October Day
Troy has sent in another story:
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We had been in the RV, driving from Florida to Canada, for nearly a month. This October day drive would be from Cortland to Clayton, New York. Less than two hundred more miles to go, and we will be home. One more day-a few more hours, actually- and I will have a real roof over my head. I will take my first real shower in over a month. I was looking forward to this last US leg of the journey from Florida to Ontario.
It was rainy, mucky, and all-around nasty when we left Cortland, but the outlook was good- a bit of rain- that should clear up by 11:00. It shouldn’t be too bad. By now, I have hundreds of miles of experience driving this monster and I am feeling confident.
So we set off, north on I-81. It is a straight shot through Syracuse, a turn west at Watertown to Port Vincent, then north to Clayton.
After about an hour, we had cleared Syracuse, and there are no more cities between here and home. It is raining, but not pouring- we are cruising steadily north to the border. I am a bit bitchy, but truly looking forward to my new life in a new place.
We are not talking much, but I say to my wife,” This rain sucks, huh?”
“Yes, honey. But it is only a few more miles.”
Uh huh.
Fifty miles out of Watertown, it is well past 11 and the rain is still coming down. I am probably making my wife a bit nuts with my constant complaining about weather reports and weather in general.
She is silent.
I am beginning to notice something disturbing about this rain. It is starting to look a whole lot like snow. “But this is October,“ I am thinking. “I realize this is upstate New York, but snow in October?”
“Honey?” I say quietly to my wife. “Doesn’t this rain look almost like snow?”
She replies, “I hate to tell you this, but it has been snowing for the last 10 miles or so.”
“Oh,” I answer.
I’m still not too worried-it’s only flurries, after all. And it’s not as if I have never driven in snow. Of course, it has been a few years, and it was in a car rather than a 32-foot house-on wheels: but no worries.
This snow did not remain flurries for long, however. Soon we were in the middle of an autumn blizzard and I can’t see the road. Cars are off in the ditches on both sides of the interstate. I am starting to panic.
“I’ll never find the exit!” I say. “ Great! Now the windshield wiper is frozen! Help!”
“I can see just fine,” my Canadian wife says calmly.
I look over, and sure enough, her wiper is working perfectly.
“I’m really happy for you, honey, but I can’t see squat, and I ’m the one driving!” I yelled. “Help! I’ll never see the exit!”
(I have no idea what ‘help’ I might have been looking for-I guess some people call for ‘mom’ when stressed, and I call for a more generic “help!”)
Thankfully, it was only a few miles to our exit and the New York State Highway Patrol was at there, lights flashing. A few miles after that, the skies cleared, the sun came out, and any trace of snow was gone. And few things in my life have felt as good as that hot shower in the motel in Clayton.
