Sunday, December 30, 2007

The Blizzard of '07

C and I have finally arrived back to DFW after surviving the hell that is travelling in a winter in the North. When we arrived in Milwaukee last Thurs, they had several (in some places 8 or so inches of snow on the ground). The first few days were EXTREMELY foggy then on Sat night, Sunday - the 1st storm hit. Not heavy snow, but with 35-55 mph winds, it was pretty nasty. I used the "b" word in the early afternoon and was laughed at by C - a few hours later, a couple of folks who lived there said it was "blizzard-like" outside, as did a weather guy on local TV. After that, it was just clear and cold until Fri, the day we were supposed to fly out.

As the snow began (big, wet heavy flakes), we were loading up the rental car and I had the heater/defroster going and I somehow locked the keys inside with the engine running. Couldn't get any towing services on the phone so had to call the local police. They showed up in about 20 minutes and while it took them a while, they finally got it unlocked. We made it to the airport and it was really coming down. They kept closing the airport to plow it, then reopen, the close, etc. Our flight was coming from DFW and was 15 minutes from Milwaukee when the airport closed again. Plane was diverted somewhere (we never heard where) and our flight, among many others, was cancelled. 2 and 1/2 hours later, we finally got our luggage. One would think that the Milwaukee airport would go through this several times a year, but it was utter chaos. No on knew where bags were going, which flights bags were for, etc. Ours were in a cart outside "under a snowbank").

We got out yesterday afternoon (flight delayed over an hour for unknown reasons since it wasn't snowing and the airport was open). We finally got home around 6 - surviving the 2nd snowiest Dec in Milwaukee history.

On a side note, as we were sitting at the airport Fri and it's snowing like crazy, snow plows with blinking light is all you can see outside, chaos all around, I was flashing back to the classic movie "Airport". I kept expecting to see Deano or that old lady who sneaks aboard flights at any minute.

1 comment:

Scooter said...

Denver has about one big disaster a year but it usually involves something like 20+ inches in a one day period. Otherwise, they handle things beautifully...except for all the California ex-pats who think four-wheel drive means one can drive like a maniac on snow and ice.