Yesterday I had planned on going to the Musconetcong Watershed to do my between class walk. It's in Asbury, NJ about nine miles from campus. It's a little further west than I normally go, but there's easy access to Route 78, so it should be no problem.
My class at WCCC goes from 10:30-12:20. About 11:00 phones started beeping. We were all getting a text saying that school closed at 12:30 because of snow. There was not a single flake outside. I closed up my classroom at the end of class, and headed to the lot. I was still going to walk.
As I was driving toward Broadway, the first fine flakes started to fall. I decided, maybe that was foolish and headed straight to NCC. We had a little more snow in Pennsylvania, but not a lot. I received another text alert that we were closing at 3:30. My class starts at 2:30. Nobody will come. I could have left right then and there, but I really felt like if even one student came, I should be there.
I waited, no one came, and at 2:45 I left. There was maybe an inch of snow on the ground and I don't think the road crews did anything. I think they were unprepared. I don't understand why because the weather people had been talking about this storm for a week.
I became stuck at one place on Linden street but got myself out and had no more issues until I reached the Fahy bridge. Gridlock. It took about 40 minutes to cross the bridge. When it was my turn, I was in the inside lane. I couldn't move over so I turned and went to Taylor, and became stuck three times. I needed help each time. Once on 4th, It took an hour to get back to New. There, there was an abandoned car in the middle of the street. Another reason why traffic wasn't moving was because people on the cross streets blocked the "box". There was nowhere to go.
My twenty minute drive was now over three hours. I had enough. I turned on New to go to Morton. I wanted to park. I got stuck. Again. Finally, I parked at the Lehigh Bookstore, threw $3 in the meter to take me to 9 pm, and walked home. Total commute time four hours.
I had to get back to the car by 8 am this morning. The meter readers may not be prompt, but they'd be there. I didn't want a ticket.
At seven, I headed out back to shovel, then made a path in the front sidewalk. Then I headed down to Lehigh. This is what I found. The plows came thru during the night and there was a wall of hard snow encompassing my car.
First I fed the meter. Then I attacked the car itself. Then the ground. I still couldn't get out. I had to go accross the street and ask some people shoveling the parking lot for help. As I left I saw the meter people writing tickets.
All that shoveling and my fit bit say 2.6 miles and 1631 calories. I'm bummed.
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