So when I hear there's going to be a severe winter storm my first thought is let's take a trip to Montreal (Duh!! Isn't' that every one's first thought). So we hear the biggest storm of the century and Dan, Kristin and I head off for Steve's 31st B-day party. So, we start out on our adventure fully prepared, we rent the car, get full insurance, full up on gas and we're on our way. The first car you see in the ditch gets you kind of antsy, but when the first car is followed immediately by a second, an overturned truck and the car in front of you spins up, antsy is no longer the word. Dan thinking out loud questions why they're ending up in the ditch and we're not and then in classic Shakespeare fashion foreshadows the day's events by telling us he thinks we'll end up in the ditch.
The first time we get stuck (trying to turn into a service station parking lot) I realize my hairstyle is probably not going to make it all the way to Montreal (honestly my biggest concern at the time). We were caravaning with Tibor and Steph and at this point I think we we're only like 30 minutes behind them (that would change!) After Dan and I fruitlessly try to get us out of the ditch a saviour comes along in the form of a very large and angry truck driver, who basically single handedly pushes the car out of the snow. A little damp we continue on our way.
Around 6:30 (by this point Kristin's been driving for almost 8 hours) we stop for some nourishment. Towards the end our meal some police officers stop in and you can hear them talking about all the stupid people (we chose to believe they we're talking about specifically the cars ending up in ditches and not just those of us on the road). We shortly thereafter head out and not even 5 minutes later we're sitting there in the ditch. To make a long story very short apparently we did not have all the insurance we thought we did and ended up being rescued by Rick the tow truck man. Rick kindly warns us that the smartest thing to do would be to get off the road for at least a couple of hours. We thank him for his help and advice and (of course) continue on our way.
We get behind a plow and think smooth sailings are ahead. We smoothly sail right of the highway onto an off ramp not realizing the plow had been getting off. We follow it to a service station to change drivers and promptly get stuck for the second time. Two plow drivers eventually come to our aid and we're off again.
Apparently, the day had not been challenging enough as the weather at this point decided to Fuck with us (I hate to swear, but there are no other words to express the extent of how awful, horrendous, just plain mean the weather became). Complete white outs. We slow to a crawl but persevere we do.
We finally make it to Montreal and happen to show up on Steve and Suzy's street at the same time as Steph and Tibor (another long story as they should have been there hours ahead of us). We're looking for parking as T decides he's going to park in the gas station parking lot and we watch in horror as he's car gets stuck. Thinking we don't want to end up in the same situation we turn at the street and go to pull a u-turn and of course we get stuck for the 3rd and final time. So although we made it to Montreal around midnight, we didn't actually get inside until after 1 am. We gave Steve one of the biggest surprises I'm sure he's ever received and stayed up talking until 8 in the morning.
The big question: Was it worth it??
Abso-fricking-lutely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
