On my way to the east coast, I made only one foray off the planned path to Baltimore, lured off interstate 80 by a sign that read, Shrine of the Holy Family 3 (miles). Chantel collects holy family figurines and I was intrigued. Besides that, I hadn't made one stop for pleasure. The area is mass agriculture, if you can imagine the fields below covered in corn, not snow. The sky was a clear blue and the glistening snow took my breath away. Within less than a minute I was sailing up and down icy roads, past the occasional farm, seeing beautiful rolling hills and remembering that at one time in my long ago life, I actually lived in snow and knew how to drive in it. The shrine was closed. It was too early in the morning. But it's a magnificent structure and definitely gets ones attention, rising up as it does out of the middle of what appeared to be thousands upon thousands of acres of farm land.
I turned the car around and headed back toward the interstate--but wait! Photo op! I couldn't leave without trying to capture even a bit of the surrounding country. After breathing frosty air and clicking away, I climbed back in my car, (my little good girl Ava), and put her in drive. We drove--for a bit--but suddenly the tires began to spin. We slid slowly backwards. I stopped and we tried again. Several times we tried to make the grade, even driving in the gravel as close to the edge of the road without going into the ditchbank. But the hill was too steep and the car wouldn't make it, even with front wheel drive. Over and over, the car back slid at the incline. On the one hand I felt sorry for her, being initiated in snow this way, poor thing. On the other hand, my little blue 1972 Ford pinto knew how to do it and in snow much deeper than this. If the pinto could do it, why couldn't she?? Then I realized the back end was loaded down with photo albums, journals, scrapbooks, and thirty years worth of photo negatives. So I did what I always do when I'm stuck. I prayed.
I could have walked down the road about a mile to a nearby farm, but I was determined to do this. I felt impressed to back up, and up and up, through the gully and keep going. Pretty soon I had a clear view of more country and I realized that it was momentum that would get us there. I went for it, cheering on Ava the whole time. I was really yelling by the time we got to the critical place. "You can do it, Go. Go. Go! Keep going, keep going! Oh that's right! We're almost there!! No, keep your foot on the gas! (That was for me). Keep going!" The steepest part of the road was at the top where we had to turn even further uphill! I held my breath and leaned forward in my seat (as if that really helped) and we made it. I didn't slow down much until I was safely back on the interstate. But I'll never forget that beautiful country, ever.
If you look carefully at the road, you'll get an idea of the rolling hills. The black area on the left is the imprint my car made when it left the road and rolled over on its side. Just kidding.
The Holy Family Shrine is in the background on the right.
The road I was stuck on. It's steeper than it looks.
The Shrine in the distance.
Several intersecting fields. This one is better if you view it on a large screen.
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