What a weekend!
Hurricane Ivan made its way to Virginia and Pennsylvania the night we were heading up to Penn State for the football game. Tornado warnings popped up all over the place, and one even popped up close to the airport -- about 5 miles from where we live. So after that fiasco ended (the warning finally ended at 8:15pm), we managed to gather up Marc's brother and head out at around 9:30.Little did we know that the torrential downpours and nasty winds would follow us for the entire trip. Marc drove about halfway, but we switched off at some point and I drove the rest of the way. At some point on the highway when we were almost at Breezewood on I-70, I saw a car way ahead of me put its flashers on. I was distracted, slowed down, and was wondering if he had stopped or just slowed down. Then I saw the brown area on the road, but I didn't have time to stop. SPLASH! We hit some pretty deep water. I was able to still move, but then a truck came speeding by in the left lane and threw water over the top of us. We were all pretty freaked out, and I wasn't sure the car would still run. I slowly inched the car out of the water, and the car was still running fine -- no sputtering or anything.
Then we hit (not literally) traffic at a complete standstill. We sat there for at least 15 minutes before we started moving. Apparently, a tree had come across the highway, and they needed to cut it up to remove it. As we passed the people cleaning up the debris, we also noticed some snow plows -- hopefully to clear the road of water!
So we stopped in Breezewood to add gas (just in case), stretch, and get a snack. The woman I spoke with at the counter said our trip to Altoona would be worse, based on reports from other travelers. So we headed out again, got on I-99, and it was smooth sailing (well, except for the rain) from there. We got to Altoona at about 1:30 AM, got our hotel, and crashed for the night.
The next morning at around 9, we got a phone call from Marc's parents telling us that the highway was closed due to an accident caused by flooding. So... even though they left around 6AM, they wouldn't get to State College until at least noon.
We managed to get to State College in about an hour, only delayed by football traffic. As we drove up Rt. 220, we saw pretty much nothing but swamp and river on either side of us. We were amazed that none of it was on the road!
So, we got to State College in one piece and made it to our original meeting place on time. We had an early lunch and headed off to the stadium. It turned out to be a beautiful day with no rain. Although it was a little chilly, we all got some sunburn.
Penn State beat UCF 37-13! We still looked like crap, but at least we beat a team that we SHOULD have beat!
After the game, we headed back to our cars and had a dinner tailgate... then had to head back home. I feel like we spent most of our weekend driving. The trip up was probably the most stressful that we've ever driven in, even compared to snow. I'm just thankful we're all still alive!
posted by Jen @ 1:51 PM
<< Home