I was on a New Year's ski trip with the Champaign Ski Slub in Winter Park, Colorado. During our stay, we were watching the Weather Channel with interest just to find out what we were in for when we returned.

On the Amtrak train back, we saw the snow conditions were getting worse the further east we went. We reached Galesburg, Illinois and took a bus back to Champaign. When we arrived, we saw all of our cars buried in two feet of snow drifts. It took us over an hour to free everyone from the mess. Fortunately I kept a small shovel in the trunk of my car, so I was able to get out reasonably easily.

After I got out of that mess, I drove back to my apartment. The place was entirely snowed in, except for a small narrow path which led back to my apartment. Here's what it looked like. This picture was taken from the second floor, where I was at. My car is the gray Honda in the middle.

You can tell that the snow was deep by looking at the red Escort. The snow drifts also made it up onto the second floor, which made getting into my apartment very interesting. This is what I had to get through:

Nothing like coming home after a ski trip trekking through a foot of snow, just to get to the door. The only way I was going to get around was by using my cross country skis. I put them on and started skiing around the complex. Here are a couple of photos I took. I got a few strange looks from people. One person agreed that my skis were the way to go.