Christmas 2012

Be careful what you wish for!  In my previous post, just before Christmas, I complained a bit about the weather here being unseasonable warm....OOPS. 

Our Christmas break turned into a complete fiasco thanks to the arrival of the winter weather that I had been longing for.  Lesson learned.  Arkansas is not meant for winter weather.  What they are calling "Snowpocolypse" was the record snow storm in Little Rock history and completely shut down the entire city, along with much of central Arkansas.  The irony is that we stopped trying to make it home to MN over our Christmas break to avoid this very thing.

We started our trip as planned, leaving Sunday morning for Daisy State Park in the Ouachita Mountains.  Our first day's hike was a gorgeous 65 degrees.  Day two was equally nice and we completed the most challenging part of the 28 miles we were planning to attempt.  It was then that we were certain that we would be able to finish the whole thing!  At least until we read the weather report.  Rain all night and changing into sleet the next day with snowfall potential of 1-3 inches.  Not wanting to be stuck in the tiny camper all day with the dogs, we decided to head home the next day (Christmas morning) and come back the following afternoon to continue our trip.  With the temperature suppose to be in the 40's, surely any small amount of accumulation would be melted.

Christmas Day we went to a Dim Sum place for lunch and then went to a matinee.  Just over two hours into a two hour and 45 minute movie, the power went out.  And so it began.  Almost an inch of ice had accumulated before the snow began to fall.  And it fell and it fell and it fell.  It was thick, heavy snow and power was going out all over the city as trees buckled under the weight.  Our neighborhood sounded like a shooting range that night with limbs snapping and transformers blowing all night long.  We did get to witness the rare phenomenon of thunder snow.  The entire white snow lit sky turned blue/green in bright flashes.  It was a pretty awesome site to see, although startling at first, as we had neither seen nor heard of anything like that before.

The next day there was 10 inches of snow on the ground and it was damn cold out!  It was clear that we were not going to make it back to the mountains and we were regretting leaving our four wheel drive vehicle up there with the camper.  70% of Little Rock was without power.  Traffic lights, grocery stores, and gas stations all out and roads were impassable for the most part.  We just played in the snow with the dogs.  Winston loved it!  We figure that since we got no snow last year, this was his first ever.  With candles for our only heat and all the blankets in the house, we and all three dogs spent a second night huddled together in bed.  It was 48 degrees in the house by then.

Any hotels that did have power were full.  The state park had power so the following day we decided to brave the roads and head back out there. At least the camper had heat and light.  We attempted to continue the hike, but the freezing cold slush was hard on the dogs' feet and the remote trails (we were staying in the state park, but not hiking there) were impossible to navigate in the snow.  We lost our way several times in the first hour.  When we began to question our safety, we knew we had to turn back.  We didn't want to be the people who wandered off into the mountains and got lost or stranded and froze to death.   In total, we hiked only 13 miles of our goal.  When you can't hike, and it's windy and wet, so you can't sit around a fire, camping just isn't that great.  But our freezing cold home was worse.  After two more nights in the camper  entertaining ourselves by drinking and playing cards, we came back to the city and plugged in our camper in our office parking lot, which did have power.  Then, when the power came on, we'd be close.  By this point, my hair was well on it's way to dread locks.

The energy company worked around the clock.  Crews and trucks from 16 different states came in. Finally, power returned to our house.  Two of our tall cedar trees were uprooted and a third snapped right in half.  Those are still laying on the house.  Another large limb fell and crushed our gate.  It hasn't warmed up enough yet to see if the pool has suffered any damage (the pump circulating the water keeps the pipes and filter from freezing).  The most frustrating part was having to spend our only time of the entire year that our business is completely closed dealing with all this crap.  Had it happened any other week, it wouldn't have been that bad.  So we were cold and dirty and without technology for a few days.  It could have been a lot worse.  It will be an experience that we will always remember.

Road to the hiking trail...pre-snowpocolypse.

Spirit Rock Vista

Spirit Rock Vista

Christmas night

The morning after

Front yard

Frolicking in the fresh snow!

Winston loved loved loved it!

Action shot!

Woohoo!

Nobody would play, so he raced himself!

This is the main highway connecting Little Rock with Hot Springs.

Tree companies cut a path for a single lane of traffic to pass.

 

Little Missouri Falls

Crooked Creek Falls

Happy New Year Everyone!  Best wishes for 2013!