Chicago and much of the country was hit by a blizzard yesterday.
We were hit hard here.
It is still snowing today!
We made it through our first blizzard and by "made" it... we literally barely made it home last night.
Yesterday morning we heard on the news that the storm would hit by 3 pm.
Mike usually works in Hyde Park (30 mins. south of us) from noon to 6 pm. I decided to
ride down there with him and study at the library until he finished. I assumed we would only really be in Hyde Park until 3 or 4 pm. Mike had to tutor some kids and stay with them until their parents arrived home. I figured the parents would get off early and we would be back home by 5 pm at the latest.
That's what I thought...
I didn't get a call from Mike until around 5:30 pm, he said the parents were home and he was on his way to pick me up. On a "normal" day, it would have taken about 10 mins for him to get
to the library. This however, was NOT a normal day. By 5:30 pm the snow was starting to
accumulate and there were 40 mph wind gusts. Standing at the doors of the library,
waiting for Mike, I could not see down the street. It was a complete white out.
6:00 pm Mike finally gets to the library. He is looking very nervous and tells me that it is really really bad out there.
We considered staying with friends in Hyde Park but we didn't have anyone to care for Miles.
We at least had to try to drive home.
Lake Shore Drive is the main road running North and South along the lake. It has 4 lanes running North and 4 running South. Mike drives it daily. If you live a few miles from the lake and need to get North or South, you take Lake Shore drive.
We started out on Lake Shore drive around 6:10 pm and everything was white. Visibility was about 20 feet in front of us... maybe less. The wind was blasting snow from all directions and
were were almost the only car on the road. We slowly made it the 7 miles to downtown by 6:40 pm. The snow was piling up along Lake Shore but we just kept moving.
By 6:45 pm we made it to a massive traffic jam just past Navy Pier and this is where we stayed for the next 2.5 hours. Moving only feet at a time.
Unaware of what was going on we tried the radio and eventually used the 'DAD app' on my phone. Yes, Dad application. We are without a smart phone and just call family when we need
information. Usually we call my Dad who is quick with the internet and always happy to help :0)
My dad informed us that there was a major accident on Lake Shore Drive and the City had closed it down.
WHAT? We were ON Lake Shore Drive, they can't close it down while people are on it!
Oh yes they can and they did.
By around 9:15 pm we noticed that some cars were exiting Lake Shore Drive via jumping a curb and driving up an on-ramp into the city. Mike looked at me and we knew it was our only chance. By this time people were starting to abandon their cars around us!
We realized our choices were to stay on a traffic locked Lake Shore Drive until we were rescued OR jump the curb and try our luck through the city.
So we tried our luck... it was pretty scary but we some how made it up snowy streets, through downtown, and onto Clark Street. It was almost impossible to recognize where
we were. At one point we were driving down Michigan Ave. in the middle of downtown (the magnificent mile) and we had no idea what street we were on.
Slowly but surely, passing cars stuck in huge snow banks, city buses stuck in the snow, tow trucks struggling to get out of giant drifts and people wondering around the streets, we made it to our neighborhood. We managed to park the car (illegally) and muscle our way to the door of our apartment. We had made it home by 10:30 pm. Only 5 hours from the time we left.
But we made it. We kept track of the news and many people on Lake Shore Drive were not so lucky and stayed there almost all night.
We decided to take a walk around our neighborhood this morning, we walked past a man shoveling his stairs and Mike asked him if he had seen a storm like this before. "Not since the late 60's..." That he could remember.
Here are some pictures from around our neighborhood.
Our Backyard... or it was our backyard, now it is just used for snow storage.
Fearless blizzard driver / my hero!
This bus slid to the side of the road and by the time we discovered it, it was abandoned.
This car belongs to our neighbor. You can just see the sides. Luckily it is bright yellow. Can't miss it.
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