Our annual Thanksgiving visit to Jeff and Susan’s home in southern Pennsylvania who host an annual outdoor turkey fry was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect for our travels last Tuesday and when we arrived, Jeff was so confident that the weather would hold on Thanksgiving Day that he didn’t even bother to put up the tent! Thanksgiving Day was one of the warmest and sunniest Thanksgiving Days that I can remember with the temperature hitting 60 degrees in the afternoon.
But things can change and often do change weather-wise at Thanksgiving time. We started back home on Sunday morning with just a few flakes on the ground but freezing temperatures. As we traveled north on route 79 in Pennsylvania, the condition of the road changed and near Zelienople route 79 became very treacherous with cars spinning out as they passed over icy overpasses and or drove around long sweeping curves. For some reason the roadway was not salted until we arrived at the place where interstate 80 crosses route 79.
The outside temperature had dropped to 27 degrees but route 79 was salted from Interstate 80 to Eire, Pennsylvania. We stopped at the Cracker Barrel in Meadville, Pennsylvania as we needed a break from our first stint of winter driving. There was perhaps three or four inches of snow on the ground at Meadville but no one was sitting on those usually inviting rocking chairs at the Meadville Cracker Barrel restaurant. I have to hand it to the Cracker Barrel folks as they know the needs of traveling people. A little warm up by the fire, a cup of coffee, a late morning breakfast, and we were on our way again.
The New York Thruway was no joy – especially around the Buffalo area. Conditions were better as we traveled east but we saw many accidents as people were traveling much too fast for the road conditions and could not stop when the traffic suddenly slowed. We arrived safely home in Canandaigua to clear roads and no snow. But we sure feel sorry for all those folks who didn’t make it safely home.
