Last night's storm dumped some pretty hefty amounts of snow on Northern Michigan in just a matter of a few hours.  There was a large swath of lower Michigan that saw anywhere between 6 inches and a foot of snow last night.  Leelanau county was in Mother Nature's crosshairs and saw the highest snowfall accumulations.  I got a report in of 18" in Leland, 12" in Cedar, and 11" in Suttons Bay.  I measured 9" in the parking lot right before the 11 pm newscast.   For those of you unfamiliar with the area, TV 7&4 is up on a hill 5 miles west of Traverse City in Leelanau County and we typically see more snow up here than in town.  It was still snowing when I walked out to my car shortly before midnight.   The roads were slick, visibilities were low, drifts were growing... it was just not a good night to be on the roads.  For the 7&4 weekend crew, and some of the morning crew, we didn't even get as far as the roads! 

    I could not even get to my car easily when I got into the parking lot because the snow was so deep.  (I re-measured and we were up to almost 10"... no plows in sight)  I was able to find a snow shovel in the garage and used it to clear a path to my car.  I then cleared off the car with said snow shovel because my scraper/brush was just no match for the foot of snowman-snow that was on top of my car.  Bill came out to help and we got the vehicle as clean as possible.   I managed to back out of my parking space and I was starting to think I could manage to turn around and drive out when I got stuck in the snow.  Around that time, our morning show director, Mark, drove up the hill and attempted to pull into the parking lot, only to get stuck at the driveway entrance.  So now there were two cars stuck in the parking lot and the snow was still coming down.

    Long story short (too late!):  Bill ended up calling the plow.  A passing motorist stopped to help Mark out of the snow.  Once the plow arrived, a strip was cleared in front of my car and everyone (Bill, Mark, Steve the producer, and the plow guy) pushed my car so I could get home.  Once I was out on the road, things were not any easier.  I drove at a crawl the entire way home to avoid sliding off the road.  It was certainly an adventure.

    When I drove into work this morning, I passed Bill going the opposite direction.  I thought maybe he hadn't been able to get home.  He had... but only for a few hours before Adam Bartelmay's car got stuck in the snow and Bill was called back to fill in on the morning show!  It was just a mess!  Today was beautiful, though... and looking back, getting stuck at work last night was actually kinda fun.  I'm SO ready for spring, though!