Here's the complete story of our 27-plus hour time in the car, overnight, at a standstill on a Louisiana highway. 

In late January my partner Janet , my dog Mattie, and I began an eight week road trip that included 5 weeks in Sedona. We’d booked a sweet casita and were headed for the healing energies of the Sedona Red Rocks.

But. We had an unexpected diversion along the way: 27 hours stuck in our car on a frozen Louisiana highway. The snow and ice storm came from nowhere in a state that has no snowplows. It was 10 degrees all night and we and 300 other cars were at a standstill. Sheer ice meant it wasn’t possible to even get out of the car, and the many tractor-trailers would have to be towed, one by one, up the inclines or off the road.

The night in our car was scary. It was freezing and pitch-black. We had no idea about the van in front of us with about 8 men who popped outside for a smoke (or a pee?) or about any of the other vehicles surrounding us, and our poor dog was under a blanket and catatonic in the back seat.

We’d started with a full tank of gas but by the time we stopped moving we were down to a quarter: not enough to keep us warm in a frigid night. Dozens of cars ran out of gas trying to keep warm and by the next afternoon, when the local sheriff’s department finally arrived, they handed out  5 gallons of gas, and Chick Fil A munchies to every stranded car.

(I should mention that Janet and I have never had Chick Fil A anything for obvious homophobic reasons. And we never will again, but let it be said I now understand why people rave about those nuggets and dip!)

Anyway: all this while we kept in touch with our spunky resourceful daughter Jess. She was worried about us, and at one point suggested sending a helicopter to pluck us up and out. That image was pretty comical: immobilized cars and trucks as far as the eye could see, and Janet and I and Mattie-the-dog rescued like movie stars!

We were on the road again by 3pm, left with quite a story to tell and retell. The aftermath has left me laughing. The question we’ve been asked repeatedly is ‘How did you pee?’
I answer with a straight face: ‘Mattie’s water bowl…’ 😂

I also laugh at my spunky resourceful daughter’s  feedback. I’ve just published a novel (An Imperfect Life) and I’m knee-deep in promoting and publicizing it. I’m way over my head trying to to understand and use social media, and especially TikTok. Apparently TikTok is a great place to sell books.

So very tactfully, my Jessica says, ‘Mom, your frozen night on that highway would have been fantastic to put on TikTok. You could have done video updates all through the night, mentioned your book, and so many people would have begun following you!’

She’s right. So maybe I’m doing the next best thing: I’m here on a sharing a story about a wild night in Louisiana and, oh by-the-way, I have a new book out and so far the Amazon  reviews are heartwarming.