2008 Dumba** Award

Picture it - Christmas Eve. Our kids were in their PJs snuggled in their blankets call "Fuzzies" made by Uncle Arlie a couple years ago. We were headed back to our house to go to bed with hopes that Santa would come during the night. The kids luckily fell asleep within 5 minutes of getting on the interstate and I was close behind them but still trying to stay awake for Jason.

Suddenly about 7 miles from our exit, we came to a halt at 11:00. We had just past an exit that would have gotten us home. There was one police car stopped there, but very little action. Several cars were turning around and going back to the exit - not the safest move in my book, but whatever. One guy even tried to go through the median (which has about 10 inches of snow in it). Even dumber move. But the dumbest move of the night came from a semi-driver from Montana.

After sitting there in PARK for 15 minutes, I called my dad to check the internet for road problems - it was a long shot but I was hopeful. I do miss the traffic reports from STL that most of the time gave you a hint of what was happening. Then I called my Aunt who had kids on the road that should be close to passing us going the other direction. She gave me Christine's phone number who happened to be in IC - 7 miles ahead of us. Chris and I talked the WHOLE time she drove by and guess what she saw.... NOTHING. No police cars, no fire trucks, no accident, no people in the ditch....

We had pulled out the kid's DVD player and were getting out a movie. I think that if I would have let him, Jason would have flipped around and drove BACK to the exit. Just then my dad called and said that he did find that there was something that happened in IC at 8:00 that had shut down the interstate. Okay - it was 11:50 now - is that really the problem? Just as we hung up from him, the traffic started moving - full speed.

We found out in the morning that a semi-driver from Montana decided to do a u-turn in the median (with a ton of snow on it and a mile from the next exit). His truck flipped over which was hit by another semi and then a car. Luckily no one was hurt, but it took over 3 hours to get it cleaned up - stopping the interstate since it blocked both lanes. He got a ticket for improper use of the median.

Jason thinks that officers should have a seperate ticket book for dumba**. They would write you a ticket for something and mark the level of stupidity. This would get the highest level.

We got home before Santa and our kids slept through it all.