I left a hour early for work. It normally takes a good, solid thirty minutes to get there, but I knew there were going to be some traffic problems with the wind and that I would probably have to go 60 instead of my normal 80.
The traffic lights were out, which means there were a dozen or so vehicles stopped at the four-way intersection treating it like a stop sign. This also meant that there was no power for breakfast and with no milk in the fridge I was starving for some breakfast. Handsome Husband agreed to drive ahead of me to his work and then we would stop by for some standard American breakfast loaded with grease. En route to the freeway we had to turn around once due to fallen trees.
Legacy, the resident highway that semi trucks are not allowed on except on special occasions was packed with cars going 30 mph. It runs along 1-15 for a little bit right where we enter the freeway and it was a little mind blowing to see that many people on it since it is regularly avoided because of the slower speed limit. And then to see all the semis on the freeway lined up, combined with a few tipped looking like huge caterpillars upside down, their wheels sticking up in the air like numerous legs. If that's not intimidating, I don't know what is.
I couldn't get myself to push harder than 40 mph and found myself in the slow lane not even being passed. The fastest anyone was going was maybe 50. 8:00 on a workday morning, this is completely unheard of. I was shaking and trembling and didn't even know how truly terrified I was until I pulled off at the Centerville exit, only 5 miles from home. We found a desolate town. No one had power and there was no way we were finding any breakfast, anywhere. The restaurants had the manager's car parked in the drive-thru to keep people from entering. I was crying by this point and was having a hard time staying focused on anything but the wind beating on my little car, causing it to weave here and there.
We drove to Les Schwab where the power was also out and traded places. I couldn't talk on the phone at this point so Handsome Husband called up my work and told them there was no way I was coming in today and we turned around and he took me back home. The only daunting thing about this was that he would come home for lunch and then I would have to drive the car back so that he could bring the jeep back home later that night. I was almost tempted to just hang out with the guys the whole day to avoid any more driving.
Not being in the driver's seat put me at ease. As much ease as can be found when you look out and see destruction all around you. We took the frontage road and there were branches on houses, trees that had lifted up and fallen, taking chunks of grass with them. One yard was completely torn up and hanging by the tree's roots. A ravine had collected 15 or more garbage cans that had been blown away from their homes and there was a warning on the radio to avoid 400 in Centerville due to all of the trampolines out on the road.
Steven dropped me off at home to a cold house where there was nothing but crackers to eat that didn't take some re-heating or baking of some kind. I pulled on some sweats and two sweatshirts and a blanket and curled up on the couch where there was the most light and read for a couple of hours before falling back asleep, despite the wind tearing at everything in sight of the window. I definitely would have preferred to be at work but later when I heard about 1-15 northbound closures due to the overturned semis I was grateful that Steven had taken things into his own hands and called me in as not available.
And thus Handsome Husband found me curled up on the couch when he got home for lunch. The power had come on sometime while I was sleeping but he reported that it was still out at Les Schwab but they were all hanging out there waiting for it to come back on. We headed out into the elements again and he remarked at how weird it was that it still so windy in Farmington because the wind was basically done in Centerville. Weird or not, it was nice not to be thrown all over the road once we got on the freeway.
There was no one on the freeway. Everything was shut down in town. It was all kind of creepy. I guess power zaps everything. On my way home I took yet another route seeing another semi tipped on the frontage road. It was a more residential street but one that happens to go from one city to the other, the old highway. There were construction workers out all over the place cutting up fallen trees and brushing limbs out of the street. I didn't see any trees on cars or houses, but there were plenty that came within feet. I was glad to get home and wait out the rest of the wind that was still banging our doors and pushing on the windows. It was a lonely day at home accompanied only by the outside forces but I was safe, besides the wind blowing our fence in.
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