Wednesday, January 22, 2014

NYR 1-20-14

Snowshoe Mountain Resort is in a communication vacuum because of its proximity to this enormous radio astronomy observatory. This satellite thing looks like it could beam you right up, Scotty.  
(Two drive-by shots from different angles of this monstrosity that's out in the middle of nowhere.)

This thing is run by the National Science Foundation and I guess because cell phones interfere with intergalactic radio transmissions from outer space (this satellite thing is that big), the entire region is in a dead zone.

This is normally not a bad thing unless you're a) addicted to Facebook or b) a huge winter storm is barreling down on the region and you have no idea about it.  

Hello, my name is Susan and I'm addicted to Facebook.

Hello, my name is Susan and I'm addicted to storm warning messages being delivered to my phone as  the internet gods deem necessary. 

We woke up this morning and flipped on the news (there is cable) to see that a monster storm was approaching.  We didn't get overly freaked out and instead went out to ski.  We came in for lunch and I decided I was done for the day, so I showered and took my iPhone to the lobby of our lodge where they had wifi access.  That's when I realized the magnitude of the storm and when it finally hit me that the storm was going to arrive in Snowshoe around midnight and in Arlington around 7am the next morning.

And that's when I freaked out.  We had one more night in Snowshoe and would have to drive out of the storm and through it to get home.   

Our drive to Snowshoe had been fairly harrowing because more than half of the drive is on back roads in West Virginia.  Back roads = untreated roads when the snow and ice comes.  When we drove to WV, the temps ranged from 14 degrees to 22, and the roads were scary.  (Don't forget we drive a little Toyota that doesn't have big tires or chains.)

Jimmy and I discussed the storm and then he and Mac went out to ski for the afternoon. When they got back, they'd discussed it and decided we should drive back that night.  Which I completely agreed with.

We left Snowshoe about 4:50pm, saw about 120 deer grazing along the roadsides, nearly hit two deer and one overturned 5-gallon bucket (thank goodness for my mad driving skills!), stopped for dinner at the Dairy Queen and Arby's, and arrived home at 9:15.

I was never more thankful to be safe and sound in my apartment than when we got inside!


1 comment:

The Stone Rabbit said...

Oh my goodness, I am so glad you all made it home safely.

It seems all of our DC area friends are going to Snowshoe. I remember we would ski at Wisp, now I am starting to wonder how we even found Wisp and why we went there exactly. Ski in/Ski out lodging maybe? Or perhaps it was the coupon they often offered? Definitely have to try Snowshoe sometime.