So, after reading the Chicago blizzard thread, I tut-tutted a bit and moved along. I've got a decent-ish selection of stuff in the back of the minivan, and figured I was pretty well prepared for winter travel. But for me, the biggest hurdle was not gear, but information, and the lack of it.

We spent the Presidents Day weekend visiting family in Columbus, and left Monday about 2 p.m. on our return trip. The weather had been warmish, and when we left it was overcast and perhaps low 40s/high 30s. The drive is normally 2.5 hours. We topped off the tank and started the easy drive back.

About 1.5 hours into the drive, we got rain, which shifted to slush, then worked its way to snow accumulating on the interstate. We dropped from the normal 65 mph down to, at times, 25 mph. We began seeing LOTS of Ohio Highway Patrol presence on the roads as they cleared accident after accident - most often a car slid off the road, but sometimes collisions, and some nasty-looking ones.

About 5 p.m. we turned onto the final leg home - east on I-76. Normally, this is 45 minutes from home. But traffic was slow, snow was accumulating in the 2-inch range on the road, and we began having stop-and-go traffic - move 50 feet to maybe 100 yards, stop. The pauses grew longer and longer, and we listened to local radio to hear traffic reports that said...roads are bad, and I-76 is slow. Thanks guys.

After we'd been stuck for about two hours, it said there were accidents on I-76. The driver of an 18-wheeler stopped next to us said he'd heard on CB that there were some jacknifed tractor trailers, and some other tractor trailers couldn't make a hill (but I can't recall any huge/sharp grades on I-76 in that stretch). As we continued eastward bit by bit, the westbound lanes slowed - occasional cars and/or trucks stopped on the shoulder - either sliders or fender benders. then traffic thinned out...then we saw two tractor trailers stopped shoulder to shoulder in the lanes, with solid traffic stopped behind them.

We continued to move bit by bit. My wife and I both had smartphones with us, and we looked for more info on the Internet, but we found nothing useful or useable. I called the OSHP and the local police department (at this point, we were within 1 mile of an exit). Both call centers were obviously hammered by all the other unhappy people, but neither had any kind of useful information for us, except that there were some bad accidents on I-76 that they were working to clear, and they highly recommended getting off I-76. I'd LOVE to, ma'am.

People began turning off their cars, some left them to check on traffic ahead, or to exit the freeway on foot and return with bottles of soda. Our problem was not drinking, but avoiding drinking...somehow only our youngest could be talked into going to the bathroom in the great outdoors - I used a blanket to screen him off from view, not that he cared. My wife...well, let's just say that she had to scrub a travel mug VERY thoroughly when we got home.

I made a series of calls to the police department and OSHP over the course of the evening - and nobody could give me any information about any efforts to clear the exit that we were so close to (the stop-and-go continued, and I'm sure we were within a half-mile or less of the exit) - when I told them we were this close to the exit but unable to use it, every dispatcher I spoke to seemed surprised by the information, and said they'd pass it along, but none had any info to give me about were there efforts to clear the exit and let people start moving, etc.

It was the lack of information that really had me fuming the most. If they could have just said "Sorry, you're spending the night in your car" - great, I could have used that. We'd have hunkered down, let the kids out of their seat belts and let them lie down and sleep. Or, if they could have said "We're working on your exit - 1-2 hours more and you should be moving" - that would have been great, too. But no info, occasional moves forward, scraps of rumors from people walking from car to car...that was the tough bit. I never had to turn off my car - never dropped below 1/2 tank, so we had radio, fully charged smartphones - and no useful information.

Finally, about midnight, I noticed the flashing lights of an OSHP cruiser in the westbound lanes, but he was working his way eastbound and using his sirens to wake up drivers to move their cars - they had cleared the westbound lanes right up to where we were. We were just ahead of a cut-through, and I jogged back to the cruiser to ask if he knew if our lane would be clearing up, or if not, if we could cut across and go westbound. The trooper said "Do what you like. This whole thing was caused by your friends the commercial truckers. A couple guys decided that they weren't getting home tonight, so no one was." According to him, it was a deliberate move to lock down the interstate. I have a bit of trouble believing someone would do that, but that's what the trooper said.

So, we backtracked west, started north to work our way home, and stopped to fill up the tank, use the restrooms and go home. However, the roads were all terrible and looked untouched, although I'm sure the crews were working hard. Once we took the exit, my wife talked me into getting a motel. While I really wanted to get home, there were no guarantees that we'd get there. So, 2p.m. departure for what should have been about 2.5 hours on the road. Enter the "stop and go" leg around 5 p.m. Lights out in the motel just before 1 a.m., and home about 10:30 the next morning.

As far as my preps, there were some things that worked as planned. First, a full tank of gas made the difference between a cold, dark car and dead cell phones vs. warmth, entertainment and (limited) info. Blankets, food, a stove, etc. were all there, but mostly not needed. I got out a bunch of Clif bars and that's what we had for dinner. Ironically, my wife and years ago had been stuck on an interstate for three hours in winter, and the bathroom was a big concern. We saw people begin to migrate to the woods near the roadside one by one, and we really considered that long walk ourselves, but were able to make it out before that was necessary. Since then, I've carried TP in the car. However, here we were in an open, flat place with nowhere "out of sight." For my son I used a blanket to screen him off, but what to do with the whole family in such a circumstance?

I had brought boots, but we'd all had shoes on because there had been no snow for a couple days. Ooops.

The lack of information was a major concern, and I'm not sure really what to do there. As I said - radio, smartphones, Internet, we could look up the numbers of the various police stations, etc. - but none of them had any info.

The kids - were overall great. They were never scared or anything, just occasionally impatient and asking when we'd be home - and I can't blame them at all for that. It was hard not to have an answer for them.

So, I guess I offer this one up as an experience - it didn't quite fit what I'd envisioned as being stuck in the snow, as far as it wasn't a "we're definitely here for overnight, survive in the cold" situation. Never needed to "deploy" any of the stuff I had stashed, except for Clif bars. I almost would have prefered that situation, because we could have been cozyish and settled, but instead, due the occasionally moving line of traffic and the maddening proximity to an exit, I felt stuck in the role of "driver in traffic" instead of "we're camping in the car."

Any suggestions would be lovely - I got myself all geared up after our first winter traffic jam experience and reading tons of threads here, but the gear, etc., didn't seem to match with the challenge.

Dave

DaveT, thanks for your excellent post. I appreciate the details.

Your story reminds me of many others, that sit in the netherworld between temporary urban annoyance situation and pure survival situation. Most of us have been there, and it's not a pleasant place, in part because it's just a big nuisance unless it goes sideways. It's hard to know when the mores and standards should switch from one to the other. How to do potty business aside a highway is a pretty big issue.

FWIW, standard kit in my vehicles includes a midweight poly tarp. It has a hundred uses, including a windscreen in a storm -- that incidentally creates a sheltered potty corner at the rear edge of the vehicle. If it's a remote location, the local landscape can handle the "load;" if it's urban, the additional "load" won't add much on top of well-coiffed purebred dogs; and either way, I will retrieve what I can for appropriate disposal (frankly, the colder the better). If I can pick up after my dog, I can manage the equivalent task.

Also a CB radio and/or scanner are very useful. I've been stuck a couple times on I70 between Washington PA and Columbus OH and after getting a CB was able to bypass traffic jams twice.

The restroom situation reminded me of the Travel John. No affiliation.

Jeanette Isabelle

"luggable loo" or 5 gallon bucket and homemade seat extra plastic liners, possibly some cat litter, and a full size GI poncho for privacy..open door if situation warrants it... CB radio can easily be added with a non permanent mount... cigarette lighter power tap, magnetic antenna roof mount, velcro strip and a couple of plastic cable ties attach to the ash tray drawer.... get one with NOAA WX channels

Good write up of how the most mundane and routine outings can go bad.

I think the best lesson from your experience was the decision, even though relatively close to home, to stay in the motel and be safe and comfortable. "Getthereitis" is always urging us to do the wrong thing.

As for staying in a motel during a "survival" situation, if its good enough for that famous survival expert, it should be good enough for us.

You can only do what you can do with the circumstances you're given.


"...and some other tractor trailers couldn't make a hill (but I can't recall any huge/sharp grades on I-76 in that stretch)."

I just had a recent lesson in how a very gentle grade can stop the big trucks. This past Thursday evening (5ish) I had to drive on I-5 through Olympia, WA. Temps were about 30F, freeway was dry north and south of Olympia, but a snow squall had hit Oly. The surface of the freeway turned to the consistency of wet, thick, semi-frozen Jello, and traffic came to a dead stop... except for the sliding. All the radio said was they were working on clearing a jacknifed semi at the interchange. While sitting with the Suburban in park, we watched the cars moving (occasionally) beside us. At walking speed, they would apply their brakes and slide until they lost enough momentum to stop. Trucks were in all but the left lane, and they had the same problem as the cars. All had their right-turn signals on, parking in the right emergency lane and the right driving lane to put on their chains.

After an hour or so, things started to move, with more trucks pulling over to chain up.

Up the slight grade and level again, all the trucks were now pulling over to UNchain the wheels they had chained about two miles before.

This is a very shallow up-and-down area that you probably wouldn't even notice when the road was dry.


Toilet facilities: for a trip like that, you probably wouldn't need a 5-gallon bucket, a smaller one with a lid would do, like hardware stores carry. One for sawdust*, one for deposits. Slide the front passenger seat all the way forward and put the bucket on the floor behind it.

For women in a small car: Carry some tall kitchen bags, double or triple them open, set an old towel inside, and sit on it.

*Sawdust will not only absorb odor, but it will also help to limit spillage.

Sue

Very good write up and postmortem on your trip/adventure.

We came across bad weather and road conditions through mountain country yesterday on our way home from out of town. Although I won't do into a lot of detail, it was a long day and having the right car trunk kit made a big difference in our overall comfort level. Unlike some of our fellow travelers, we did not run low on fuel, and had extra food, water, blankets and a sleeping bag for when the traffic was stopped for just under 2 hours until a hill could be cleared of vehicles then sanded by the highways crew.

Needless to say we ran into several more traffic stops along the way which were of varying lengths of wait time. Many of these stoppages were due to cars and trucks that are not equipped with proper winter tires and chains. Our car has winter tires and chains are in the trunk at all times. I chained/unchained 3 different times within 2 hours yesterday alone and if it were not for the chains, we could of been stuck on some of the hills like so many other people were.

Highway cam picture of our route home.

A folding camp toilet and a GI poncho make for a good improvised privy that doesn't take much storage space.