crfriend wrote:And the sixty-four dollar question is: "Did you ever make it home?"
I had another go at getting home that night at about 21:30 and got out of the trading estate, but hit solid traffic (both ways) before I could even get to the inner ring road. A colleague who had left three hours earlier called to say that she had only just reached the M3, less than two miles from the office. The local radio was taking calls from folks all over the region who had taken six or even eight hours to do short journeys. The crunch came when they started taking calls from people at various points on my journey home who were all stationary on "ice rinks". I turned the other way and made my way back to the office, getting back at 00:30 after driving less than four miles in three hours.
I slept on a couple of chairs pushed together, at least it was warm, dry and I had access to toilets, a coffee machine and a shower in the morning (unfortunately, no fresh shirt). The blankets I had in the car were soaked by the time I got back to the office, as I had been forced to use them for added traction under the wheels a couple of times; so I was unable to auction them off to any of the thirty or so colleagues also sleeping at the office. (Note to self: 310BHP, lots of torque and front wheel drive is not a good combination for performing hill starts on sheet ice.) Fortunately my sleeping bag had not suffered the same fate, so I was snug and warm.
Radio news yesterday morning was reporting 2500 cars abandoned in Basingstoke (the town where I work). Based on the short sections of road I saw, I had no problem believing that number.
I eventually left the office again at about 11:30 yesterday morning and made it home by about 13:00. The journey took about 30 minutes longer than usual but was not too difficult apart from a few carelessly abandoned cars.
Today the roads around me are covered with sheets of black ice, I went out earlier to walk Taz, but the roads were not good and I did not feel able to drive at more than about 15mph. At that speed it will take me around three hours to get to work so I decided to work from home instead.
Have fun,
Ian.
PS: One member of the catering team got in yesterday morning and made sausage sandwiches for all of those of us who'd slept over. I've rarely appreciated food more.