Marooned in VT!

It's been an interesting morning in Vermont. We woke up to a couple of inches of new snow on the ground. This continues the streak: it's snowed at least a little every day we've been here this year.

So, there's new snow on the ground and Jennifer lives up on the side of a mountain. No problem if you've got a four wheel drive vehicle. However, Dad has a Dodge Caravan. Two wheel drive. We had no problems making it through the paved (and flat) roads that lead you back to the foot of the mountain. But to get to Jennifer's driveway, you must turn and go up a steep gravel-and-dirt road that leads you up the mountain to her driveway. The dirt road hasn't been a problem to navigate all week, but then again, there hasn't been 2-3 inches of new snow all week, either.

So, we started up the mountain. There was faint trace that another vehicle had been on the road recently, but even it was starting to get covered over. Our tracks from coming down the mountain late last night? Nowhere to be seen.

The grade started to get steeper and I noticed Dad was fighting the steering wheel to keep the car out of the ditch. He looked over at me, eyes wide open and a semi-frightened look on his face. And then the tires started spinning. We had lost our momentum and it wasn't looking good. I started smelling the rubber heating up on the tires. I guess it wasn't enough heat to melt away the snow and expose the dirt and gravel. We were stuck.

We all evacuated the van and Mom got in the driver's seat. Dad, Olivia and I got behind the van and began pushing while Mom burned the rubber off of the tires. She got about 5 feet further than we had previously gotten, but gravity was forcing the van off into the ditch. She stopped before it was too late.

The 1/2-mile trek up the mountain in the snow was bitterly cold. None of us had gotten dressed this morning prepared to hike halfway up Spring Hill road.

So here we are at Jennifer's house. She's not feeling very good this morning, so we'll probably be hanging out here for a while. We had originally planned on going to Burlington and a few other places today.

The snow is still coming down outside. Even harder than before. It's going to be interesting to get the van back down the mountain. It's so peaceful up here, just sitting here watching the snow fall. No cars rushing by. No neighbors being loud. Just big fat fluffy flakes of snow. And me.

Too bad we're leaving tomorrow.

Posted by Jeff at December 30, 2001 12:34 PM