I see where there was 23 inches of snow in Bethesda, Maryland by early this morning. I was in that area in January 1996 when there was a storm about the same size.

Everyone knew the storm was coming, and the rental car people offered me a four-wheel drive, but I didn't think my employer would spring for the difference so I had them give me a front-wheel drive Ford Probe. You'd never know there was going to be even rain - the sky was overcast, and the air not very cold, but no precipitation in sight.

My uncle lived in Chevy Chase, next to Bethesda, and I drove by his house on the way to my destination near Baltimore but he wasn't home. The streets in his neighborhood are narrow and winding with little hills that would be hard to plow, and a challenge with a lot of snow.

That night it started snowing and when I woke up there was about 18 inches of snow on the ground.

I was traveling on business, looking at an auditing software package for my company, and the vendor had given me his home number, so I called him. His wife thought it was horrible for me to be snowbound in a motel so said come to their house, about 6 miles away.

I had been doing fine so far, had some snacks and watching the continuous storm coverage on TV, but ran out of embroidery thread so I knew I was going to get bored.

I waded out to my car, snow drifts as high as the door handles. I took all my stuff, but didn't check out, in case I might have to go back. There wasn't a snow brush so I used my sleeve and a credit card to clean off the windows. Heading out, I had to get onto the Interstate, I-95, then take the next exit. I-95 is the main road north from Washington, DC so you can imagine how busy it usually is. I was the only car on the entire 6 to 8-lane highway, and the snow was coming down so fast I had to drive with the window open and stick my head out to see where I was going. Fortunately it had been plowed.

The directions to the house were good ones, and I made it just about there without getting stuck in a snow drift, but couldn't see the house numbers, so when I got to their intersection in Catonsville, I stopped mid-street and knocked on doors until I found the right house. Then, I rammed my car into a snow bank and spent the next three days with these people I'd never met.

They had a big house, and they had an au pair to help take care of their small children, so I felt less like an intruder. That night their next door neighbors came over for dinner. These people were the previous owners of that big old house, and had raised 9 children there. One time on vacation they'd stayed in a bed and breakfast on and little back road in southwest Colorado that leads to my uncle's trading post, so it felt like a small world.

Finally, on Tuesday we were able to dig out our cars and conclude our business, and I headed back for Dulles Airport on slushy I-95.

All the stores were still closed, but the parking lots had been plowed ready for the next day, and the snow was piled house-high with little open areas in between.

The airports had been closed for a couple of days, so you can imagine how the flight schedules were tangled, but I was able to change my reservation to the next day and stay in an airport hotel. They said to return my rental car and take a shuttle back to the airport, then get a hotel shuttle from there. Fortunately, there was a man from England renting a car and he was going to my same hotel, so I got a ride with him. He appreciated having me to navigate for him, imagine having to drive in deep snow on the wrong side of the road in the dark and find a hotel in a strange city.