Coffee Anyone?

After yesterday I am glad that Leap Year comes only once every four years. Asked to work Game 1 of the College Hockey East Championship Series at Airport Ice Arena in Coraopolis, PA (out by Pittsburgh International Airport...duh) I reluctantly agreed to go. I have issues saying no when asked to do hockey games, but that's another topic for another day. So why the pic of the Dunkin Donuts? I left work at 3:30 p.m. yesterday to leave plenty of time to make it to the Airport for the 7:30 p.m. game. With college games you have to be ready to go on the ice 45 minutes prior to the start time so I needed to be there by 6:30 p.m. at the latest. With an oncoming snowstorm (which will forever be known to me as the 2008 Leap Day Snowstorm), I figured three hours was plenty of time.

With speeds going down as low as 35 mph on the PA Turnpike it was slow going. Driving right into the heart of the storm I figured traffic wouldn't be an issue once I got to the Parkway, but I knew I'd have to battle outgoing traffic through the Fort Pitt Tunnels and down 279 South. Still, I slowly made my way to the Parkway where traffic was backed up as if there were a Steelers or Penguins home game (notice I didn't mention the Pirates). Crawling through the first set of tunnels, I thought I would have plenty of time to get to the Motel 6 by the rink to check in (got a cheap rate on Orbitz for 39 bucks) and get to the rink. Luckily as I got to within about 200 yards of the turnoff to go over the Fort Pitt Bridge and through the tunnels into snarled Friday afternoon traffic my cell phone rang. It ws the CHE Commissioner notifying me that he reluctantly was canceling the game.

Angry? Sure. But I suppose a couple of years ago I would have been livid. I understood having just traveled through hell. And I actually felt fortunate that I got the call "just in time". Had I made the left, I would have had to battle the traffic and then find a way to get turned around. As it was I was able to head over to the North Shore and formulate a plan. Having spoken with Becky about an hour earlier her report to me was that from Blairsville home was a nightmare. I had taken 2 hours and 25 minutes to travel what normally would have taken me 1 hour 15 minutes so I knew I had a tough call. But first, call Motel 6. They understood and canceled my reservation.

I figured I'd drive out of the city and head to an outlying area (Murrysville, Delmont) to a Holiday Inn Express or Days Inn to shore up for the night. But the snow continued to fall and the traffic I saw on the way in made me less than ecstatic to head back out of town. So I reluctantly went over to the Springhill Suites next door to PNC Park where I have stayed before and am a Marriott Rewards member. Between that and my AAA I got a decent rate and spent the night in downtown Pittsburgh to avoid any further nightmare.

Waking this morning I headed out in much better weather and 1000% better road conditions. Loving Dunkin Donuts (my new favorite with Sheetz a close second), I stopped in Murrysville and picked up another needed pound of coffee. Over Christmas I saw the mugs as well and have been wanting to get one. Bottom line, I went to Pittsburgh in a snowstorm for coffee and a mug. That and I suppose a few tax breaks on next year's taxes. Perhaps I'll get reimbursed for some of my expenses and possibly even some hazard pay for the game. Time will tell.

Oh, and the adventure was not over when I arrived back home at 10:30 this morning. With most of the 6 inches that fell in the Pittsburgh area nearly gone by this morning, I drove home to the following 1 foot plus of snow that fell back here. The pics are AFTER I shoveled out the sidewalks. Becky did a great job of setting me up and handled it last night so a big thanks to her. Still, several additional inches fell overnight and made my arrival home a treat.