Snow storm 2009 Part One

Well if you remember the storm I talked about here then you may know why I haven't posted yet.  We went to VA Beach for Jason's company christmas party.  We had a great dinner Friday evening with everyone.  Bailey even won $10 because her name got pulled out of the deck of cards.  Thanks RPM for a wonderful evening.

Saturday we headed out to shop ALL day.  It was probably the worst day to shop because it rained so hard all day.  But I didn't let it stop us from finishing up with christmas gifts.  I have lots to wrap now!!

We then get up Sunday morning to head back home.  We knew of all the snow everyone had between VA and WV and couldn't wait to get home to play in it.  We bought Bailey a snow suit a few weeks ago preparing for a big snow. 

We heard different roads were closing through the weekend but, figured they were opened by the time we started home.  We had a few friends that were stuck on the WV Turnpike for 21 hours because of the weather. 

Obviously, it didn't snow at all in VA beach. This is right before going in the tunnel on Hampton roads.

The snow started to get bad once we got around the Richmond area. We left Sunday morning around 9 thinking that it was late enough for some of the ice and snow to melt. This was the first car we saw that slid off the road. This one had just recently happened.

If you look to the right there is a truck off the road.

This is the way the road was the whole time.  Obvsiously, there was only one lane open for most of the ride.  Sometimes the fast lane would be cleared.

Please notice the speed we are going!

This is the road when we got past Richmond.

A van on the left side of the road.

We continued to call 511 on road conditions.  That is the number you call when you want to know road conditions in VA.  Well it didnt tell anything about road closings or delays.  The only thing they repeated was the roads were icy and wet and road crews were in the process of cleaning everything up.  So no one really knew what to expect.  Then we see a sign up ahead that could have told drivers what to expect  further ahead.  WRONG!  As if we couldn't tell the roads were icy there was a sign to tell us.

Another abandoned car covered in snow on the right.

3 more cars.....

I have never seen a snow blower before so I thought I would share.  We even got to drive under the snow!!

Another car wrecked....

Usually a trip from Va Beach to WV usually takes about 7 hours with a toddler.  Well we only made half the trip yesterday and that took us about 6 hours.  We had no intentions of stopping when we left that morning.  But when we saw the traffic in the next picture we knew we couldn't sit in the car with Bailey to get through that. 

We ended up getting a hotel  around 3:30 and staying the night.  We went to a small mall and out to eat and got back to our room around 6.  I talked to a couple that were traveling from San Diego to Fairfax VA see their grandchildren and they had just checked in to the last room that early in the day. 

I will save the second part of the trip for the next post!