1. The trip up
Remember how Vacation Brain won and we left Saturday? This turned out to be a Bad Idea, because parts of the northern lower peninsula of Michigan received up to 21 inches of snow Friday through Saturday. These parts included much of the area around Traverse City.
The freeway was pretty snowy, but didn't seem very icy. Theresa was driving, keeping a fairly steady speed around 50-55. As we passed the Big Rapids exit on 131 things got worse. We were no more than a half-mile past the on ramp the van began fishtailing. Theresa did everything right, but there was no recovery when traveling 50 miles per hour on glare ice. We ended up doing a 360 degree spin before leaving the pavement, and another 360 as we rocketed down the drifted embankment, coming to rest facing north (sort of) about 75 feet off the freeway.
After we said a prayer of thanks, I got out and saw that we had ended up between two incredibly unpleasant spots. About 75 feet behind us was a pond. About 75 feet ahead of us was a ridge with a stand of trees. The spot we went off the road was between the mile marker poles. We had spun twice while going 50 on ice, and had no suffered no damage while landing between two potentially deadly spots.
Theresa's new iPhone told us the nearest wrecker was 34 miles away. We called, and she told us we were out of their range. She tried to find a closer wrecker, but when I called the number she gave me, it was disconnected.
We tried to get the phone to help us, but Siri interpreted "I need a wrecker" as a request to find the nearest record store. I didn't realize Siri was old enough to even know what a record store was.
While we were being frustrated by technology (and trying not to call 911) someone stopped to see if we were Ok, then gave us the phone number to a local wrecker service. From memory. I was impressed. I no longer have the capacity to remember phone numbers, that's why I have contact lists on my phone.
30 minutes later the wrecker arrived. We were out after a 15 minute dance between our van and his winch, in which he used geometry to correctly pull us sideways up the hill in stages, moving his truck each time. It was fun to watch, and I don't think I was ever more happy to spend $85.
2. Saturday night in Traverse City
We finally got to Traverse City about 11:30. The trip up took us five hours, counting the hour in the ditch. In the summer this is a three hour trip. But there's no comparison. The fresh, deep winter show is incredibly gorgeous. We stopped once just to take a picture in the dark. All the pictures are on Theresa's new phone. I'll try to get them so I can post them.
As we drove down the main highway in town I commented that half the motels didn't have their lights on. I sarcastically asked what was wrong with these people, the town shouldn't shut down after 11. When we got to our hotel we figured out the trouble. Most of the town didn't have full power. The hotels were operating on generator power, they were sending power to the rooms to keep guests warm, not to the signs to get more guests inside.
Our room had a heater that worked, but the heater lacked both a fan and a thermostat. So we were cold when we got in the room, and added two extra blankets. Four hours later after the heater was on constantly I woke up feeling well done. Ridiculous that I would turn the heat off when it was under 20 degrees outside, but that's what I did. I was able to sleep another two hours before waking up for the day on Sunday.
More later...
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