Lots of SNOW and no surgery

We left Raeford on Sunday 9 Feb. to get setup and be ready for Steph's Hip replacement surgery in Raleigh, NC scheduled for Thursday 13 Feb.  The hospital wanted us to attend a 'What to Expect' class on Monday which was very informative.  Steph found that the State Fair grounds has an RV park which we could stay at and it was only 7 miles from the hospital so Bill could travel back and forth to feed animals and still be close to the hospital.
  The Raleigh local news started warning of a 'Major Snow Event' on Monday forecasted for Wednesday afternoon and just kept talking about it.    Maybe if they had stopped talking about it it would of gone away but NO, they just kept talking.  We decided that it would be a good idea to place our dogs in boarding and Bill would just stay at the hospital with Steph.  We finally found a place which would house all 3 dogs in one kennel AND they had emergency backup power with people on site 24 hrs a day.  The kennel was about 17 miles away from the Fair Grounds RV park so we decided to take the dogs a little early as they expected the snow to start around noon.  Sure enough the snow started at 1130am with the temperature at 23 degrees and it started sticking immediately.  All of the businesses started closing down at about that time and the streets were total gridlock.

 

Rather ominous street name considering the weather

 

At one point we were forced to turn around and backtrack to find another route due to abandoned cars blocking the street.  As we were retreating we saw a woman trying to walk up a hill and doing a lot of slipping.  Stephanie offered her a ride and she told us of another way to go to get back to the trailer.  We ended up driving right by her house on our new route.

Our rider Nicole, after getting to her house

It took us about 5.5 hrs to get back across town to our trailer.  Steph received a call around 4PM from the hospital saying her surgery had to be cancelled due to the weather and she would need to contact the doctors office to reschedule.  Too late to go back and pickup the dogs and still stuck in traffic we just sat back, sighed and pressed on to get back to the trailer. 
  Once we arrived home it was time to eat some leftover stew and hunker down and ride out the storm.  Around 2:00am the snow changed over to ice and rain and just kept coming.  This morning, Thursday, the precipitation stopped and the temp got up to 33 degrees. 

Trees outside our trailer

We decided to venture out to a local grocery store to get some food since we had not expected to be here at the trailer very much over the next few days.  Roads were very passable and everything was very fresh.

bowed down evergreen trees due to the ice

Pretty ice covered bush at the rv park

They have predicted another round of snow for this afternoon but with temps hovering around 32degrees it shouldn't be near as bad.  Sure enough, at 12 noon the snow started falling again and we have already added another couple of inches to our total.  They are predicting this is the end of it and should start clearing around 7PM with tomorrow being in the upper 20's.  They sure know how to have fun here in Raleigh!