inclement driving

1 - We ended up spending one extra night in Rochester, MN due to blizzard conditions in Iowa.  Most of the roads we were supposed to drive down on yesterday were labeled online as "Travel Not Advised" so we waited to leave until late this morning.  Unfortunately, after waiting the one night there was an even larger portion of our route that was designated, "Travel Not Advised."

2- The number of glasses of Shiraz I had once we made it home.  My nerves are finally settling.  Also the same number of times this has happened to us in just as many months.

3- Roughly the number of hours I spent listening to NPR so I could hear a voice to keep me awake as my eyes battled against the blinding glare of the sun on drifting snow which makes me sleepy.

4- Our total number of stops.  Two for gas and two for food.

5- The number of Tractor-Trailers that were off the road.  Three of these had jackknifed and ended up facing the opposite direction they had been traveling.

6- The average temperature for the majority of the trip.  This of course doesn't include Wind-chill which we kept hearing on the radio was somewhere between -11 and -25.

7:39- The number of hours and minutes today's trip would normally take.

8 or 9- The number of hours I'm hoping to sleep after I finish that second glass of Shiraz.

11:23- The number of hours and minutes today's trip actually took.

88- The total number of vehicles I saw spun out in the median or the side of the road during the trip home.  This doesn't take into account the ones I missed during the times I was too busy trying to figure out where the road was.

100%- The level of happiness I have over the fact that our next road trip (in addition to being a few weeks away) sees us driving down to Huntsville, AL; during which we are about as likely to run into another blizzard as we are to be abducted by Elvis impersonating aliens.