Today was a monumental day for me (along with many others) in the Czech Republic. For the most part it was a pretty typical Monday. Our team just came off of Thanksgiving break so we were ready to get back to work in the Josiah Venture office with some specific tasks and projects. It was pretty chilly this morning though, so before leaving the house I decided to grab an extra jacket and a pair of gloves. Turns out that they would serve me well!
I was returning home from an errand I had to run in another part of town this afternoon and all of a sudden it started to rain. I thought that was kind of odd since the temperatures were below freezing. There was a point where I actually texted Shay, a friend and colleague of mine and said, "It's 21* and raining, how is this possible?" He simply replies with "Welcome to the Czech Republic." I then proceed to drive home.
Soon I began to notice that the ground was getting pretty slick. The other cars were driving way slower than normal and I finally realized that the rain was freezing to the road as it sprinkled down. The backroad home that I was driving on was now a giant speed skating course. In that moment, I knew my chances of getting home on time were going to be slim.
As I approached a very large hill with a long line of small stereotypical european cars, my dreams came true (the bad ones at least). For the next five hours I would sit at the bottom of the hill just waiting and praying that the salt truck would come by to save me from the abyss of, "freeze valley: you don't want to be here when it get's cold."
There was no way out. My only hope was the freshly new winter tires that I had recently replaced on the car. But there was no plow truck, no tow truck, no salt truck, no nothing. And it was only getting colder. For five hours I waited, just me and the dogs in the back seat, and all of the other people who had found themselves in the same situation.
Finally after the fifth hour, I began noticing people turning around and heading the other direction in their cars. One guy then comes up and knocks on my window and tells me that everyone thinks they can get out going the other way. "Super!" I say. This sounds like a good plan to me at this point. Beats freezing in the car. I turn on the engine and instead of following everyone else, I decide to gun it up the hill. It worked! I felt like the king of the mountain, completely blowing everyones minds that I was able to take on the beast of Mr. Freeze hill. So I just kept driving. I drove all the way home. The roads were pretty safe after that, so thankfully I had no further issues. Praise the Lord!
All in all, today was a good day. I got some work done and was able to experience something that not everyone in the world gets to experience...an ice storm in a foreign country with two dogs in the back of the car. And now I bid you a good night! Here's to living in the Czech Republic!
Here are some photos from when before the rain came.
