Extra Crispy

On Thursday March 27th I drove out to Nordegg, after a brief stop along the way for groceries, fuel and lunch.  I arrived in the late afternoon, around 4:30.  Margarit drove out separately, as did her brother Shawn and his wife Lisa.  

Weather conditions were not great.  There was quite a bit of fresh snow, and it continued to come down for a couple more days.  In fact, back home in Edmonton they got a lot more snow than we did in the mountains, and driving conditions on local roads were treacherous.  Reports said up to a foot of snow fell in places in Edmonton, while we only got about 3 or 4 inches at Nordegg.

The temperature during the drive out hovered around -4, though the roads had been salted and were wet in most places.  This made for some rather bizarre conditions.  That water splashed up onto the vehicles as we drove, and then froze on the body panels.  By the time I got out to the cottage my entire truck was coated with a heavy crust of ice.  My door froze shut and I had to body check it to get out of the truck.  It looked like a giant piece of extra crispy Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Even the lug nuts on the wheels had little pointy icicles sticking off the them.  These all pointed out in different directions, towards the perimeter, as a result of the centrifugal force.

Three days later, it had not warmed up enough yet that the ice could melt off.  Margarits truck looked about the same as mine, as did Shawn and Lisa's SUV.  By Sunday the skies had cleared.  I woke up at about 7:30, to rather frigid temperatures.  With the clear skies over night it dropped down to about -12.  But it is forecast to hit about +7 today, so everything should start to melt.  That is our hope, as we are planning a BBQ for the evening.