alexandra_thorn

Got up this morning at 7AM, got suited up, gathered my bags, and Tim and I walked the 3.8 miles to the Charlottesville Amtrak station to get on my way back to Boston.

Not a bad walk, and we stopped for ice cream at "Chaps", a nice little establishment in the historic downtown area. Chatted with the owner about the weather, shoveling strategies, and how different folks have been dealing with the situation. Then it was on to Amtrak...

...where the gentleman shoveling outside the station called out to us "The trains are cancelled."

Well, then.

We'd been pretty sure that Amtrak would be the only service that actually was reliably running in this weather, but no such luck. We had also checked the website before we headed out, but there was no information about delays at that point. Evidently the snow and ice can get into and cause problems with the switch mechanisms at track junctions.

So, we went *back* to "Chaps" passed along the news to the proprietor (in case he had opportunity to warn others), and grabbed lunch there while I made various phone calls and eventually got through to the Amtrak 800 number (it was busy the first 4 times I called and when I did get through to the recording I was notified that I could expect to speak to an agent in 23 minutes), and booked a ride on the 8:40AM train to Boston tomorrow.

Then Tim and I hiked back up to the parking lot where we'd left the car on Friday evening. Tim's father met us there -- about a mile from the house -- with shovels and brushes and after cleaning the snow off of the car, we decided to go ahead and dig our way out of the lot. Someone had evidently been through with a plow partway through the storm, but there were still about 8-12 inches to move on what Tim's dad estimates was a 200 foot path. We shoveled a pair of tracks for the tires, and lowered the snow between the tracks a bit to improve clearance. Fortunately, for the latter portion of the path we were able to join forces with another group who were digging out from the other side of the parking lot. Photos later.

Got the car clear, and drove back to the house, so I'll be able to get a ride to the train station tomorrow morning (keeping fingers crossed that everything's running well tomorrow). After getting back to the house we spent a good chunk of time clearing out a space for the car at the base of the driveway. The sun is shining and snow is melting, which is doing quite a bit to actually dry the pavement we've exposed.

Now I'm indoors and dry but rather hungry. It's a good feeling, though, as previously noted, not how I was expecting to spend my weekend.

Tim: "...stay tuned for the next episode of _The Prisoner_."
Me: "Hmm?"
Tim: "We didn't make it out this time."