Cold.

On the road again

I no longer have my hostel job (or my hostile job). My last night and morning was nice, and bittersweet. I took advantage of everything I won't have again for a while; bath, TV, computer, conversation, warmth.

I was hoping I would get out of the snow by the first night, but seeing as how it was about noon when I left, I wasn't as far as I hoped when dark came at 4:30. I decided to keep driving for a while. In the next hour, I saw 8 cars and semis abandoned in ditches. I don't think the tow trucks could keep up with the business, so they started to pile up. Just as it was getting dark, in that twilight time when your eyes are just starting to realize they can't see a damn thing, I saw what looked like a massive pillars that the highway went between. Turned out to be a semi, cab on one side, trailer on the other, just barely off the road. I decided to pull off at the next truck stop.

And damn was it cold! I asked the girl in the truckstop the next morning, and she said she thought it got down past 16 degrees in the night. I kept waking up because my nose was cold. Everything else was toasty, thanks to the fabulous sleeping bag the folks got me. The morning was the worst. It took all my strength to leave the toasty, and run to the bathroom. But when I tried to scrape off the ice from my windshield, my fingers just about froze. I had already packed my mittens, see. I'm heading for the sun, what need have I for gloves?

I finally gave up, and grabbed the water bottle from behind my seat. Upended it, and... nothing. Frozen solid. Thank god I'm not.

Gotta go, I had to talk the librarian into letting someone without a card use the net. She's starting to shoot glances, though.

Comments

[Tara]

Bethany asked me to post the temperature for Iowa City, IA. According to weather.com, it wasn't as cold as you thought. The temperature between 1-5 a.m. ranged from 37-35 degrees. Though combined with the 96-100 percent humidity it did feel like 28 to 24 degrees.
So there you go. Hey Bethany, just be glad that you left Minneapolis yesterday. Right now it's nine degrees, but feels like a toasty negative two! Need I add that I'm wearing magic gloves and a scarf inside? And that's on top of the sweater and other legally required clothing. My nipples are about to shoot off and take an eye out!

[Theresa]

Good news Bethany - pretty nice in Atlanta. No one's nipples are going anywhere!

[Em]

Well, unless they *want* them too. Reading this made me cold, and it's a bazillion degrees in my apartment thanks to my uncontrollable radiator.

Just a reminder to you to tell us about the stark naked businessman. Heh.

[billy]

...hope you find warmth soon :^)...he sezs sitting in a wet and miserable ingerland :^(...