Winter Storm On Long Island 2010

I arrived at Diana's tonight..Rowayton Connecticut.

I tried getting here yesterday but mother nature took charge and forced me to turn around and head back home...what a delusional experience.

I was traveling west bound on the LIE - got on at exit 42 and made it to exit 39 before deciding Connecticut was not going to be in tonight's plans.Flashes of sleeping in my car and waking to a mountain of snow covering my vehicle didn't help either. I remember Diana's last words, "leave now or you will get caught in the storm". Caught in the storm...more like eaten up by the storm" !

The snow flakes were falling big and moist-the kind perfect for making snowmen and packing snowballs hard enough to give black and blues.As these frantic-white fluffy wonders made contact with the warm glass of the windshield, physics took over and behold..."windshield wiper popsicles". Just what we need in the middle of a blizzard ! Solid iced wipers slowing down in speed as their weight accumulated with every "swish". Back and fourth, back and fourth-I went from high speed to low speed hoping the ice would some how fall off or shatter in order for them to do what they do best...make driving visible.

I lost my cel phone during one of the several times I had to stop in order to beat the ice off. As I continued to drive (I could have walked faster than I was moving) I began to notice an accumulation of stopped cars building up on my right along the shoulder lane. It wasn't long after this "car cemetery" began to work it's way to the center and left lane also. Made me stop to wonder for a moment what that driver we had in drivers ed class would be doing right now, you know-the one who always hit the curbs when trying to park and waited over 60 seconds before leaving stop signs. The visibility was below imaginable.

I continued to "crawl". What a sight, the SUV I rented was as helpless as a baby pup making it's way to it's mothers nipple. I thought these monstrous sized vehicles were built for conditions of this magnitude...wrong!

All the exits I needed to take had a 3 foot pile of snow blocking the ramp.It seemed hopeless trying to get off the Long Island Expressway.The plow trucks came around to plow but blocked the exit ramps with 3 foot piles of snow.Yes,at this point you could say I began to panic a bit...worried of running out of gas,worried I was "phone-less" and worried the sight of my warm bed was going to be exactly that....just a sight ! It was a jungle out there.

My Tarzan arrived to save the day. It was an 18wheeler truck who needed to get off the same exit I needed that was going to take me home. Almost 3 hours had passed, a few more moments waiting patiently for the truck to maneuver it's way to plow through the exit was the least of my worries.I backed up as much as possible in order to make way. I exited my car to help guide traffic away from the outer lane for the truck to back up enough in order to pick up speed to plow through that man made pile of snow blocking the ramp. Moments later, covered from head to toe with snow-my hair iced ,my jeans feeling like they had been bathed in starch and my face as red as baboons butt...I got back into my car and watched as the truck began to pick up speed. The first thing that came to mind were memories of the old Batman series, visions of "POW"..."BOOM" and sure enough...the road to freedom !

CHEF GUERRIERI