Snow storm Raleigh, NC Style - stuck in traffic for 4 hours

     I got to get this off my chest or it'll be with me all day.  It took me four hours to get to work yesterday. Roughly a 10 mile drive. At time I was moving less than a tenth of a mile in a half an hour. Here's my strategy. I live right between two very busy and highly traveled roads. I saw an email from work that One of my normal routes was so bad that people were abandoning their vehicles. Well.. Atlantic Ave is a very curvy and hilly road. I wouldn't want to drive that road yesterday anyway .. So, i figured,.. take the main road. It'll be plowed right? Wrong. Capital boulevard has about four lanes on each side of the roadway. So an eight lane road.... not plowed yesterday.

     As I was sitting in traffic, I could understand that the plows couldn't get through. The timing of the storm couldn't be worse. While school was out, the mid day storm hit while it seemed everyone was trying to get their bread, eggs and milk.
     While I was sitting in that traffic a strange happened. I noticed three DOT or City Plows. None of them had their plows on the pavement and none of them were spreading sand. Here's the thing. We were on a steep incline. One of the DOT trucks began to spin it's tires. The other two DOT plow trucks went around the nearly stranded truck and passed by a jackknifed tractor trailer... also spinning it's tires.
    Look at the pictures, and see for yourself.
    Anyway. I have no answers.
   In good southern tradition, people seemed to take being stranded and stuck on a busy road in stride. There weren't any horns beeping or people yelling. It was mostly people on their phones.. or cranking up their music.... periodically stepping out to see what lied ahead or to clear the windshield. Occasionally a Hummer H2 or Pick up truck passed by us all by driving on the sidewalk.
    Of course people were trying to talk on the sidewalk. Some probably didn't have any snow boots.. i could tell because they were walking with trash bags wrapped around their shoes. I can't imagine that trash bags are good for traction.

     I ran into three major trouble areas on my way into work. Each one took more than an hour to get by. Two of them were tractor trailers. The last one, I blame on rear wheel drive vehicles and a steep hill with a series of traffic lights halfway up. If anyone knows anything about driving in the snow... you don't want to stop on a hill.
       Along the way there were plenty of nice people stopping to help people get unstuck.  One guy was walking along the side of the highway, dragging a red wagon with water in it. At first I thought he was taking advantage of us... but he was actually giving away water. I took one... and appreciated it... because by that time, I was beginning to get a little hungry.
      Once I got past downtown Raleigh, it was clear sailing. Although I counted more than two dozen abandoned vehicles along Western Boulevard. For a guy who like driving in the snow, this was pretty fun. At the same time.. I wouldn't want to do it again.