November shopping extravaganza

Today Tammy held her last shopping extravaganza for the year.  She held it at the fairgrounds in the Trade Center building.  The Arts & Crafts people held their "Black Friday" three day show in the Expo building at the other end of the fairgrounds.  So plenty of people came out for both shows.

Friday afternoon Tammy and I set up the layout for the vendors.  The event was 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday and Tammy was at the building before 8 am to let the vendors in to set up their booths.  I came at 9 am for a couple hours to set up the signs, blow up the snowmen and some helium balloons (and losing two balloons up in he building's rafters), toss ice melt on the pavement outside the buildings, and general stuff.  Then I came back before 5 pm to take signs down, deflate the snowmen, put the table and chairs away and sweep up the floor.   We were out of there at 7:03 pm.


Tammy likes snowmen and bought a couple of them to advertize her event.

The snowmen have an internal light to light them up at night.

On the way home we stopped at Panda Express to get take out Chinese food then drove home in our separate vehicles.  The temperature was around freezing all day.  The light snow from the previous evening was gone as we drove home.  However, on the curving road that goes down the ridge, I saw snow on the road.  I drove slowly and quickly found the road was icy.  Very icy.  I started sliding and geared down as I drove.  On the outside of the curve I saw a pickup sitting there.  I started sliding towards the pickup then caught enough traction to get back to my lane.  Then I started going towards the ditch on my side of the road.  Except it is not a ditch but a steep drove off.

By the time I got to the ditch/drop off the road had a wheel track before the drop off got serious and I had traction in that wheel track.  I stopped the sideways slide and also was able to slow to almost a stop.  By now I seen a vehicle that went off the drop off just beyond the only driveway.  I also saw lots of flashing lights from fire trucks, an ambulance and law enforcement vehicles.  Theses vehicles were in the opposite lane so I continued slowly down the hill as I was almost down to the bottom.

Once I got to relatively level ground I put my window down and told a fire department employee they needed to get someone at the top of the ridge as no one can see the flashing lights until they start down the hill.  Then it is too late to stop.

Once I got to a safe place to stop I pulled over, set my car's flashers and headed back up the hill.  Tammy was coming down after me and I was afraid she slid off the road or into another vehicle.  She had the same experience as me and ended up in the wheel track next to the road.  She stopped above the driveway.

The ambulance had driven up and a fire department employee was helping a shaken man walk to the back of the ambulance.  I could also see the minivan that went off the road.  The minivan had hit a large stump on the driver's side of the vehicle and caved the doors in.

I drove home.  Tammy had to wait for the ambulance to leave and the sanding truck to arrive as the emergency personal wouldn't let her drive the short section the rest of the way down the hill until the road was sanded.  Tammy sat there for well over an hour.