One Reason I No Longer Live in Canada

Note from my brother that arrived today:

Today I had to take [my daughter] Joanna to Waterloo for an interview; it was snowy and really windy when we set out. Things weren't too bad, though, so we kept going.

Got to the Guelph area and got into some really bad white-out conditions and the highway we were on was closed. Got to Waterloo eventually, passing numerous accidents, rollovers, cars in ditch, etc.

Dropped off Joanna.

Now I am faced with driving back through the same conditions. Probably should have just stayed there in a motel, but same forecast for tomorrow and Highway 7 hadn't been too bad so I decided to change route and come back that way.

Got to Kitchener and heard that Highway 7 was closed plus about a million other roads, including all the major ones that lead to [my home in] Alliston. Whiteouts are getting worse, lasting for ten or fifteen seconds; nowhere to stop.

Eventually the inevitable happens and I end up in a snowbank in the middle of a whiteout; turns out I crossed the road and went off the left side. I was lucky no car was coming towards me or I would have had a head-on.

After some time standing in a howling blizzard, I was able to flag down a plow, and he called a towtruck. 75 minutes and $84 later, I was on my way, no damage to me or the car.

I am still two hours from home. I am in the middle of nowhere, you understand.

I decide to stop in Erin and get a motel. Can't -- roads leading there are closed.

So, by back roads, I inch my way to Orangeville, passing through more drift covered roads, spending 15 hair-raising minutes (except I don't have any to raise) on a farm road completely covered with ice, passing a jack-knifed tractor trailer (I stopped -- driver ok, help on the way).

Now I am only an hour from home but I know the roads better so the last part is pretty much uneventful. Left at 9, home at 3:10.

I consider myself very lucky indeed. Check out
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