Well, I just got back after a leaving for a "4-hour" drive late yesterday 
morning...

I found an '87 Westy for sale in Maryland with only 38,000 miles (!), and 
decided to go check it out yesterday.  (Bought it, by the way. Very nice. 
Any takers, at a very fair price?)  The weatherman was predicting a couple 
of inches of snow or slush at night, so I thought I'd get an early start 
and be back well before dinner and the snow (not that I was all that 
worried about driving in an inch of snow anyway).

Paid for the van, and got back on the road for home. There was freezing 
drizzle falling in Md., nothing major.  Until I got a few miles into Pa. on 
Rt. 10.  WHAM!!!  A blizzard!  Six inches of snow already on the unsalted 
roads, 50 mph winds blowing the snow (and the van) so badly you couldn't 
see anything, and all the while the radio announcer insisting that it was 
raining.  And I'm on a 2-lane rural road in the middle of nowhere, full of 
steep hills and curves.  After passing two multi-car pileups, looking for 
the next town, I found myself stuck at the bottom of a steep hill.  Front 
wheel drive Japanese cars were passing me, but all my Vanagon (with 
Bridgestone LT tires) would do was spin.  Finally a big tractor pulled me 
up the hill. By now I knew I was in deep trouble.  No matter which way I 
went, it would be up and down equally bad hills.  Turning back wouldn't 
help, and I was midpoint between the two closest towns.  So I decided to 
press on.  Made it a few miles further, got pulled up another hill (boy did 
my Vanagon handle the snow like sh*t compared to my old '77 bus!), and then 
finally came to a long line of cars going nowhere. It seems another group 
of cars had collided ahead, and others were stuck in the valley between two 
hills just like I had been.  

So I waited.  And waited.  After two hours, I walked to the nearest house 
and called Evon (wife) and Westy (dog), who had expected me for dinner 
hours before. After another two hours, I heated up some soup on the stove 
and made the bed, figuring I'd be there for the night.  Until a volunteer 
fireman drove by, and knocked on my window.  "Rt. 10 will be impassable 
until at sometime tomorrow, and all the other major roads in the area are 
closed," he said. "The Red Cross has set up an emergency shelter at the 
firehouse.  Turn around and follow me."

Bad idea.  I made it about 50 yards, halfway up the first hill, and 
promptly got stuck again, sliding backwards down the hill and ending up 
smack in the middle of the road.  The volunteer fireman was by now 
disappearing in the distance.  I had to get the Vanagon to the side the 
road so plows and emergency vehicles could get by!  Finally I did, but I 
completely toasted my brand new clutch in the process.  So I was stuck in 
the snow, with a clutch that was stuck in the "disengaged" position, almost 
out of gas, in the middle of a blizzard.  I finally caught a ride to the 
firehouse at about 2 am, slept on the floor in wet clothes, and started 
calling towing companies at 6 am until, at noon today, the roads finally 
reopened so a tow truck could reach me.

So I just now walked in the door, a full twenty four hours after I planned 
to.  To find that while I was gone, a tree fell over in the high winds and 
is blocking my driveway.  Now I have to go out and chop it up with an axe 
so my wife can get her car in the driveway.

I just want to sleep... 

(Oh, and if you e-mailed or called The Bus Depot over the last 2 days, 
please be patient; I'll start catching up right after a nap and dinner.)

-Ron
 The Bus Depot
 (tired, wet, and not really feeling like chopping up a tree - but home!!)