Snow day

A few hours later than predicted, the rain changed to snow, around 5am rather than midnight.  But when it did change to snow, it accumulated quite quickly for landing on very wet ground.  It was the heavy, fine snow, the kind that experience has taught that it means business.
Maggie was acting very much in need of burning off some energy, so around noontime, off to the dog park we went.  I typically take the Jeep to the park for several reasons; Maggie loves riding in it, particularly when the sides are open, its a vehicle that's accustomed to mud, wet, debris or whatever on the interior.  Something that is frequent when returning a dog from the dog park.  One of the reasons why the floor is Herculined. 
But yesterday it was certainly needed. Only about 5-6" of snow had fallen at that point, but the roads had not yet been plowed.  The mud terrain tires aren't the greatest in the snow, but they are adequate. 

We arrived to discover, as no surprise, the road gates were closed and the drive hadn't seen a plow yet.  Fortunately the outside fence gate was unlocked, so we could still access the park area.  Needless to say, we were the only ones there.

Maggie had a grand time galloping through the snow and wrestling with my step-son.

We finally had enough of the cold and blowing snow and headed home.  Not far from home I crested a small hill that has a slight curve before it gets steeper leading down to an intersection.  As I crested the hill I saw a small dump truck with a plow stopped on the edge of the road.  This is a narrow back road with now shoulder.  I thought perhaps he got off the edge of the road and got stuck.  I stopped about 30' behind him and the Jeep immediately slid sideways on the sloped snow-covered road to the edge and finally came to rest on the berm at the edge of the road.  The first falling snow had melded with the rain-soaked roads to create a thick slush that turned to ice which then become covered with the subsequent snowfall.  It was slicker than pig snot on a worn fence rail.
The truck ahead of me had stopped because there was activity ahead in the intersection.  A car had slid into a snow bank and was being unstuck and there were two state plow trucks working the intersection.  As the one plow truck came past, it was my friend Vince.  He said he had gotten stuck for an hour and a half on another section of road about 5 miles away.  You know it's bad when those guys get stuck.
The road conditions had not improved any when I ventured out again in the afternoon after the snow had stopped. I'm thankful that my fire station didn't receive any calls for which we would have needed to respond.  The tires had been chained, but attempting to drive a 40,000 lb. truck expediently on slick roads would have been nerve wracking.