Traffic . . . Was that what that was?

In the darkness of early afternoon here in Anchorage I experienced something the last two days that I had almost forgotten over the last 12 years or so . . . traffic.

It was really weird because it took me two days to realize what it was. We have had several days of snow and it continued to fall during the normal times of people getting off of work. With several accidents on any major road out of town there were fools driving too fast for the conditions that either slid off into the mediums or smashed into someone or something at the intersections.

Those unlucky enough to be driving out to the Mat-su valley found themselves with no where to go. Since one of our “Bridges to Nowhere” would actually help the residents with another route to escape if there is an accident or some problem it probably will never be built. But while sitting in traffic today there is talk of building the bridge with private investors who would make it a toll road . . . I’m sure the last two days many would gladly shell out the five bucks to get home. Most people probably spent over fifteen dollars sitting there for hours waiting for the accidents to be cleared.

Sorry for getting off track as I was not trying to be political tonight. My normal drive home from the office takes about 10 to 15 minutes but the last two nights it has taken me over fifty minutes tonight and an hour and fifteen minutes last night. It happened sort of serenely with the large snowflakes blowing around in the illuminated brilliance of the street lights or the headlights of the vehicles on the roadway that I did not realize it was happening to me. But there I was . . . sitting in my rig going about 15 miles per hour at first. Then I stopped at an intersection and gladly watched the snow dancing across my windshield checking to make sure the defroster was on the right setting and the fan motor was moving air so my wipers would not load up with ice making things more difficult to see.

I started up again and drove slowly for several more blocks before I found myself and everyone else sitting there . . . then move two car lengths only to stop again for several minutes. This continued all the way home with the last several miles only to find the right lane stopped completely. Those vehicles could go nowhere as this was a lane that would normally feed into the outbound Glen Highway. Tonight about tem miles away there were several accidents and the road shut down for several hours so those people were going no place any time soon.

I guess it is sometimes good to be reminded of past times in other places that drove you nuts happy not to be doing that any longer. My time in traffic was not too bad seeing the snow fly and watching people actually show others courtesy to each other when all of us could go nowhere fast.

Just another day in paradise.

Ice

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