Last night, I got snowed in by a blizzard. Or snowed out by a blizzard. All depends on how you look at it.
I had to head over the mountains to the town of Livingston last night for a final dress rehearsal of a play I’m in (I may write more on this later). Right before I left Bozeman, the lightning started. Then thunder. Then rain. Then sleet. Then snow. Then all of it at once. It was like a meteorological jambalaya. Great. What lovely driving conditions…especially for going over a MOUNTAIN. My cast mate and I were carpooling, and we called our director right before we left to tell him we were going to be late, as Bozeman’s atmosphere was throwing a hissy fit. I prayed for our lives as we drove up and over the mountain…coming down it, it was barely even raining. Of course.
At the end of the night when it was time to head back, we were told it was starting to snow in the pass and that it was sticking this time. We hurried out of the theater and onto the road. About 10 miles out of Livingston, the wind was blowing so much snow up that it looked like someone had dumped a million tons of flour on the road and turned on a leaf blower the size of Big Ben. ย There was no visibility. Up ahead, we came across a line of semis that had pulled over and cars behind them that were wary about passing. We decided to take our chances and ended up being next to a semi whose cab started to slide in our direction as we tried to inch past. My heart started to jump into my throat and the rest of my started to panic as well. We weren’t going to be frozen to death; we were going to be squashed by a giant truck.
We finally got around the sliding truck, made it about ย a mile more, then came upon another backup of cars. We finally got to the front of the line where an ambulance was blocking the road and a man in a fire suit was waiting to talk to us.
“Hello beautiful,” he said to Alexis in a weirdly sleazy voice. What? Who starts off a conversation like that in a blizzard?
She was temporarily thrown, but then got to the point and asked what was going on. The guy stopped being shady long enough to tell us the pass was closed and we weren’t getting back to Bozeman that night.
We turned around and trudged back to Livingston, where we ended up being taken in by another cast mate and his wonderful family who made us grilled cheese before bed and crepes when we woke up. Thank you, you wonderful people! It was the first time I’d ever been snowed out of my home before, and you made it bearable ๐
So my favorite thing today is generous friends who take in stranded girls, give them a cozy bed, make them yummy food and do it all with a smile on their faces.
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Meteorological jambalaya.. ๐ Seven Brides for Seven Brothers popped into my head. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone talk about snowed over passes since that movie!
Is it possible you might have meant wary or leery? Or was it word jambalaya. ๐ However, I’m sure they were all very weary of the snow!