Something strange

Winter wonderland

Hey, its nearly officially spring... Saturday we were having a birthday party in the garden in T-shirts. Today a foot of snow, this is strange weather for these parts.
It snowed all morning and our cooking gas ran out so I thought
"I'll pop out and pick up a gas bottle on the Yuba Mundo." - Afterall in these southern climes the snow is never much for a northern lad like myself. Famous last words.

Empty roads ! Good progress...

Great a chance to test the Yuba Mundo in the snow for 2km, he thinks. I grabbed a hat and headed on out. The roads were empty in our neighbourhood and the flakes fell gently.

Mayhem
(notice how the fire truck is going around the round about the wrong way),
and yes those are palm trees.

What made things interesting was the slush made by the morning rush hour traffic that was covered over in snow. It was semi frozen and the Yuba's back wheel with the gas bottle's weight squished off to the side every now and again. A foot to the floor and low speed was enough to keep any Yuba slides under control. Not too hard going. I can't help wondering what it would have been like with a set of knobbly mtb tires...
When I left the neighbourhood and reached the main road where the filling station that sells the cooking gas is I was greeted with fire dept 4x4 car sirens and an endless line of stuck cars.
All commerce was closed of course and I headed back home under what turned out to be a snow storm.

Snow is not fun he decides.

I had popped out of a side road and gone over to the station to see if it was open and my big green bike had obviously not gone unnoticed... as when I headed off I was followed into my sideroad by a stream of desperate drivers who had been stuck in a line for some time and obviously thought if an idiot on a big green bike could cycle on that road they must be able to get out of their mess that way too. These kind people with very little control of their sliding cars then proceeded to try and overtake me as obviously I was holding them up... Each time I had to jump off the Yuba and drag it off the road to avoid being crushed by sliding cars. Happily eventually they got stuck and I could leave them behind with their superior transport. No, I don't get sarcastic at all when I am angry...

When I got home there was about a foot of snow and I decided to go and pull the kids out of school. (Across the road). The teachers who all live out in the cosy suburbs were talking of sleeping in their classrooms... there are powercut warnings.... my wife's collegues who also live miles away may end up sleeping here at our home too. Some have been stuck in their cars all morning... what fun...