Kentucky had gotten over 16 inches of snow in a nine hour period.  That coupled with temps in the teens would put most states in a flux.  For a Southern state with few plows, it was a nightmare.

As the early evening hours stretched into the early morning hours, people for the most part it seemed, were asleep.  Not me.  Even my husband snored beside me.   For one thing it was cold.  We were trying to conserve gas since we had no idea how long we might be there.  There was also the problem of exhaust fumes.  To our left was a semi, directly ahead of him was a bus.  Right in front of us just happened to be someone with a bad muffler.  As I had tried to back away from him as much as space would allow, he would back up as well.  He also rarely shut off his car, hence we couldn't run our heater for long.

Fortunately, I believe stress caused constipation, so I didn't have any problems in that regard, but a girl has to pee!  The only thing in the car "suitable" to pee in was a large McDonald's drink cup.  Naturally I could pee more than the cup could hold, so it was tricky.  Since we were on the outside lane, my husband would cover the passenger window, I would pee, stop, open door, dump, finish peeing and dumping.  It's not like no one knew what was going on, we were all in the same boat; but at least I felt like I had a little dignity.  I might add that once we were able to finally move, I realized I had never seen so much yellow snow in my life!

As the inky night sky gave way to twinkling stars, it seemed much too eerie.  And then it began lightning.  Strange blue white flashes.  No thunder.  That's when I really began to wonder if we were going to make it out.

As daylight cast it's first shadows over the hills to my left it brought little hope.  It looked the same as the day before and no one was there to rescue us.  I had listened to the radio all night.  People knew we were there.  The traffic stoppage was said to be 20 miles long (all the way back to Louisville) and involved more than 500 vehicles.   But it was almost as if the state was saying, well I guess they will have to wait there until it melts, because we can't respond!  Here's the curious thing.  State Hwy. 31 runs along side I-65.  It had been plowed!  All through the night I had watched the occasional car move along it.

11 AM- 25 hours after we had been stopped and more than 48 hours since we had left for the "10 hour" drive home.  Traffic was moving!!!!  We were going home!!

Not so fast.

As we inched forward it was clear that we were being told to queue up in the right lane.  People were polite, pretty much every other car was merging.  Much to my surprise we were very near the front of the pack.  We were being directed off the highway.  The exit had a gas station/store and a truck stop.  Since we were near the front we were able to slip into the gas station and top off the tank.  We also went into the store and bought what we could as far as food to eat out of hand.  It had been more than 24 hours since we had eaten.  We were also able to get a plum parking spot off to the side, so as not to have to walk far for the bathroom/store etc.  But still, the situation looked bleak.  The radio was telling us that this was it.  The National Guard was blocking the highway and we were to stay put.

We had managed to get gas and food and a parking spot by about 12:30 PM.  At 5 PM they were still pulling cars off the Interstate.  With no where to park close, many were not even able to enjoy the amenities that we had enjoyed.  Amenities were brief however.  By that evening the gas station/store was out of gas, mostly only had pet food left and had closed the toilets because they were over-flowing.  It was also about this time that we were really hating those in motor homes as they pulled out their grills and ate well.

We were really getting hungry.  I decided that I would hike to the truck stop and get food for us.  Two hours later when I reached the front of the line, I was told they only had potatoes left.  Potatoes? 

When I returned empty handed, hubby already knew the situation.  They had broadcast on the radio the dire need for food and volunteers to this exit.  Apparently it had not happened.

Another long sleepless night.  The bright side was that we could run the car a little longer for heat, I had made sure no one could park in front of me!

Part 3~ The treacherous final trek and home at last!!!