In which the weather can't make up its mind

We're home after our weekend adventure. I say "adventure" because after a beautiful spring day Friday, on Saturday a spring storm came through and threatened to snow us all in. By mid-morning, the interstate was closed west of us to the Wyoming line. Therefore, the people in charge decided to end the conference early: at noon Saturday, instead of five o'clock.

We got out of there at two, after tearing down the sound gear and packing up, etc. It was snowing pretty good, and had been for a couple of hours. After a while we drove into rain, and it rained on us most of the two and a half hours home. Shortly after we got home we heard the town sirens go off and learned that two tornadoes touched down a few miles from us.

It rained most of the night, turning to snow by morning. When we got up Sunday our electricity was off, and there was snow on the ground and snow stuck all over our trees. Good thing the trees haven't leafed out yet, or there would have been a lot of damage from the heavy, wet snow.

It was our Sunday on the worship team, so we got ready for church, and headed the van out. The interstate was covered with a thick layer of frozen slush, the wind was strong, and there was lots of snow in the air. It wasn't actually snowing much, but the high winds were whipping the snow around and visibility was very poor. Also, the road was slick and we kept sliding around. We could only go 35 mph. Then we noticed we were the only vehicle on the road, except for one sand truck/snow plow. After a very few miles Hubby decided this was ridiculous. At that rate our trip to church would take well over an hour instead of 45 minutes.

We called our worship leader and told her we were turning back, and at the next exit we discovered that the interstate was CLOSED. I'm not sure, but we might have only gotten on because of a fluke-- the gate post at our exit had been broken off by somebody sliding on the ice. (I had actually seen the broken post, and had said, "See? I told you that was a stupid place for a post on that curve! It's right where someone would hit it if they were going a little too fast and missed the corner." Which I always say because Hubby loves to play race car driver on the entrance ramp, and it always looked to me like he was going to hit that post!)

Since the interstate was closed, we couldn't go either west (on to church) OR east (back home) and had to drive gravel. It was pretty much white-out all the way. I'm glad we were only a few miles from home.

Back home, down in our little valley, it was once again a picture-postcard-perfect day. Very little wind, pretty snow on everything. Electricity back on. By afternoon, the temperature had come up and the roads cleared themselves nicely.

Today, it's sunny, but too windy and wet for Hubby to do the tree work he has lined up, so he is in the shop, making bowls on his turning lathe. Swede is here too-- Hubby called him up early and said, "We got pancakes and eggs, if you bring the bacon!" Swede has his turning lathe here too, and it's a party!