What was to be a smooth trip home turned out to be an all-night drive!  I flew to Nashville and caught the shuttle back to Chattanooga.  Having lived in Chicago for many years, I am accustomed to snow.  But Chattanooga and the South isn’t!  We were supposed to get a pretty good storm.  But I figured I’d get in before the snow began to accumulate.  30 minutes into our 2 hour shuttle ride, it began to snow.  30 minutes later, we had a few inches.  I could tell that the driver of our shuttle wasn’t accustomed to these conditions.  He made the mistake of pulling over and calling base to tell them he was going to wait and see what was going to happen.

WAIT AND SEE?  I though to myself- LET ME DRIVE!  I can get us back to Chattanooga.  Time spent sitting around was wasted time.  The shuttle that left an hour behind us caught up to us.  The driver of that shuttle convinced our driver to follow him.  But as soon as we got on I-24, our van fell back.  Not long after, the other driver convinced our driver to pull over, leave his van, and put all the passengers in one van.  By this time, there were probably 6 inches of snow on the ground.  We were in Monteagle, and I was afraid they might close the freeway.  It was probably 3:30 AM by now.  A few minutes after passing Monteagle, we got word that the TNDOT had closed the freeway.

We arrived at the shuttle facility at 6 AM.  We SHOULD have arrived at 1:30.  By the time I cleared nearly 9 inches of snow on my vehicle and made my way home, SLOWLY, it was 7 AM.  What a night!  I got home exhausted and went to bed.  But I praised the Lord for getting home safely.

When I woke up, Chattanooga and where I live was a winter wonderland.  Needless to say, I didn’t leave the front door for a couple of days!  People often tell me:  “traveling must be so exciting”.  After weekends like this, I think to myself “you have NO idea just how exciting it is!” 🙂