Survivor: I-81

The “Survivor” finale was last night. I’m not talking about the TV show; I’m talking about real reality show “Survivor: I-81.” Angelynn, along with sidekicks Hannah Bean and Marley the dog, was among the thousands of travelers stranded on I-81 in western Virginia this weekend during the great blizzard of 2009. Her 17-hour trip home from Harding for the holidays turned into a 3 day ordeal right our of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles."

Angelynn left Searcy early on Friday morning, picked up Hannah and was planning to make it home late Friday night. Then the snow hit, I-81 was shut down and I found them a hotel (pet-friendly, of course) in Abingdon, VA. They left by 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning, and by 5:30 p.m. that afternoon, they had gotten only to Salem— stretching a 2-hour trip of 120 miles into an 8 hour ordeal punctuated by getting sideswiped by tractor-trailer driven by an idiot who tried to blame Angelynn. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the car remained drivable. Unfortunately, they were still a long way from home on an interstate that was again closing down.

Again, I was able to find them a (pet friendly) motel right on the interstate that had a vacancy, which was pretty amazing given the numbers of stranded travelers. Well, the reason there as a vacancy at this particular hotel was that it was on the top of a mountain that could not be climbed without 4-wheel drive. (It didn't say anything about the hotel's elevation on the internet). The Taurus, still whimpering from its run-in with the 18 wheeler, refused to climb the hill, so they had to park the car on the side of road and go mountain-climbing on foot.

Sunday morning, of course, the car was completely stuck in the snow, and they had to be rescued by some nice folks driving by. They finally got in last night… some 48 hours later than their original ETA. What an adventure! I’m very proud of Angelynn for enduring and prevailing during this very stressful ordeal. I guess we will all pay closer attention to the weather reports next time.