He Said Come Ski and we DID - Hellish drive, but worth it!

 

I was up at 530am – much like a work day. Started coffee.

I exercised: sit-ups, windmills, and push-ups

Snowed a little overnight but only lightly at the outset.

Played on the PC and did some more packing/organizing

Left for a run just after 650am. Started snowing hard, covering my attire in a blanket of snow. Beautiful!
Took Mindy coffee as soon as I was back home. Showered.

Snowing like crazy and piling up quick. I suggested that we needed to get on the road as soon as possible.
Aside from car snacks, we weren’t taking a ton of food: Honey Baked ham, bread, cheese, coffee creamer. Took plenty of beer and booze.

Loaded the Pilot. Already about 2-3” of snow on the ground in a short period of time. Left the house at 930am sharp (30 minutes later than my preference). Filled the gas tank at Thornton’s.
Slow going around 270. Snow, as predicted, turned to sleet (ice). 25-35 mph. 71N a little faster, but not by much. Snow clumping up on windshield wipers rendering t hem almost useless. Just north of Delaware decided to smack wipers by hand to clear snow. Oops! Driver’s side blade snapped off and flew into the air. Holy crap! Now what?

Snow/ice coming down hard again. Had to drive 30 miles leaning over the center console to see using the passenger blade. Thought about stopping and moving it to the driver’s side but opted not. If that one broke we would really be screwed. Mindy Googled Autozone and found one in Mansfield. After driving 30 miles at 30mph via the center console we found the Autozone. Bought high quality winter wipers - $30 installed, and well worth every stinking penny! Picked up two more gallons of windshield juice, too, just in case we needed it.

Once north of Akron turned to all snow again, heavy, soft snow too! Driving was slow. Resigned ourselves to a much later arrival than planned. The object was to arrive safely. 271 was almost deserted, especially the first half, before Cleveland (Wadsworth/N.Royalton exit). Slow going.

The snow fall got even heavier as we merged onto 90 and later 86 – the snow belt! Sheets of heavy, soft snow. Typically, only one lane was navigable. /we crossed over into NY around 5pm. Lake Chitaqua wasn’t at all frozen. Once dark, it was very difficult to see. Took us 90 minutes to go the last 45 miles. Felt good to drive through Salamanca, or the ‘land of icicles’ as we like to refer to it as. Arrived at the Inn at HV at 630pm sharp, or 9 hours later.

Our room – 224, just one or two down from last year’s stay. Quickly settled, Mindy offered that after such a harrowing 9 hour drive that dinner was my choice. Well, EBC, of course!
Stopped to fill-up at the Quick-Fill in town. The snow was gorgeous! About a foot of fresh stuff fallen. Ellicottville was lovely, the snow, the lights. I bet Jacob that EBC wouldn’t be crowded. It wasn’t. We were seated right away. Reasoned that many delayed their arrival to the following day due to severe winter weather.

Drank two seasonal porters. Yum! Opted not to order dinner. Instead, I ate only a few appetizers. The others ordered food, though. Glenn picked up the dinner tab. Thanks Glenn!

Back to the room around 945pm. Very snowy and about 20 degrees. All were asleep by 11pm.