We were unable to travel to Manley on Saturday.  One of the reasons was the 40 mph wind blowing across the mountains you have to cross on the way, that is, if you drive instead of fly.  These winds cause poor visibility and blow snow drifts across the road...and there are no guard rails.  The winds were suppose to die down overnight.  So we waited.

We left early Sunday morning and made it 125 miles to mile marker 93 of 153 on the Elliot Highway when we came upon a stopped, plow truck.  The road was "blown shut".  About 3 foot of snow drift blocked the road for farther that we could see, and this wasn't even the bad spot!  To make matters worse, it appeared that a SUV had tried unsuccessful to push through sometime during the night and was stuck.  Earl and the plow truck driver trudged to the SUV, scraped ice off the windows and shining their flashlights into the vehicle, trying to see if anyone was inside.  We're not sure what happened to them.  -10F temperature, 30+ mph winds, blowing snow, sparsely traveled road, and dark.  Bad combination.  Tiny, delicate, one-of-a-kind snowflakes, sting bare skin like sand when they are blowing at 30 mph!

So, we reluctantly turned our truck around and headed back.  We had to rush back to someplace that had phone service in order to call folks in Manley.  If we don't arrive by a certain time, they will come looking for us.

Assuming the person in the SUV got home safe, the sad part to this story is all the folks who promised to come to church this Sunday, from the Christmas service, and we weren't there to hold the service.