B’s Blizzard: To The Bridge
Continued from The Road to Williamsburg
Fuck. I’m stuck in the middle of the block. I look ahead of me, and all I see is over a foot of snow covered street. Behind me is the trail i created. I decide the best way out of here is to back up and reverse my tracks. Before I can do that though, I need to clear some snow so I can get out of the rut I’m in.
Of course I don’t have a shovel though. All I have is a snow brush for my windows. I figure it’s better than my hands, so I start to sweep the foot of snow from my wheels. I go around my car sweeping as quickly as I can so I can get home. After a less-than-valiant effort I try to reverse down the road again. Wrrrrrrrrr….Wrrrrrrrrrrrr…… no luck. BR2 stays put.
“What were you thinking, man?” a strange voice yells at me from the sidewalk.
I look over and see an unhappy hipster smoking a cigarette on his stoop.
“I don’t know, man. I just wanted to go home.” I blurt back.
I jump out of my car to sweep some more.
“I’d help you if I had a shovel, man.” Unhappy Hipster snorted at me.
I ignore him. As I start cleaning my second wheel, my phone rings. I reluctantly take it out of my pocket, but see it’s Tony calling.
“Is that you in the middle of my block?”
“Yea.”
“I was taking a piss when I looked out the window and saw you! Why didn’t you call me? I told you to call me if anything happened.”
“You’re sick man. I didn’t want you to get even more sick.”
“I’m coming down with a shovel.”
Click.
With a sigh of relief I continue to sweep snow away from the wheels. I jump baclk into the driver’s seat, and try to reverse again. Still no luck. In my side mirror I see Tony walking up to my car. It’s as if Batman came to save the day.
We set our plan of attack, and we eventually realize it’s the snow under my car that’s immobilizing BR2. Methodically, we begin to shovel and sweep around the wheels and underneath. After a few tries, I suddenly am able to reverse about 20 feet before I get stuck again. With the glimpse of hope and a bit of strategy, we realize what it’s going to take to get out of Dodge. Tony walks back to his house to grab a second shovel.
For the next hour or so we dig and reverse about 10 - 30 feet at a time. Cold. Tired. Wet. Determined. We carried on. We make it to about 100 feet from the corner, A girl with a shovel walks up to us. I think she’s about to offer help. Nope. She’s looking for her stranded boyfriend “somewhere on North 7th.” We tell her we saw a car stuck towards the top of the street. She thanks us and trudges along. We wished her luck and shoveled on.
At times, Tony would be practically under my car shoveling snow, while I would be shoveling the snow behind my car so that we can cover more ground when reversing. Tony’s father shows up out of nowhere with another shovel to help. It was starting to seem like we were freeing Chilean miners.
Another hour goes by, and we finally make it to the corner of freedom. As I’m about to turn onto Wythe, a blonde tired-looking guy walks up to us with a shovel. I think he’s about to offer help. Nope. He’s looking for her girlfriend that’s been looking for him stranded “somewhere on 7th.” We point in the direction we sent her. He thanked us and walked on looking for her. We wished him luck.
It’s now about 2AM and I’m finally free from the grasp of North 7th. I thanked Tony and his dad. They give me directions that should lead me onto the bridge while keeping me off small streets that most likely wouldn’t have been cleared yet. He says to go towards Roebling and to take his shovel.
And so I do.
I make it onto Roebling after a few close calls. I’m about 3 blocks from the bridge’s entrance finally! There’s two cars stuck though near the intersection to freedom. One is a taxi, and the other a white pick-up truck. The taxi cab driver has help digging him out. But the pick-up’s driver is sweeping his way out with a snow brush. A sense of apathy comes over me, and so I stop the car and walk out offering the man a hand. Well, more like Tony’s shovel. He turns towards me and thankfully accepts.
I’m thinking he has this big fancy pick-up, so it shouldn’t be too much trouble getting him out. We take turns shoveling and and rocking his truck out for a while. I look up to the cab and they are still there. They’ve managed to get some drunk guys from the bar on the corner to help push. While they worked on the cab, here we were trying to free this white pick-up truck.
I suddenly get hit with the tired like hell stick and tell the guy I need to take a break. It’s been an hour trying to get this guy out. So after two hours digging myself out, here I am spending another hour digging someone else out. I’m totally covered in snow. Freezing. Drenched.
Did I mention, I was wearing jeans with holes in them? Really stylish I tell you. But useless in the fifth largest blizzard New York has had. I was also wearing fingerless gloves because, you know, they are more comfortable. My scarf had stiffened up to become a sheet of poster board; I had to take it off. Don’t forget my jacket either. It wasn’t my Columbia jacket that’s built for this weather. Instead it was my looks-good-with-brown-boots jacket. Well that started to stiffen up like a board as well.
I decided to walk back to my car to warm up a bit, when I suddenly hear screams of celebration. The cab was free! It’s driven off! I turn back towards the pick-up thinking this freedom could be contagious. The guy has made a little progress as he’s moves his car about 5 feet. We try a few more times with little luck. I notice the man is wearing an MTA jacket. I ask him about it, and he tells me he’s a bus driver that just finished his shift and was trying to go home. I ask him about the bridge, and he mentions that the opening from Roebling to the bridge was closed.
“CLOSED?!?!?!”
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To be continued…
