The real reason I finally got my driver’s license is because I’m starting a new job tomorrow (Dec 17) and my husband has to go out to California for a business trip. Even though the place I work at is closer than the school I used to ride my bike to every other day, it is now December, and that means lots of snow and cold.
Hopkins airport isn’t too far away, but I still felt uncomfortable driving home after dropping my husband off. I decided to not go on the highway for two reasons: I’m not comfortable surrounded by many cars and it was windy. There’s a large bridge crossing the Cuyahoga River Valley (hereafter referred to as “The Big Fuck-Off Bridge,” as that is what I titled it after seeing it for the first time). I’m terrified of it. TERRIFIED.
So I took some side streets. I had planned to go a particular way, but this morning it was raining. It had snowed last night, so there was double the water trying to go through the drainage system of the area. Even with normal amounts of precipitation, the way I wanted to go floods. I decided to go another way instead, a way I’d never been before to get home. I followed the signs out of the airport and just went north.
I decided to go north until I saw a cross street I recognized the name of. It took a while because I was about 250 city blocks west of my neighborhood and on the other side of the valley. I eventually started heading east. After about 90 blocks, I decided to start going south, since I knew I was too far north, the next angled street I saw. I followed it and was happy at how few people were taking it.
It had started to snow lightly as I’d left the airport, and it hadn’t picked up much as I was driving. If I’d just taken the highway home, I’d have been back in 20 minutes at the most. I wasn’t even paying attention to the time, but I knew I’d been traveling for longer than that.
The angled road twisted and turned but wasn’t confusing at all, thankfully. Eventually I got to the valley and had to cross it. This road had a bridge, so at least I didn’t have to go looking for one. It wasn’t as big as the Big Fuck-Off Bridge, but it was still pretty big. There was wind, but not a single car shared the bridge with me, not even goin the other way. I was in no crash-danger.
I got across and started checking the street names. I didn’t know how far south I was now, but I knew I was still north of home. The name of the street I was on had changed, and it was now something I knew from my bike travels and I no longer felt out of place. I knew exactly how to get home. The snow was now forming bigger flakes.
Around 11:30 I got home and parked the car in the garage. I called my mom (because this is so exciting to me I had to share).
Around 12:30 I looked outside and saw that in the past hour, there was two inches of accumulation. I’m happy I got home when I did.
Fifteen minutes ago my husband IM’d me to say that he’s waiting to get on a new plane because the windshield cracked!
I’m sure this is all very interesting to all of you reading (hi mom and dad).
edit 13:22 ] His flight has been canceled due to the blizzard. He has to catch the next flight out.
edit 17:26 ] Husband has boarded the plane and is hopefully on his way to LAX.
