen explained to me how to drive on freshly fallen snow (easier than any slush or ice in Pittsburgh, for sure!), I was feeling pretty good. There was decent traction, and I was driving about 15 mph on the straight parts, and slower on the curves. Things weren't great, but we were making it.

Until we reached a blind curve.

As we started to round the curve, I thought we might be going a bit too fast. I knew that hitting the brakes would only make us slide, so I just hoped things would be ok. Except that around the curve was a fire truck, stuck in a small ditch on the side of the road. We slid to a stop, narrowly avoiding the ditch, and the firemen walked over to talk to us. He said they were trying to get their truck out and he would help us turn around. Turn around?! Yep. There was also an overturned car in addition to the truck in the ditch and they expected it to be an hour or more before the road opened. While I'm creating plans of us getting to a gas station bathroom somewhere to change and put on makeup, he tells us there is an alternate route. Well, at least it's something.

After about 14 reverses on the narrow road, we go back and loop around to another similar road. Still crappy, still snow-covered, and later than ever. After about 20 minutes of so on this road, we see a car ahead of us that is trying to come up a hill and just failing. The guy in the truck behind us gets out along with Kathleen, and they manage to get the car some traction to get going. We get to the bottom of the hill, which is a T, and realize we need to turn right and go up a smallish hill. We fail, so I back down the hill and try again. Fail. The third time, I started from about a quarter mile back and got enough momentum to get up. We cheered, because right at the top of the hill was the place to check in to our "hotel". I got into this little cottage, pay the guy, and he gives me an honest to goodness key and points up the big hill that we had just come down and tells me the rooms are up there.

At this point, it's about 6:30-6:45ish, and we are getting nervous about making it to the ball to check in. Kathleen comes up with the brilliant idea of just going to the castle and changing in their lobby bathroom. We can just figure out how to get to the room later.

After another harrowing ten minutes, we're at the castle, and it's magical.


(photo by Rose)

We stumble out of the car and decide to check in and then get ready so as not to be rushed. When we get into the lobby, we realize they have moved check in to the events center across the grounds. I am blinking back tears at this point because things have just not worked out at all. We have no cell signal, and there is no payphone, but the receptionist kindly lets me use her phone to call JP, which makes me burst into tears. I reassure him we are fine, calm myself down, and we wander down the path to check in. While we're checking in, Matt comes over and says "Did you guys get here ok?" I shook my head no, burst into tears, and turned around to go outside where I tried to calm down again. All I could think was, "How the hell are we going to get back to our room tonight?"

Rose, Kathleen, Matt, and Justin appeared a moment later. I got big hugs and was told that there was no way that 1) we were changing in a hotel lobby bathroom, and 2) we were trying to drive back to that hotel that night. Matt, Justin, and Sam had a suite with a pullout couch and a giant bathroom, and we were invited to get pretty there and then sleep on whatever surface we could find. I almost started crying again with relief and gratitude. I know that this is what friends do for each other, and of course I would've done the same. Nonetheless, we had been rescued, and sometimes a girl just needs to be rescued, ya know?