It wasn’t supposed to snow in Rome. The TV weather forecasters said the area below Atlanta would get snow on Tuesday, not us. So I drove to Huntsville Monday expecting it to be cold, but nothing else. By about the middle of the morning on Tuesday there was a little snow blowing around the parking lot where I work. There was so little I wasn’t sure whether it was snow or salt scattered by the building maintenance people. By then, though, it was snowing more at home, and Leah wanted me to leave early. So I left work at 1:30 Central Time for what would normally be a drive of a little over two hours. Six hours and an extra 130 miles later I pulled into our driveway.

The first two thirds of the drive was without incident. There was a little packed snow between the lanes on the climb from the Tennessee River outside Scottosboro (made infamous by the trial of the Scottsboro Boys) up onto Sand Mountain, but nothing serious. The rolling terrain on top of the mountain had a little snow, but the highway was mainly clear. The highway descending into Fort Payne (The Sock Capital of the World, and also home of the country music group Alabama) was almost clear, but there was a line of traffic trying to get up the grade going back towards Huntsville. The roads in Fort Payne were covered with a thin layer of packed snow. The temperature varied from around 15 to 19 F, so there was not much melting.

Downtown Fort Payne

The grade up Lookout Mountain on the other side of Fort Payne was covered with dirty, packed snow with a sprinkling of gravel, apparently from the highway department. The road over Lookout Mountain was also covered with a thin layer of packed snow, but it didn’t give the truck any problems. I thought I would be home fairly soon, despite driving slowly.

This should have been a clue.

Why are those trucks parked there?

The trucks were parked in a lot in front of a little gas station and general store a couple of miles from the grade down the mountain. When I was about a quarter mile from the start of the grade, there was a tanker truck sideways across both lanes and a line of cars on the other side waiting to go down the hill. I was about a half an hour from home, but I had no choice but to turn around and try another way. It was about 10 miles back to Fort Payne and the interstate.

To make a long story short, I ended up driving up Interstate 59 to Interstate 24 to Chattanooga, and then down Interstate 75 to the Rome exit. I drove a significant portion of  those extra 130 miles at between 30 and 50, depending on how much snow was in the road and how much traffic there was.

I hadn’t driven our newish truck (2010 three-quarter ton Dodge with four wheel drive) in slippery conditions, but I was quite pleased with it. At one traffic light a rear-wheel-drive car spun its tires through the entire green light, while I pulled around and drove away without any problems. Leah was worried that I would have to park the truck at the bottom of the mountain and walk up. About four vehicles had made the one and a half mile drive up Lavender Mountain in the snow. The truck made it five.

It turns out that Lavender Trail is a regular highway for wildlife.

Dimly-lit, snow-covered road, with footprints

I think the tracks I saw were fox and deer. All three of the pictures here were made with my iPhone. The last one was pushing it, because I was relying entirely on the truck’s headlights.

There was about two inches of snow on the ground around our house, but one deck railing that was protected somewhat from the wind had four or five inches. I think that’s about what we got, but the wind blew it around and prevented much accumulation.

This is the second time I have had to do this. About four years ago the same thing happened, only with more snow.

Apparently traffic in Atlanta was pretty much a nightmare. Roads were impassable and emergency shelters were opened for stranded drivers. There are school and business closings for Wednesday all over the state. It’s amazing what an inch or two of packed snow can do to traffic here in the South.