Sometime it amazes me the number of things a person can do in a mere 24 hours and the last 24 have been, well, different.  I left home to drive to Omaha to spend the night before catching a plane this morning.  The idea was to beat a little snow that was coming in and I didn’t want to be driving through it at 3:00 a.m.  So I took off, feeling good about having everything planned and organized.

About 20 minutes into the drive, a light comes on and something dings on my dashboard.  I’ve not seen this sign before so it concerns me.  Maybe I’m just out of washer fluid or something.  So I pull off at the next stop and look it up in my handy dandy operators manual.  Low tire pressure.  So of course, like any weeny butt girl would do, I call my husband.  He tells me to walk around the car and look to see if the tires are low.  Well, sure, I knew that.  They look ok – maybe it’s just because it’s so cold outside.  Anyway, now I notice that snow has begun falling.  I need to get out of here so I’m going to take the chance.

Several miles down the highway I’m figuring out that this is not going to be just a little bit of snow.  Oh sure, if the wind weren’t blowing, like it always does, maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad, but I’m having trouble seeing the lanes, so I get in the right lane and slow down.  Now, I never heard that the bigger they are the faster they go, but apparently that’s the rule with semis as they zip past me at 75-80 mph, kicking up a mini ground blizzard.  It’s not like I couldn’t see before, but now EVERYTHING is white.  This continues for about a year – ok, maybe 30 minutes – before the snow tapers off and I’m thinking, yay, I’m in the clear.  I know how to get the airport and the hotel is just down the road.

Have I told you that my husband helped me load Waze onto my phone?  What a cool little app.  It kept me from getting lost in Iowa when I went to their conference in November.  Not knowing exactly where the hotel was, I entered the address in Waze, which was great until I made a turn too early.  Now I’m in a part of Omaha I don’t know, with a bunch of narrow one way streets and Waze has apparently decided not to talk to me because I didn’t follow the directions.  This eventually leads to me making a left turn onto the wrong side of the road in front of a police officer.  I didn’t see him but he saw me.  Next thing I know, as I’m still trying to figure out where the heck I am, those lovely red and blue lights flash on behind me.

Now, you need to know that I have only been pulled over twice before in my life.  Once because I was going a little too fast through Ft. Thomas Kentucky and I somehow talked myself out of that one (I was much younger and cuter then), and the other because when we moved to Nebraska, I had only put on one license plate instead of the required two.  So here comes this lovely man who asks how I’m doing and all I can say is “I’m sorry – I’m lost!”.  After he determines that I’ve not had anything to drink, he and his partner very kindly help me with directions to get back on the road again.

I finally arrive at the hotel, get settled in and finish up some details for a presentation.  By the time this is finished, it’s midnight and I need to be up at 3:45 a.m. for my flight.  The alarm comes early and after dashing around to get ready I walk out to more snow.  Yay. Good news, my flights are on time and I should be to Fort Wayne early.

The good people at the very nice but tiny Fort Wayne airport helped me with a shuttle question where I discovered, yes there is one, but you need to call them.  It’s snowing pretty good and I’m hoping it won’t take long.  I call the hotel and they’re not sending the shuttle out today – perhaps the weather is too bad – so I get an Uber.  Ten minutes later I have this older gentleman in camo driving a huge pick-up truck come around the corner.  I have to hoist myself up into the cab to get in – so graceful.

The conversation is pretty one sided, with him doing all the talking.  At one point he goes into this story about the last snow they had where one of his buddies, who also drives Uber got hit by some woman with no license.  “Probably one of them illegal aliens”, he said.  “I don’t mind them being here so much but they shouldn’t be able to drive”.  He also proceeded to cancel another request because he needed a smoke break and had to get to his doctor’s appointment.  Probably about the smoking.  Entertaining to say the least, but he did get me to the hotel safely.

So 24 hours later, after getting settled in, having lunch with some of the Indiana gang, finishing an article I needed to write, taking a short nap, seeing an old friend, speaking to a collegiate group, grabbing some pot roast at the local Irish pub, helping to carry a couple of tubanos to a stage and attending a reception and awards ceremony I’m getting ready to crash.  Looking forward to what the next 24 hours brings – it should be fun!