Travel Advisory

Today, Sunday, February 20th is one of those days when travel is “not advised.” I usually travel on those kinds of days anyway just because I don’t like taking advice from people who don’t know the first thing about me or my plans for the day. Plus, I think that sometimes the weather people are too easily alarmed.

But today I may actually stay home because the weather people are throwing numbers around that make you get out of your chair and look out the window to check for yourself. There really is not that much to look at as the snowflakes are so thick and numerous it’s hard to see anything else.

So when the weather keeps you inside for another six weeks you have to look at the travel potential for any activity and plan accordingly. I was going to fix some plumbing but thought better of it as that kind of thing can get ugly with one wrong turn of a wrench, and I know from experience any do-it-yourself job can require multiple trips to the hardware store. So I’ll wait.

But sometimes you can’t wait. On our first Christmas as a married couple Rhonda and I were supposed to visit both sets of parents, her grandparents, and her uncle and aunt (as long as we would be in town). This often happens with young couples until old traditions are thrown out, new ones are established and somebody’s feelings get hurt.

With so many stops on Christmas Eve, I had planned on leaving the car running (because it was acting up) and we wouldn’t be at any one place for any length of time as in “Sorry we can’t stay, here’s your gift. Why yes, I would like something to eat thank you.”

Except on Christmas Eve the car wouldn’t start and the weather people were throwing out unsolicited suggestions about staying home. But, we couldn’t stay in our apartment either as the old boiler couldn’t keep up with the holiday heat demand. It was so cold we could see our breath.
So Rhonda called her dad and he drove from Carver to St. Paul to pick us up. Against the advice of the local meteorologists, he also drove us from Carver to Belle Plaine later that night so we could see my folks.

Another time when we were supposed to stay put and didn’t was my Dad’s decision. Rhonda and I had caught a ride with Mom and Dad to celebrate Thanksgiving with my sister, Colleen, and her family in Wisconsin. I think our car was actually working – but they had room in their van so why not? We had only been married a year or two so we had no traditions of our own.

I don’t watch the weather forecast that closely, but back then I was even less interested than I am now, so when Dad woke me up at 2 am on the Saturday after Thanksgiving I was surprised.

“Get up. There’s a big snowstorm headed this way.”

“Um, (trying to make sense of the situation and choose my words carefully), well, so?”
“I want to get on the road now to beat the storm,” he growled.

“Uh-huh,” I said. He was in one of those early-morning moods where you didn’t argue with him. I had learned this in high school when I would come home later than he thought reasonable.

So by 2:30 we were on the road headed back to Minnesota and straight into a blizzard. I sat up front for a couple reasons: I figured Mom and Rhonda would be happier in the back where they couldn’t see all of the cars and trucks sliding into each other or into the ditch, and if we were to crash I wanted to have a front-row seat.

It seems these storms always come on a holiday weekend. As I write this on Sunday night to meet the Monday deadline I have decided to cancel my Presidents Day plans as a travel advisory has been issued.