After spending an absolutely wonderful Christmas holiday with my parents and son, it was time to head on back to Radford.

While it was pouring the rain in Williamsburg, the weather along the route home was much worse.  The normally busy post Christmas travel day was made worse because of freezing rain, sleet and snow and a mess was created on the highway.  Multiple accidents (thankfully none that looked serious), 20 to 40 mph average speeds and poor visibility turned the typically 4 hour trip into a 6 hour challenge.

I’d made up my mind before I started the drive to take my time (very hard for this lead foot driver) and keep a positive attitude. While the weather caused difficult travel conditions, I found that it also provided opportunity for fun and challenging photography. Well … maybe standing outside in the freezing temps wasn’t exactly FUN but it was definitely challenging!

I’m sure that the folks at the rest areas (I stopped at every one) wondered who the crazy woman with the camera was. My feet got wet as I tromped around in the slushy snow and it was nice to get back into the heated truck.

The wind, snow and clouds made the mountains disappear and reappear, and I was glad that for once I was rolling along at 5 mph.  How often are we able to really look at the scenes along the road as we fly by at 70 mph?

Shooting macro was difficult as the wind kept blowing me and the branches, too.

So while the weather caused an unexpected adventure, I was fortunate enough to avoid problems along the way, and because of that, truly was able to see the beauty.