50

On Thursday night the Luck boys hosted the St. Croix Falls Saints for their final game of the 2017 - 18 basketball season. It was my 50th game for this season so  I kind of wanted to go. 

The weather people said it would snow during game time, but since the roads were dry at my drive time, I decided to go anyway. The drive over was fine. I saw a bald eagle along the way; I always take that as a sign from my Dad. But maybe not this time...unless he was trying to tell me to go back home 😕. 

It was a thrilling game, another close score and a win by our Luck boys.  As always, fun for me. 

But when we came out of the school, we saw what Mother Nature had been up to. 

I headed straight home. It was snowing, about 2 or 3 inches of new snow was on the ground with a coating of sleet underneath. 

I let a group of cars go by me before I turned onto the state road towards home. I knew I wanted to take my time, be careful, stay out of the ditch.  The further I went, the worse the visibility.  It would have been nice to have some tail lights to follow. But I was moving along at about 40 mph or so. 

Not far out of Luck, 2 vehicles came up on me and followed just a little too close behind me. The one right behind was a truck, it was unnerving to have him on my tail. 

So, about 15 miles out of Luck, at a wide spot in the road caked McKinley,  I pulled over and let them go by. This made my driving a lot easier because then I could follow their tail lights and their tracks, instead of be the lead dog. And I was glad to have them off my butt.

But, after only about three miles, first one, then the other,  pulled over on the side of the road and stopped and I had to go by them.  There I was...  the lead dog again and guess what, they pulled in tight behind me. I suspect they were sitting up high enough that they could see even less than I could see.  My Vibe is pretty low to the ground so that was probably helpful for me, not that I could see much. I didn't appreciate them at all. They followed closely all the way to Cumberland, the halfway mark, where I again pulled over and let all the traffic go ahead. (And I gave them an international symbol of annoyance.). They owe me. 

The second half of the drive was better visibilty but more snow on the roadway and slippery.  My buddies didn't go any faster than 35 most of the way home. I was happy to have tracks and tail lights to follow. I hung back,  not wanting to get slowed up on any of the hills as I thought it would be slippery and tricky if I lost momentum. And not wanting to pressure them. 

I was sure happy to see the lights of Rice Lake.  My Dad would not have been proud of me driving away from Luck in that kind of weather. He used to say 'if you have to leave home on a night like this, drive into the ditch at the end of the driveway so you can walk home'. 

Pulling in the garage was a relief, I unwound with a cold beer and some Olympic action I had recorded. 

Game 50 is in the books,

 it was memorable! 

Life is good.