Much to everyone’s disappointment, we all agreed to postpone the performance in Rockford on Saturday evening. The weather went from bad to worse during the afternoon. By the evening, we had about 15″ of snow and below zero temperatures. It just wasn’t safe for anyone to be out in this kind of weather.
We stayed in the hotel all day working on projects and trying to relax. When I got up this morning, I called the Michigan State Police to check on the roads. All highways and interstates heading out of Grand Rapids were in treacherous condition. I was told to go east toward Lansing; that the roads were wet but clear. I knew the storm was going to move that direction so woke up Cindy and called David and Kylie. We got ready as fast as we could and were on the roads by 9am heading EAST to go WEST, SOUTH to go NORTH. This was going to be a backward trip.
As we drove toward Lansing, the roads did NOT get better! It took us more than 3 hours to drive 60 miles! Treacherous – dangerous – scary – snow-packed – icy. Those are better words to describe I-96 East. And they didn’t clear up until we started south on I-69 toward Fort Wayne, IN….and not until we got south of Coldwater, Michigan. It seemed like we were in the clear until we got on the Indiana Toll Road heading toward Chicago. Around South Bend, the roads got bad again. We watched a guy towing a MotorSports trailer almost wreck when he lost control of his trailer on the roads. We pulled over to make sure he was okay, gave him some names/numbers of towing people and got back on the road.
The weather finally cleared completely and we made great time getting through and around Chicago. We made it all the way to Wisconsin Dells, where we are spending the time. It is DANGEROUSLY cold outside with temperatures below zero and windchills that are breath-taking.
In the morning, we’ll pick up Keith as we drive through Minneapolis and head on to Grand Rapids, MN.
God kept us safe today. There’s certainly no doubt about that!