It has been BLEAK and BROWN the past several days now that the snow has melted. Temperatures hovering in the low to mid 30F's. Leaving home around 3PM I headed to Fond du Lac to make a quick (YES, I mean quick) stop at JoAnn's to pick up only a couple things and then continue on to Neenah.
The weather forecast also mentioned WINDY, I will call it BLUSTERY!!!
The windmill farm near Fond du Lac with all it's wind power from yesterday and today has to have generated enough electricity to keep all of Wisconsin running for at least the next year.
Ali and Gracie had a ball going down the slides, walking under the mushroom water fountain, crawling in the water (1/2" deep), and sitting on the water spouts. Ali even talked me into going down the RED slide with her. It was fun!!
By the time we left the girls lips were blue, knees were red, and eyes were ready to close.
Ali couldn't resist checking out the arcade game on the way back to the room
That's concentration! Even if she wasn't actually playing!
Who needs toys to play with when you have drawers?
See how happy I am?
We changed and went down to supper at the Ground Round which is attached to the hotel. During our lingering wait for food we had a magician (illusionist) entertain us. Ali is still trying to figure out how the table squeaked for him and not her.
I headed home at 7:20PM for the hour drive knowing that the heavy snow would appear after I was safely in my nice warm log cabin watching a movie from Netflix!
WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got 5 minutes down the road when the snow flurries started. 15 minutes later as I was crossing Lake Butte des Morts in Oshkosh it looked like fog in dusk but it was actually snow falling and it was starting to stick on the shoulders of the road. I should have been to Fond du Lac in another 15 minutes but as I was just south of Oshkosh the roads started getting snow covered with only visible tire tracks to follow. My speed slowed down to about 50mph getting to FDL in about 25 min or so. By the time I reached FDL the roads were completely snow covered and my speed went to 30-40mph, then just south of FDL it got worse. With the blowing snow and having difficulty seeing tire tracks it became even harder to stay in my lane on the road. By now I'm white knuckling it as I start to see red and blue flashing lights every few miles with cars in ditches facing every way other than the way they should be. Visions of my car spinning into a ditch danced in my head - oh those were flash backs from New Years Day when Jonathan and I ended up in the median in Green Bay - visions of sugar plums would have been more comforting that's for sure. Time to concentrate!! 20mph and hurry up Hwy 28, then I can crawl and not hold up traffic -
CRAWL I did!! I am now heading into the wind; several times the BLUSTERY BLIZZARD had me seeing only WHITE. Just for the record, trying to drive in white out conditions is not fun! Here I saw the 3rd snow plow since FDL and yes as you probably guessed - on Hwy 41 I am driving S they are going N, and on 28 as I am going E it is going W. There were times I almost drove from that lane, but it was already snow covered almost instantly. I did drive down the middle of the road a few times though. By the time I finally got home (1hr 40 min later) I peeled my white knuckles off the steering wheel to find both hands were numb! Fingers tingling and hands shaking (yes worse than usual) I parked the car in the garage. Wouldn't you know, the snow at home, not Kewaskum or Hwy 28 but in the driveway -- was now flurries! (sorry, no photos taken while driving this time). I was hoping my legs would hold me up until I let the dogs out, feed them, and I could sit down. Which I did!! With microwave popcorn and a beer(leftover from Christmas) I sat down to watch my Netflix Ira and Abby movie (lousy movie) but watched it anyway. I never understood why someone needs a drink to relieve tension and I still don't although it did taste good, the shaking settled down to it's normal pace in a short time without the aid of alcohol.
Today I wake up to not much more snow than was on the ground here when I got home - 3", all of it falling and blowing while I was driving. But enough is enough! Time for green grass and leaves.
You may not be able to tell from the picture since it's not moving, the trees seem to be gyrating to Chubby Checker's song The Twist.
The forecast for this next week is temps in the 40F's so I am not hurrying to shovel my 3" ...let me rephrase that....I am not shoveling - my protest!!
