Bloody Hell

It snowed yesterday. Not a lot, about 4 inches according to the news, but enough that I knew my drive to Chicago this morning was going to suck. I had a 735am show time, so I figured leaving at 2:45am (almost 5 hours early for those math geniuses out there) would be plenty of time for a drive that generally takes me just over 2 hours. Boy was I wrong.

I head out of out garage at 245am, when some people are just going to bed I am sure, and the roads through town are crap. It looked like a plow had not even seen them yet. I got to the first freeway and it was not good either. Luckily I am only on that for a few miles, and then I hit 90 East towards Chicago. Holy cow, the roads look great. Two clear lanes of travel, looks like this won't be too bad. I am driving 50 in a 65, getting passed by a lot, but oh well. I gave myself plenty of time, might as well use it, right? Everything was going fine for about 40 minutes, then I see flashing lights about 1 mile ahead of me, and then they are gone. No, they didn't turn off, but the Semi truck that was in front of me started sliding. At first he just went from the right lane into the middle, then he tried to correct it, and before I knew it, he was at about a 45 degree angle with the road. I hit my brakes to avoid hitting the truck, and what do you think happens...that's right, now I am beginning to slide. There is the truck in front of me, someone in the left lane next to me, and cars behind us. Well, next thing I know I am myself about perpendicular with the road heading for the ditch. And that is where I, the semi truck, and 4 other vehicles end up.

Everyone and everything was fine. No injuries or even real damage to the vehicles. The only damage I have are a few scratches on the right rear where the tree branches scraped my car. We all start calling for tow trucks (and by the way Geico Insurance rocks) and we wait. While we are waiting we see two more vehicles slide off into the ditch. Well, it was a busy morning for the tow trucks, and it was almost 3 hours before he got to us. So, I had to call in for my trip.

On the positive side though, I now have 7 days off before I return to work! Oh, and I have some awesome "Police Line: Do Not Cross" tape too! The cop that stopped to make sure we were all alive said that they have to wrap every vehicle in the tape once a tow truck has been called. He said it keeps other emergency vehicles from stopping since they know that everything is okay and help has been called. Also, the office that stopped was a K-9 cop, and he had a beautiful German Shepard in the back of his Explorer. Cool dog. At least something good came out of a crappy morning.